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Student Life

Advice to our younger selves: What we wish we had known

by Jackie Houston, Calvin Trottier-Chi, Nicholas Jasinski, Audrey Carleton, Emma Avery, Marie Labrosse on

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Jackie Houston, Opinion Editor: Find your balance 

During my first year, there were moments when I was caught between choosing to study and going out with friends–and I often chose the latter. This isn’t a cautionary tale against partying all the time at university; it’s a cautionary tale against doing anything all the time throughout your first year. My poison was Monday nights at Korova. For some of my friends, it was studying themselves into the ground. What we all needed was to strike a balance. Making your first year at university about too much of any one thing cuts you off from the big, wide world of everything else going on at McGill. (Spoiler: There’s a lot going on.)

Marie Labrosse, Features Editor: Adapting can be tough, but you’re tougher

The first year of university is so full of highs that it can be easy to forget that it’s normal to experience lows as well. I distinctly remember one group Skype call in my first semester, during which a friend admitted that they were finding adapting to collegiate life difficult. Everyone agreed that we were enjoying ourselves, but that the adjustment wasn’t quite as easy as we had anticipated. The relief I felt sharing a cathartic cry with friends around the world lifted an enormous burden off my shoulders. Although you may not experience a collective cyber pity party, it’s important to remember that settling into life at university can take time.

Emma Avery, Managing Editor: Find your passion, don’t follow everyone else’s

Although there are endless opportunities to get involved, don’t feel pressured to take certain classes or join particular clubs just because other people are. McGill can be an intensely competitive environment; it can feel like everyone around you is involved in five extracurriculars and studying something rigorous. However, don’t join something just for the sake of being involved. Try out different activities and courses, but do so because you’re genuinely interested–not because your friend is, or because it will look good on your resume. Know that by the end of university, you’ll have found your niche.

Audrey Carleton, Managing Editor: Figure out what “productive” means to you

Throughout my time at McGill, I’ve struggled with this image of productivity that involves locking myself in a library for hours at a time, giving up socializing and self-care to try to finish an unrealistic number of tasks–and then feeling disheartened when I inevitably don’t accomplish everything on my to-do list. I’ve come to realize that productivity doesn’t look the same across the board; the “best” way to study is different for everyone and it takes time to find what’s right for you. Listen to your mind and body when you feel drained and need to take breaks, and forgive yourself if you don’t get as much done as you plan to in one sitting.

Calvin Trottier-Chi, News Editor: Embrace personal growth

Regardless of how far you’ve travelled, coming to McGill is a huge adventure on which to embark. Your first year is a chance to reinvent yourself and push your boundaries. Try to look at each experience as an opportunity to learn more about yourself–the more experiences you have, the more you’ll grow.  Get engaged, join clubs, and enter growth-sparking discussions with everyone you come across–don’t be afraid to branch out. Whatever happens will make for a great story and add to the narrative that is you.

Nicholas Jasinski, Editor-in-Chief: Find what you’re good at and do that

Successfully getting involved in a club or team over the course of your McGill career resembles the shape of a triangle. At first, it’s skinny, only taking up a bit of time and leaving room for plenty of parallel interests and activities. But as you move your way up the ladder and become more deeply involved in those extracurriculars, the triangle widens, taking up more of each week. Take advantage of the time you have in first year to try many things. Then, do what you’re good at, what you find rewarding, and what you see yourself enjoyably investing the most in later on.

Science & Technology

‘Big Brother’ now a tool to study linguistics

by Emma Gillies on

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After moving to a new place, some people’s accents change readily while others stay more or less the same for the rest of their lives. McGill University linguist and Assistant Professor Morgan Sonderegger recently spearheaded a study that explores the science behind accent dynamics.

Some studies on accents have analyzed only one conversation with a subject, while others have spanned years of observation. Sonderegger, however, wanted to explore the relatively unknown realm of medium-term accent dynamics—how accents change over a timescale of months. 

While this is not the first study on the subject, Sonderegger said that it’s “certainly the most detailed.” 

