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OPUS: Open Ulethbridge Scholarship

Open ULeth Scholarship (OPUS) is the University of Lethbridge's open access research repository. It contains a collection of materials related to research and teaching produced by the academic community.

Self-archiving your research in OPUS is one way to meet Open Access policies of granting agencies. It is important to retain your final, post-peer-reviewed drafts for submission to OPUS, as this is often the only version publishers will allow to be archived. Click here for information on the U of L Open Access Policy.

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    Canadian early career teachers' coping strategies and mental health: a mixed-method exploration
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 2026) Froehlich, Madeleine N.; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education; Gunn, Thelma
    Teacher shortages, burnout, and attrition remain pervasive global challenges, with early career teachers (ECTs) at heightened risk of leaving the profession before reaching their full professional potential. This study, grounded in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, examined how ECTs’ coping strategies operate as personal resources within high-demand occupational contexts. Using a cross-sectional, convergent mixed-methods design, Canadian early career teachers (N=311) within the first five years of practice completed an online survey measuring coping, resilience, burnout, intention to leave, and included qualitative open-ended questions. Quantitative analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multiple linear regressions, while qualitative responses were analysed through an inductive and deductive brief-text thematic approach. ECTs most frequently endorsed engagement-oriented, emotion-focused, and social strategies. Notably, active coping, emotional support, and positive reframing predicted higher resilience and lower burnout and turnover intentions in line with JD-R theory, whereas behavioural disengagement and self-blame predicted poorer outcomes. Qualitative findings paralleled the quantitative data, highlighting the centrality of social support as both an emotional buffer and a practical scaffold amid overwhelming demands and systemic constraints. Overall, the study underscores the necessity for multilevel interventions to strengthen collegial and organizational support, promoting sustainable well-being and retention.
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    Theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling during naturalistic memory encoding: a comparison of real-world and 2D experiences
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Neuroscience, 2026) Taheritorbati, Alireza; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science; Ekstrand, Chelsea
    Episodic memory allows individuals to recall personal experiences by integrating perceptual, emotional, and contextual information over time. Previous research suggests that episodic memory depends on the coordination of neural activity across different frequency bands, particularly through theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling (PAC). However, most studies have examined these mechanisms using simplified laboratory tasks, with limited attention to how they operate in more naturalistic contexts. The present study investigated how encoding context influences neural dynamics during episodic memory formation by comparing a real-world performance with a two-dimensional (2D) version of the same narrative. Sixty-two young adults were assigned to either a real-world or 2D condition. Neural activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) during encoding, and PAC between frontal theta (4-8 Hz) and parietal gamma (30-100 Hz) oscillations was computed. Following encoding, participants completed a free verbal recall task. The results showed a significant effect of encoding condition on PAC, with higher theta-gamma coupling observed in the 2D condition compared to the real-world condition. Despite these neural differences, recall performance did not differ significantly between conditions. There was a significant positive correlation between PAC and memory recall performance only observed in the 2D condition. Furthermore, PAC was not consistently related to general cognitive measures, suggesting that it reflects task-specific neural processing rather than stable cognitive ability. These findings show that the neural coordination underlying memory encoding is influenced by the context in which information is experienced, even when similar levels of memory performance are achieved across different conditions. In other words, increased PAC in the 2D condition may reflect greater reliance on internally driven processing when external structure is reduced. Overall, this study highlights the importance of using naturalistic paradigms to better understand how memory operates in real-world settings and suggests that PAC should be interpreted as a flexible, context-dependent neural mechanism rather than a general measure of memory performance.
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    Integrative genomics reveals the genetics and evolution of the honey bee’s social immune system
