Tag Archives: university of toronto

U of T Research Demonstrates How Children Learn About Prejudice

By Guest PostMarch 24, 2012Generalanjum nayyar, children, elementary school, external instruction, kang and inzlicht, kids, michael inzlicht, negative experience, prejudice, red group, sonia kang, toronto, university of toronto

How do children come to realize that they themselves might be targets of prejudice? It may depend on their age. New research conducted at the University of Toronto shows that a six-year-old may be influenced most by direct instruction about prejudice, but once that child gets closer to 10, she begins to rely more on her own experiences.

“Young children are information hungry – they are eagerly searching for general rules to help in mapping out their social worlds,” write researchers Sonia Kang, an assistant professor in the Department of Management at U of T Mississauga and the Rotman School of Management, and Professor Michael Inzlicht of the Department of Psychology in this month’s Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. (more…)

Cultural “Tightness” Can Hold Back Female Leadership – But not Always, Says University of Toronto Study

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2012Culture, Politicscultural norms, cultural tightness, deutsche telekom, geoffrey leonardelli, german company, germanic europe, hungary, ken mcguffin, leader, new zealand, Pakistan, scandinavian country, sex, society, soo min toh, south korea, statistics, turkey, ukraine, university of toronto, women, women leaders, world bank

Normative support for equality can make the difference

Countries that more strictly uphold their cultural norms are less likely to promote women as leaders, unless those norms support equal opportunity for both sexes, shows a new paper from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

“Cultural tightness can prevent the emergence of women leaders because tighter cultures may make a society’s people more resistant to changing the traditionally-held practice that placed men in leadership roles,” said Professor Soo Min Toh, who is cross-appointed to the Rotman School and the University of Toronto Mississauga, and co-wrote the paper with Professor Geoffrey Leonardelli at the Rotman School and U of T’s Department of Psychology. (more…)

Human’s Oldest Ancestor Found in Burgess Shale

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2012Scienceamerican palaeontologist, burgess shale, cambrian explosion, canada, charles doolittle walcott, chordate family, earthworms, fossil, jean bernard caron, leeches, marine organisms, myomeres, nerve cord, pikaia, pikaia gracilens, predator, primitive, primitive chordate, rom, royal ontario museum, scanning electron microscopy, simon conway morris, siphusauctum, tegopelte, university of cambridge, university of toronto, vascular system, vertebrate, worm, yoho national park

*Pikaia is most primitive vertebrate known*

Researchers from the University of Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the University of Cambridge have confirmed that a 505 million-year-old creature, found only in the Burgess Shale fossil beds in Canada’s Yoho National Park, is the most primitive known vertebrate and therefore the ancestor of all descendant vertebrates, including humans.

The research team’s analysis proves the extinct Pikaia gracilens is the most primitive member of the chordate family, the group of animals that today includes fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals. Their study is based on the analysis of 114 specimens and is published in the British scientific journal Biological Reviews. (more…)

Canadian Police Agencies Suppressing Data on Race, Says Criminology Study

By Guest PostFebruary 2, 2012Culture, General, Politicsaboriginal origin, aboriginals, akwasi owusu bempah, blacks, canada, centre for criminology, data on race, diana tyszko, halifax, jurisdiction, law, nipissing, over representation, paul millar, perpetrators, police force, police services, policy, public knowledge, race of victims, race statistics, racial background, racial discrimination, toronto, transparency, ucr, university of toronto, victims

*Data essential for creating fair policies*

While only 20 per cent of Canada’s police forces have an explicit policy against reporting the race of victims and accused persons, criminologists from the University of Toronto and Nipissing show that the majority of police departments do not report race in practice.