Rather than using a lab setting, Sonderegger executed a “natural experiment.” He likened his research to evolutionary biologists studying birds on an isolated island—where participants  interacted only with each other in a removed, yet natural, setting.       The researchers used the British version of reality TV show Big Brother to examine how people’s speech changed over a three-month period. Big Brother follows a group of contestants who live in a house together and are continuously voted off the show by viewers until a winner is selected. Sonderegger was drawn to the United Kingdom because of the extreme accent diversity in a relatively small geographic area.

“We wanted to look at change in people’s accents over time […] and we realized it’s hard to do this because you have to actually be able to see people do this over time,” said Sonderegger. “This particular TV show was a good opportunity to do this.” 

This specific experiment was time-consuming because it was conducted in a natural setting and involved data from real speech, unlike uniform words and phrases that are analyzed in a lab setting. Focusing on the pronunciation of particular consonants and vowels, the researchers used recently developed software, like FAVE and AutoVOT, to analyze the change in sounds more efficiently. However, it still took more than a thousand hours of work and the help of 10 undergraduate research assistants to transcribe speech and write the programs to analyze the data.

In an isolated setting like Big Brother, where participants interact only with each other for months at a time, their accents were projected to change over the longer term. That wasn’t the case. 

“People don’t actually come to sound like each other over three months,” Sonderegger said, though he noted that a few people with closer relationships did, such as a pair who dated during the show. 

The team also found that “[t]here were big daily fluctuations in the exact way people speak,” according to Sonderegger.

Lastly, they deduced that there is remarkable variability in how accents change over time, and that change is dependent on the person. Like previous studies, it demonstrates the complexity of accent change over time. 

There’s some evidence for more culturally significant vowels being less susceptible to change. For instance, the way that some Brits pronounce “but” is extremely dependent on region and has been that way for a long time.

Overall, the question of why there are “changers” and “non-changers” when it comes to accents can be attributed to differences between people—researchers just don’t really know what those differences are yet. In fact, very little is known about which factors affect pronunciation over time, which is a good foundation for future work in the field.

This research relates to differences in language learning ability and cognition among individuals in general, and the findings fall nicely in between previous ones of short-term and long-term accent dynamics. 

“It ties [past research] together nicely, and that piece has been missing,” Sonderegger said. 

Science & Technology

TeamMTL designs solar house for international competition

by Nadia Boachie on

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Picture a scenario where the household hydro bill gets progressively cheaper, rather than more expensive. TeamMTL, a group of McGill University and Concordia University students and faculty, have collaborated to build a house that produces as much, if not more, energy than it consumes. This energy-efficient home is their entry in a prestigious international competition: The Solar Decathlon China.

This event challenges university students and faculty to design and build a net-zero energy house, with the long term objective of creating sustainable cities that will help reduce pollution and waste in some of the world’s most populated urban settlements. The only Canadian team entering the Decathlon is TeamMTL. 

“[T]he opportunity to work with industry partners in the design and construction of a home that is a model of sustainability and affordability is rare for students, and it is an invaluable learning experience for our team,” said Sophie Jemtrud, communications leader for TeamMTL. 

The competition will take place from July to October 2018 in Dezhou, China, and was revamped this year to cover “innovation, water use and re-use strategies, smart energy use, and market potential” in addition to its old goals, including “cost-effective architectural and engineering design, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, appliances, and electronics, occupant health and comfort, and communications.”

Team members come from diverse departments, such as architecture, design and computation, arts, engineering, business, management, and dance and theatre. At the end of construction, the Canadian group will transport their residence to China and will compete with groups representing universities from around the world.

This team is tasked with the design and construction of a Deep-Performance Dwelling (DPD). Along with the net-zero and low-carbon design, the DPD takes a culturally-centered approach to city dwelling that is of great historic, social, and functional value. 

TeamMTL is focused on building a sustainable home that contains characteristics and features that suit the urban environment in which it was designed for. The project exhibits blending of different cultural, religious, and philosophical beliefs into a uniquely designed home. Taking inspiration from Montreal’s streets, TeamMTL’s design draws from famous Plateau-style row houses. The team amalgamated Montreal’s urban housing with a style of courtyard housing popular in Shiyan, a city in Northwest China. Traditionally, sustainable homes cater to single families; this row house design allows Canada’s team to economically use the same regulation size, 120 to 200 square meters, to fit more individuals and families.