    (Oxford University Press, 2019) Harpur, Brock A.; Guarna, M. Marta; Huxter, Elizabeth; Higo, Heather; Moon, Kyung-Mee; Hoover, Shelley E.; Ibrahim, Abdullah; Melathopoulos, Andony P.; Desai, Suresh; Currie, Robert W.; Pernal, Stephen F.; Foster, Leonard J.; Zayed, Amro
    Social organisms combat pathogens through individual innate immune responses or through social immunity—behaviors among individuals that limit pathogen transmission within groups. Although we have a relatively detailed understanding of the genetics and evolution of the innate immune system of animals, we know little about social immunity. Addressing this knowledge gap is crucial for understanding how life-history traits influence immunity, and identifying if trade-offs exist between innate and social immunity. Hygienic behavior in the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, provides an excellent model for investigating the genetics and evolution of social immunity in animals. This heritable, colony-level behavior is performed by nurse bees when they detect and remove infected or dead brood from the colony. We sequenced 125 haploid genomes from two artificially selected highly hygienic populations and a baseline unselected population. Genomic contrasts allowed us to identify a minimum of 73 genes tentatively associated with hygienic behavior. Many genes were within previously discovered QTLs associated with hygienic behavior and were predictive of hygienic behavior within the unselected population. These genes were often involved in neuronal development and sensory perception in solitary insects. We found that genes associated with hygienic behavior have evidence of positive selection within honey bees (Apis), supporting the hypothesis that social immunity contributes to fitness. Our results indicate that genes influencing developmental neurobiology and behavior in solitary insects may have been co-opted to give rise to a novel and adaptive social immune phenotype in honey bees.
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    Pollinators enhance crop yield and shorten the growing season by modulating plant functional characteristics: A comparison of 23 canola varieties
    (Springer Nature, 2019) Adamidis, George C.; Cartar, Ralph V.; Melathopoulos, Andony P.; Pernal, Stephen F.; Hoover, Shelley E.
    Insect pollination of flowers should change the within-season allocation of resources in plants. But the nature of this life-history response, particularly regarding allocation to roots, photosynthetic structures, and flowers, is empirically unresolved. This study uses a greenhouse experiment to investigate the effect of insect pollination on the reproductive output of 23 varieties of a globally important crop—canola (Brassica napus). Overall, insect pollination modified the functional characteristics (flower timing & effort, plant size & shape, seed packaging, root biomass) of canola, increasing seed production and quality, and pollinator dependence. Reproductive output and pollinator dependence were defined by strong trait trade-offs, which ranged from more pollinator-dependent plants favouring early reproductive effort, to less pollinator-dependent plants favouring a prolonged phenology with smaller plant size and lower seed quality. Seed production decreased with pollinator dependence in the absence of pollinators. The agricultural preference for hybrid varieties will increase seed production compared to open-pollinated varieties, but, even so, pollinators typically enhance seed production of both types. Our study elucidates how insect pollination alters the character and function of a globally important crop, supporting optimization of yield via intensification of insect pollination, and highlights the beneficial effects of insect pollination early in the season.
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    Peptide biomarkers used for the selective breeding of a complex polygenic trait in honey bees
    (Springer Nature, 2017) Guarna, M. Marta; Hoover, Shelley E.; Huxter, Elizabeth; Higo, Heather; Moon, Kyung-Mee; Domanski, Dominik; Bixby, Miriam E. F.; Melathopoulos, Andony P.; Ibrahim, Abdullah; Peirson, Michael; Desai, Suresh; Micholson, Derek; White, Rick; Borchers, Christoph H.; Currie, Robert W.; Pernal, Stephen F.; Foster, Leonard J.
    We present a novel way to select for highly polygenic traits. For millennia, humans have used observable phenotypes to selectively breed stronger or more productive livestock and crops. Selection on genotype, using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genome profiling, is also now applied broadly in livestock breeding programs; however, selection on protein/peptide or mRNA expression markers has not yet been proven useful. Here we demonstrate the utility of protein markers to select for disease-resistant hygienic behavior in the European honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). Robust, mechanistically-linked protein expression markers, by integrating cis- and trans- effects from many genomic loci, may overcome limitations of genomic markers to allow for selection. After three generations of selection, the resulting marker-selected stock outperformed an unselected benchmark stock in terms of hygienic behavior, and had improved survival when challenged with a bacterial disease or a parasitic mite, similar to bees selected using a phenotype–based assessment for this trait. This is the first demonstration of the efficacy of protein markers for industrial selective breeding in any agricultural species, plant or animal.