The study, by Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology, and Paul Millar, an associate professor at Nipissing University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, is entitled Whitewashing Criminal Justice in Canada: Preventing Research through Data Suppression and appears in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Law and Society. (more…)

University of Toronto/Royal Ontario Museum Scientists Discover Unusual ‘Tulip’ Creature

By Guest PostJanuary 20, 2012Nature, Scienceanimal, bizarre creature, burgess shale, burgess shale animals, calyx, canadian rockies, cup like structure, filter feeding system, fossil, fossil specimens, invertebrate palaeontology, jean bernard caron, lorna obrien, middle cambrian burgess shale, mount stephen, ocean, parks canada, primitive members, royal ontario museum, seafloor, siphusauctum gregarium, stem, tulip beds, UNESCO, university of toronto

*Lived in the ocean more than 500-million years ago*

A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500-million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies.

Officially named Siphusauctum gregarium, fossils reveal a tulip-shaped creature that is about the length of a dinner knife (approximately 20 centimetres) and has a unique filter feeding system. (more…)

Ovarian Cancer Study Proves Drug Delays Disease Progression

By Guest PostJanuary 3, 2012Healthamerican study, amit oza, avastin, bevacizumab, blood vessels, brain, breast, canada, canadian cancer society, caz zyvatkauskas, colorectal, disease, drug, kidney, lung, oncologist, ovarian cancer, starving the cancer, timothy perren, tumours, university of toronto, women

*U of T, U.K. study focused on Avastin*

Treating ovarian cancer with the drug bevacizumab (“Avastin”) delays the disease and may also improve survival, according to an international clinical trial co-led by Drs. Amit Oza of the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) and Timothy Perren of St James’s Institute of Oncology, Leeds, U.K.

The findings, published on Dec. 28 in the New England Journal of Medicine, report that the drug halted the cancer’s return for two months overall. However, for women with the highest risk disease, the delay was five to six months and in this group, the findings also indicate a strong trend to improved overall survival, which is being analysed until 2013. (more…)

In The Dragonfish’s Mouth: The Next Generation of Superstars to Stir Up Our Galaxy

By Guest PostDecember 5, 2011Scienceastronomers, astronomical terms, celestial gas shell, Chile, christopher matzner, dae sik moon, deep sea creature, dragonfish, european southern observatory, Galaxy, gravity, infrared, light years, mouth, mubdi rahman, new technology telescope, peter shearer, radio waves, spitzer satellite, sun, supermassive stars, telescopes, ultraviolet, university of toronto, visible light, wmap satellite

TORONTO, ON – Three astronomers at the University of Toronto have found the most numerous batch of young, supermassive stars yet observed in our galaxy: hundreds of thousands of stars, including several hundreds of the most massive kind –blue stars dozens of times heavier than our Sun. The light these newborn stars emit is so intense it has pushed out and heated the gas that gave them birth, carving out a glowing hollow shell about a hundred light-years across.

These findings will be published in the December 20 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. For the researchers, the next step is already clear: “By studying these supermassive stars and the shell surrounding them, we hope to learn more about how energy is transmitted in such extreme environments,” says Mubdi Rahman, a PhD candidate in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, who led the work with his supervisors, Professors Dae-Sik Moon and Christopher Matzner. (more…)

Examining The Changing Face of Christianity

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2011Cultureafrica, anthropologist, asia, chaplains in guatemala, charismatic christianity, China, christianity, christians, diversity, downtown toronto, Europe, faith, girish daswani, god, ju hui judy han, kevin o neill, korean missionaries, latin america, nigeria, North America, north korea, pamela klassen, pentecostal christianity, pentecostalism, politics of global christianity, rural villages, ruth marshall, simon coleman, social process, spiritual warriors, university of toronto, valentina napolitano

U of T leading centre for study of global Christianity

A century ago, 80 per cent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe and North America; today, nearly 70 per cent live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, making Christianity a predominantly non-Western religion.

A critical mass of scholars who are looking into the implications of this shift has made the University of Toronto a leading centre for the study of global Christianity.

Christianity today has more than 2.2 billion adherents worldwide. The majority are overwhelmingly poor, displaced from rural villages into overcrowded cities in search of work, and adhere strictly to the word of Scripture, which can command their loyalty far more than state or society. (more…)