 “[The residence] is the first of its kind in the history of the Solar Decathlon entries,” said Project Leader Michael Jemtrud, associate professor of Architecture at McGill University and former director of the School of Architecture at McGill. 

Sponsors have provided the bulk of the funding for the project. Recently, Hydro-Québec sponsored TeamMTL, donating $250,000. Eric Fallion, Vice President at Hydro-Québec Distribution, explains that Hydro-Quebec wholeheartedly supports TeamMTL because the team’s project exemplifies global efforts to create a sustainable, decarbonized future. 

Each team that successfully builds a solar house at the competition site will receive at least $100,000. Top finishers will receive significantly more, which will help continue to fund innovative, sustainable, and affordable technologies. 

According to spokesperson Jemtrud, the group currently has about 15 students, but aims to expand—hoping to recruit up to 25 new members. Those who are interested in finding out more about the project and even visiting the house may do so at Concordia’s Loyola campus. 

Legal Information Column, Student Life

How to stay out of trouble while drinking: A rundown of the rules

by Legal Information Clinic at McGill on

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It’s the start of a new school year and the season of back-to-school parties—a time to make new friends and catch up with old ones. Getting hit with a fine in the process, however, is no one’s idea of a fun Saturday night. The Legal Information Clinic at McGill has provided some rules to keep in mind as you make the most of the precious few weeks before midterms hit–no tickets or court dates involved.

 

Know the law–and don’t get caught breaking it

Frosh is freshly over and you’ve just taken off your black bracelet–but remember that the laws for underage drinking still apply. For minors, there can be consequences for not following Quebec’s alcohol consumption laws. The legal drinking age in Quebec is 18 years old; as a province-wide rule, this means that anyone below the age of 18 is not  permitted to purchase or consume alcohol. Anyone may be asked to prove that they are of age in order to purchase an alcoholic beverage, to be admitted to places that serve alcohol–like bars, clubs, and pubs–or to stay on the terrace of such an establishment after 8 p.m. If you’re under 18 and wish to remain at a club, bar, or pub after 8 p.m., the law requires the accompaniment of a parent or legal guardian. And fun fact: It is explicitly forbidden to impersonate a minor’s parent or legal guardian.

Before you or a friend consider using a fake ID, know that minors are not permitted to falsely represent their age in order to purchase alcoholic beverages. Minors who break these rules may be fined up to $100, so ditch the fake ID. If a minor wishes to contest this fine, they bear the burden of proving to a court that they were of full age at the moment they received the fine—a nearly impossible task.

 

Taking the party to the park

OAP may be over, but the desire to drink during the last of Montreal’s fine weather remains. However, alcoholic drinks cannot be consumed in public areas, except when they accompany a meal in a park. In some Quebec laws, “meal” is defined, for the purposes of consuming alcohol, as “food sufficient to constitute a person’s lunch or dinner.” Drinking alcohol accompanied by food is only allowed in parts of a park where the City of Montreal has installed picnic tables, though it is not necessary to dine at a table. As a rule of thumb, if you see picnic tables around, it is safe to eat and drink there. The mandate that requires food with open alcohol applies to the boroughs of Plateau-Mont-Royal and Ville-Marie–an area which includes the downtown campus–Parc du Mont-Royal, Parc Jeanne-Mance, Parc La Fontaine, and the Milton-Parc neighbourhood.

If you do plan to take your party to the park, there are some other rules to consider. Montreal’s major parks—which include Parc du Mont-Royal, Parc Jeanne-Mance, and Parc La Fontaine—are open to the public from 6 a.m. to midnight. Outside of opening hours, it is forbidden to be in parks, except when the city or borough in which you live issues a permit to hold an event, per your request. Smaller parks are run by the various boroughs within Montreal, each with their own opening hours, which are generally posted at the park’s entrance. Being in parks past their hours–especially if you have alcohol–may lead to a fine of $100 to $150 for a first offense, with fines of up to $1,000 for any further infractions.

The Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM) is a free, confidential, and bilingual legal information service run by law students. In accordance with Article 128 of the Act Respecting the Barreau du Quebec, student-volunteers provide information, not legal advice.

From the team at the LICM, we wish you a fun and safe back-to-school season. We hope that this information helps you make responsible decisions about your own alcohol consumption.

News, SSMU

Culture Shock funding dispute reveals deeper discord within SSMU

by Kendall McGowan on

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In August, the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE) published an open letter condemning the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) decision to cut funding for the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) McGill’s free, annual Culture Shock and Social Justice Days events. UGE is a SSMU service that offers an alternative lending library, anti-oppression workshops, and resources for women’s and queer/trans-friendly healthcare. QPIRG-McGill is a student-run organization independent of SSMU that has a broad mandate to research and take action on social justice issues at McGill and in Montreal. Culture Shock and Social Justice Days aim to educate students on a range of issues, including white supremacy, colonialism, and xenophobia. The conflict over the funding arose from a continued difference of opinion over which organization holds responsibility for the events.

SSMU started Culture Shock, initially titled “Culture Fest,” in the early 2000s. Yet after finding the programming tokenizing of minorities, QPIRG-McGill approached SSMU and offered to help improve the programming in 2006. The events have been treated as a collaboration between the organizations ever since. In previous years, Culture Shock was funded through both QPIRG-McGill’s application for one-time SSMU Funding subsidies and SSMU’s own annual operating budget—the former requiring annual reapplication, the latter serving as a consistent and reliable source of financing. Last year, SSMU provided QPIRG-McGill with $2,040 from its operating budget and $2,682 in grants, as well as logistical support, for Culture Shock and Social Justice Days. SSMU also financially supports other QPIRG-McGill programming, including Rad Frosh.

According to UGE’s open letter, SSMU opted to defund Culture Shock this year due to financial difficulties. Yet, SSMU Vice-President Finance Arisha Khan clarified that while SSMU is no longer setting aside a portion of their operating budget for Culture Shock, the executive committee hopes to continue to support the program financially through other means. Khan and the rest of the executive committee hope QPIRG-McGill will apply for the full amount of event funding this year through the SSMU Funding pot, which serves to support any student group that applies, and often holds a surplus.

“It’s not an irrational thing we’re asking to do because there are specific funds set aside for programming that we can’t use for operations,” Khan said. 

Lucie Lastinger, a member of both the UGE and the QPIRG-McGill boards, found it unreasonable for the SSMU executive team to request that QPIRG-McGill go through the funding application process for an event over which SSMU has historically held partial responsibility. Lastinger also explained that the open letter was the sole initiative of the UGE as a token of solidarity for QPIRG-McGill’s events, but that QPIRG-McGill played no role in drafting the letter.

“Over the years, SSMU has been pushing [Culture Shock] more and more onto QPIRG-McGill, now to the point where it seems like SSMU doesn’t even remember this was their programming,” Lastinger said. “Now it’s like it’s […] somehow unfair that SSMU is helping [QPIRG-McGill].”

Raphaële Frigon, Outreach Coordinator at QPIRG-McGill, expressed disappointment over SSMU’s decreased sense of responsibility for Culture Shock. Given that SSMU contributes $2,040 of their operating budget while QPIRG-McGill contributed $6,500 last year, Frigon was primarily concerned about the implications of the loss of support and partnership from SSMU.

“They don’t want to claim ownership of [Culture Shock],” Frigon said. “Really, what we want is not $2,000. What we want is a partner [in SSMU]. Of course money is good […] but room booking and having the support of the execs is important.”

In Khan’s understanding, ownership of the Culture Shock events was fully transferred to QPIRG-McGill in 2006, and as such, she feels it is most logical for SSMU to switch to a system in which QPIRG-McGill is held accountable for financing and organizing Culture Shock, albeit through SSMU’s funds. She also emphasized SSMU’s continued public support for Culture Shock and Social Justice Days, and hopes to find common ground with QPIRG-McGill.

“We’re working to figure out what a relationship means, for us as well as them, knowing that we’re going through a precarious time in terms of finances,” Khan said. “A relationship does not mean just SSMU gives you a bunch of money when you ask for it, and then gets nothing in return. So we’re trying to piece those together but so far those conversations are going well.”

Football, Sports

NFL Season Preview

by Mason Posival on

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Football fans can practically taste it in the air: The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder, and students everywhere are heading back to school. Fall is upon the sporting world, and with it comes football season.

In February, the NFL season concluded with a historic comeback victory by the New England Patriots over the Atlanta Falcons in the 51st Super Bowl. This year, every team is looking to dethrone quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots—the benchmark of excellence in the league for the last decade and a half. After another offseason full of surprises and blockbuster deals, some new faces are set to emerge, but the favourites remain familiar.

AFC

The AFC is the weaker of the two conferences, lacking depth but boasting elite teams strong enough to resist whoever ultimately emerges from the NFC. The AFC West looks to be the most competitive division in the conference, with plenty of young, exciting talent on the Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs. Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos have an elite defence, but their offence has fewer weapons than your neighbourhood pick-up game. As usual, the AFC South will provide the NFL world with comedic relief as the Tennessee Titans will likely run away with the pathetic division. With quarterback Marcus Mariota entering just his third year, Tennessee still probably won’t make much of its division championship.

In the North, the Steelers are primed to establish a similar level of divisional dominance. Pittsburgh has one of the most potent offensive lineups in football, stacked with superstars such as running back Le’Veon Bell, wide receiver Antonio Brown, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Its defence need only be average for the Steelers to have a very good chance at winning it all.

However, the clear favourites in the AFC are the defending-champion New England Patriots. Brady and Bill Belichick are the greatest quarterback-coach duo in the history of the league and should easily top the pitiful AFC East division. In the conference championship, it’s close between the Patriots and the Steelers, but the tiebreaker goes to the GOAT.

AFC Championship Prediction: Patriots over Steelers

NFC

The NFC should, once again, provide some terrific competition this year. The Seattle Seahawks, Atlanta Falcons, and Green Bay Packers—favourites in each of their divisions—could all challenge for the conference title thanks to their respective veteran quarterbacks. From those three teams, the Packers—with two-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers—provide the most serious threat.

However, the group to watch this year will be the NFC East. The division will be a dogfight once again, delivering fiery rivalries and intriguing storylines along the way. In the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, the East boasts two top picks to win the Lombardi Trophy. New York can take advantage of an elite secondary anchored by safety Landon Collins and one of the league’s brightest stars on offence in wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys are primed to make a serious run at the Super Bowl after going 13-3 last season, led by two rookies, quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott. The former now has a full year of experience under his belt and he’s had a promising preseason. Elliott will likely dodge a six-game suspension from the NFL and even if he does miss time, Dallas is well-equipped to manage it with the best offensive line in the league and perfectly capable backup rushers. Once the playoffs come around, there’s nowhere for the Cowboys to go but up.

NFC Championship Prediction: Cowboys over Giants

Super Bowl

The Patriots are favoured to win it all, but Brady has turned 40 already, whereas the Cowboys are a young, exciting team on the rise. The next generation of NFL stars is here, and Prescott leads the way.

Super Bowl LII Prediction: Cowboys over Patriots

Commentary, Opinion

Surround yourself with people who inspire you

by Julie Guichard on

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You’ve heard the same question a million times: “What’s your dream job?” Somehow, the answer is never, “Working as a summer intern for a relatively unknown brand!”

As a young adult, my answer to the question often mirrors ordinary expectations of success, in the hopes that one day, all of the hard work and money spent on my studies will ultimately mean that I get to update my CV with a position at a big brand.

However, the reality of working for an industry giant can be soured by the presence of a boring and uninspiring leader. The name of a company does not guarantee a young person will learn or thrive there—far from it. Having an inspiring leader–someone who enriches your life more than with just a line on your CV–is much more valuable.

A single internship under an inspirational leader can change your career goals. I say this as an intern whose perspective has been shifted by a single person: A person who radiates passion for what they do, and never stoops to employing fear to drive productivity. My boss’ accessible and personal approach to management has opened my eyes to the difference that a good leader makes. The simple act of knowing her employees’ names and the little things going on in their lives did not make her less intimidating or less effective as a boss–it made people respect her.

I often hear ‘my door is always open’ from management figures. However, I rarely believe it. The ‘open-door policy’ often seems like a futile attempt at appearing approachable. In this case, not only is my boss’ door physically open, but she is always present on the other side, attentive and eager to hear new ideas – no matter what level of the food chain the ideas come from. It’s not often you hear about the founder of a multi-million-dollar company coming to say hello to interns, taking time to chat with them in the corridor, and truly valuing their learning experiences.

However, what makes my boss truly inspiring is not her approachable management style, but how she has made this echo throughout her entire company. A founder who manages not only to create an empire but to nurture values of kindness and inclusivity without sacrificing her professionalism has inspired me.

In just three months, beyond learning countless lessons about working at a tech company, I have found that a boss who will inspire and challenge you is the single most important thing to advance in a career. Brand or paycheck are important, but they need to be accompanied by someone who makes you want to show up to work every day.

An inspiring boss not only makes a workplace more efficient, but promotes personal growth. A boss who promotes a culture of self-starting and self-empowerment has allowed me to grow. I have become more self-assured, and more devoted to my colleagues and the company I work for.

This lesson is applicable outside the professional field, too. Think about your favourite teacher or professor. It is likely you admired them because they shared their passion with you and made you love what they loved. These kind of classes make a student more mature, more informed, and more inspired to take on a otherwise boring assignment. Having that kind of relationship doesn’t have to end in university. Under a motivational leader, hard work goes towards more than a salary. Workers are inspired to impress their bosses, to one day be more like them, and to inspire others in turn.

My attitude as a desperate Arts student in search of a job—any job—has been replaced by a more focused, motivated mindset. I no longer just want a job and success for myself—I want more. I want to inspire someone myself one day, even if it’s just a confused intern with no idea what to do with her life.

We would all like to spend our summers traveling, catching up with friends and family. And yes, watching all your friends have fun without you while you are at work can be demotivating. But if you ever have the chance to learn from someone who truly inspires you, it will stay with you longer than a trip tanning on the beach.

Commentary, Opinion

OAP: A chronicle of a day at the happiest place on Earth

by Isaac Berman on

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The scene is set: The year is 2017, the location not Three Bares Park because the McGill construction bug has fled from McTavish to infiltrate the rest of campus, and Open Air Pub (OAP) is in full swing. You are wearing your best attempt at a summer outfit. If you are male this means a button up shirt with some sort of pattern on it (think little flamingos or beach balls, maybe gorillas holding bananas, or even sailboats if you are from a coastal New England suburb), along with a ‘dad’ hat. If you are female you are wearing an Urban Outfitters sundress.

Aside: If you are not aware what I’m referring to, please google image search, “Urban Outfitters sundress.”

A conversation begins with a couple of people you were friends with in “rez.” The first tells you about how they spent the summer travelling because they “just needed a break.” This includes a few weekends in Dubai, maybe some time in France, but enough weeks in New York to sufficiently appreciate patio season and all the Instagrams of comically large cocktail glasses (see: fishbowls) that one newsfeed can handle. Resentment builds inside of you, but instead of verbally berating them out of jealousy you sip your Smirnoff sangria and smile politely.

Aside: Smirnoff sangria is gender neutral because f*ck gender roles, we’re at McGill.

The other guy in your small gathering spent his summer tree-planting in B.C.. This included enough solo hikes (or as he likes to call them, “adventures”) to change his perspective on sustainability, as well as give him a chance to embark on his mission of “self-love.” The sun in B.C. must have also impaired his vision, because he has started wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

Now that your sangria is polished off, you need access to more alcohol. Unfortunately, the beer line looks worse than the line to get into Leacock 132 for 10:30 a.m. CHEM110 on September 5. There is only one solution to this dilemma: Sneak into the middle of the line under a flimsy rope (if it can be called that). For a sober human, this task is quite straight-forward. When intoxicated at 3:30 p.m., however, it is Mission Impossible. Like a drunk Tom Cruise, you succeed with elegance and style, the only downside being a few icy glares thrown your way. However, these glares do not phase you; the beer line is a dog-eat-dog world, and those dogs just got eaten.  

Aside: Those were the only dogs eaten that day, as evidenced by the BBQ staff’s failed efforts to hawk uneaten hotdogs all day.

After you have succeeded in your beer mission, you lock eyes with another acquaintance. This time it is your roommate’s ex-girlfriend. The last time you saw her, it was 8 a.m. and you had just finished taking your morning bathroom visit in only your underwear. This image plays in your head as the conversation commences.

“Hey, long time no see,” she says unironically, despite the fact that this phrase is usually reserved for ironic use when you see someone the morning after a party. You comment on how tanned she looks. Precisely four more lines of pleasantries are exchanged before it seems socially acceptable for the conversation to end. As you turn to leave, you mention, “we should definitely hang out more this year.”

Aside: You’ll never hang out more this year.

Once you retire from that draining conversation, you move to a patch of grass that has a sufficient amount of dirt to completely cover your butt when you sit down on it, ruining the intended chill-yet-quirky appeal of your tiny lobster-print shorts. This is disappointing, considering the dirt has already made your off-white low-top Converse virtually unwearable for the rest of the semester.

Now that you are settled and balancing your plastic Gerts (‘till it hurts) cup in a ground divot big enough to hold it, you are free to relax and enjoy all that OAP has to offer.

As the sun begins to set, you lounge around talking with your friends about where you’re going to head after [see: Boustan or Gerts (‘till it hurts)]. You begin to realize that no matter how long the line for a porta-potty is, or how disappointing your burnt hockey puck of a hamburger was, this is the happiest you’re going to be for the next four months, so you better f*cking enjoy it.

Science & Technology

McGill researchers identify possible treatment for autism-like disorder

by Sam Min on

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), commonly known simply as Autism, comprises a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, with varying degrees of symptoms such as repetitive behaviors, impaired communications, and poor social engagement. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every 68 children across the globe, or 70 million people, have some form of ASD.

Genes and environment have been found to jointly cause ASD. Researchers have tried to lay out the disorder’s molecular mechanisms, but much remains to be resolved. Today, medical, educational, and behavioral treatments have been developed to better integrate ASD patients into society. Each individual displays a different degree of need for the available treatments due to the heterogeneous nature of possible symptoms. In May 2017, Professor Nahum Sonenberg of the McGill Department of Biochemistry and his research associate, Ilse Gantois, co-authored a paper in Nature Medicine discussing the possibility of future treatments for the symptoms of ASD. The study shows that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, could help symptoms of an autism-like disorder—Fragile X Syndrome.

“Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disease caused by defects in the Fragile X Mental Retardation 1 gene (FMR1), which triggers excess production of protein in the brain, as well as dysregulated connections between neurons and changes in behaviour,” A McGill Newsroom article explains. “The condition leads to impairments in speech and language, behaviour, and social interaction. It affects about 1 in 5,000 boys and 1 in 6,000 girls and is often co-diagnosed with autism, anxiety disorders and seizures.”

Mice used in the study were bred to show similar behaviors to those of Autism patients, such as impaired social interaction and repetitive activities. The researchers used the mice because are a reliable model to emulate ASD in a laboratory setting. Gantois said the Fragile X mice were administered with metformin for 10 days. The injections eventually reduced “excessive grooming and impaired social interaction,” symptoms which are equivalent to repetitive behaviour and impaired social functioning in humans with ASD.

“Our data show that metformin, the most widely used FDA-approved antidiabetic drug, corrects most phenotypic [or observable characteristics as a result of an individual’s genes] deficits in the adult FXS mouse model,” said Gantois, the primary author of the paper. “[Metformin] could be repurposed for the treatment of FXS in the clinic.”

Furthermore, nerve cells are misshaped in FXS mice. Metformin also “reversed the defects in dendritic spines and in synaptic transmission”—meaning that it repaired the nerve damage. Therefore, metformin is a potential treatment for Fragile X and for Autism as it reduces their defects.

Metformin has amazed scientists for its capacity to relieve a mosaic of disparate diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and age-related neurological diseases.

“We want to study if metformin is also able to reverse a variety of behavioural and morphological deficits in other mouse models of ASD,” said Gantois, laying out future routes for ASD research. “These findings may lead to beneficial effects of metformin for other types of autism.”

According to Gantois, the lab’s next investigative goal is “to further study the mechanism of how metformin exactly works in the brain, what molecules metformin interacts with and what cellular functions are affected.”

Science & Technology

McGill professors receive $3 million grant to study emissions from agriculture

by Audrey Carleton on

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Many of the cutting-edge researchers at McGill’s Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the Macdonald Campus hope that their work will change the course of global warming. Professor Chandra Madramootoo and Associate Professor Grant Clark in the Department of Bioresource Engineering are no exception. The professors received a combined sum of approximately $3 million from the Canadian Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food for their respective research projects, which investigate how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the agricultural sector, while offering affordable new growing techniques and tools to farmers. On June 12, Madramootoo and Clark were recognized for receiving the award in a ceremony at the MacDonald campus.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry currently contribute approximately 13 per cent of global emissions. The Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food’s Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program funds agricultural research related to water use efficiency, crop systems, livestock systems, and agroforestry to try to reduce that percentage.

Madramootoo’s research strives to uncover water management strategies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to Madramootoo, using effective drainage and irrigation systems on farms is essential not only for maintaining adequate soil moisture around crop roots for optimal growth, but also for reducing a farm’s total output of greenhouse gases.

“Crop production in eastern Canada is dependent on having adequate levels of soil moisture in the root zone,” Madramootoo said in an email to The McGill Tribune. “There are various types of irrigation systems used in eastern Canada, [namely] sprinkler systems or drip systems [….] We are therefore trying to see how we can best design and operate our irrigation and drainage systems in a way that they might help to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) from intensive crop production systems in eastern Canada.”

Madramootoo and his research team also hope to learn more about the microbial processes in soil that determine levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Madramootoo plans to use his findings to develop a mathematical model of these emissions over a broad regional landscape. He hopes to uncover solutions that will not only mitigate global warming, but will also be affordable for farmers.

“We hope that our findings will lead to a more environmentally sustainable agri-food sector while at the same time permitting farmers to be more economically competitive,” Madramootoo said. “[We are working toward] conservation and wise use of water resources, [and] a more resilient agri-food system that is capable of adapting to climate change with environmentally sustainable water management practices.”

Clark aims to improve agricultural sustainability employing different means. In collaboration with researchers at Dalhousie University and the University of Alberta, Clark and his research team hope to identify a system for converting biosolids—solid residue from wastewater treatment plants—into crop fertilizers. This tactic would not only replace traditional synthetic fertilizers, which are typically made using non-renewable resources, but it would also cut down on the greenhouse gas emission levels associated with their production.

“Instead of landfilling or burning, or otherwise disposing of the biosolids, like maybe cities do now, what we would like to do is promote the use of the biosolids as fertilizers,” Clark said. “That means we have to spend less energy creating synthetic nitrogen fertilizer or mining phosphorus or potassium […] and instead we can use the organic nutrients that are already contained in the biosolids to replace those mineral fertilizers.”  

Clark’s goal is to design a self-sustaining agricultural system which keeps the flow of nutrients in one repeating cycle—from farms, to tables, to toilets, and back again—rather than using non-renewable resources that cannot be reused or recycled.

“What we would really like to see is a more sustainable society,” Clark said. “And agriculture being the underpinning of our modern society […] we’re after sustainable agricultural practices. In order for agriculture to be sustainable, just like every other industry, we have to reduce the use of non-renewable inputs.”

 

This article was updated to correct the name of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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