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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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    The effects of protein supplementation, fumagillin treatment, and colony management on the productivity and long-term survival of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies
    (PLOS, 2024) Peirson, Michael; Ibrahim, Abdullah; Ovinge, Lynae P.; Hoover, Shelley E.; Guarna, M. Marta; Melathopoulos, Andony; Pernal, Stephen F.
    In this study, we intensively measured the longitudinal productivity and survival of 362 commercially managed honey bee colonies in Canada, over a two-year period. A full factorial experimental design was used, whereby two treatments were repeated across apiaries situated in three distinct geographic regions: Northern Alberta, Southern Alberta and Prince Edward Island, each having unique bee management strategies. In the protein supplemented treatment, colonies were continuously provided a commercial protein supplement containing 25% w/w pollen, in addition to any feed normally provided by beekeepers in that region. In the fumagillin treatment, colonies were treated with the label dose of Fumagilin-B® each year during the fall. Neither treatment provided consistent benefits across all sites and dates. Fumagillin was associated with a large increase in honey production only at the Northern Alberta site, while protein supplementation produced an early season increase in brood production only at the Southern Alberta site. The protein supplement provided no long-lasting benefit at any site and was also associated with an increased risk of death and decreased colony size later in the study. Differences in colony survival and productivity among regions, and among colonies within beekeeping operations, were far larger than the effects of either treatment, suggesting that returns from extra feed supplements and fumagillin were highly contextually dependent. We conclude that use of fumagillin is safe and sometimes beneficial, but that beekeepers should only consider excess protein supplementation when natural forage is limiting.
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    The expansion of war and violence in Tok Pisin: a cognitive and corpus study on polysemy in pait and paitim
    (University of Lethbridge, Dept. of English, 2026) McKnight, Jocelyn; Snoek, Conor
    From its early development, catalyzed by mass displacement and forced relocation of Melanesian people, Tok Pisin has flourished into a thriving language of mixed origins in Papua New Guinea. This honours thesis considers polysemy—which is when a word has multiple meanings that are related to one another—for war and violence vocabulary in Tok Pisin. Specifically, it presents a Cognitive Linguistic analysis of pait ‘fight’ and also the transitive form, paitim ‘hit’, that is rooted in corpus linguistics and etymology studies. It is shown that all the meanings associated with pait and paitim are polysemic and understandable through associative structures like metonymy and metaphor. The thesis’ methodology focuses on Cognitive Semantic analysis in order to identify polysemy and how these meaning extensions emerge through conceptual associations. This thesis also uses an adapted etymological tracing for Tok Pisin (Mühlhäusler 1984a), which is used to reconstruct the historical development of pait/paitim, in order to assist with the explanation of the polysemy. Corpus Linguistics methods are also integrated in the form of concordance, collocations, and n-grams, which are used to find co-occurring patterns and thus authentic usage patterns in a corpus. The Slone Corpus (Slone 2001a; Slone 2001b) of traditional Tok Pisin folktales from 1972–1997 from the Wantok Nuisepapa is used and compared with dictionary data from Mihalic (1971) and Volker (2024). Together, these approaches reveal how pait and paitim have created rich polysemy networks through usage, etymological layering, and cognitively motivated meaning extensions in Tok Pisin. While pait and paitim are associated with war and violence, through polysemy the meanings can extend into semantic domains such as taste, music, and more. Additionally, this thesis shows in what way all the extensions from both pait and paitim are connected and ultimately traced to pait ‘fight’. This thesis contributes to research on Tok Pisin by giving more insight into the semantics of war and violence. It also contributes to etymological studies and corpus linguistics for Tok Pisin. For Cognitive Linguistics for pidgincreoles, this thesis demonstrates the fruitfulness of this approach. Additionally, it models how lexical meaning develops, stabilizes and grows within Tok Pisin
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    Regulatory dynamics of B2 SINE RNAs in cellular stress and neurodegenerative contexts
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 2026) Haight, Travis F.; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science; Zovoilis, Athanasios; Kovalchuk, Igor
    Short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) are abundant repetitive elements that function as transcriptional regulators during cellular stress. In mice, B2 SINE RNAs accumulate rapidly and repress RNA polymerase II. However, the mechanisms governing how B2 transcripts are processed and regulated under stress remains incompletely understood. In particular, the relationship between B2 RNA processing dynamics, and adenosine deaminase acting on RNA (ADAR) mediated adenosine to Inosine (A-I) editing has not been fully resolved. Here, an integrative experimental and computational framework was developed to investigate B2 RNA expression, processing, and A-I editing across cellular stress and neurodegenerative contexts. These analyses reveal that stress induced B2 SINE RNA accumulation is accompanied by shifts in RNA processing and A-I editing within full length transcripts. Furthermore, sense and antisense B2 transcription suggests the potential formation of double stranded RNA that may facilitate editing and influence B2 RNA processing dynamics. Together, these findings indicate that B2 SINE RNA regulation is dynamically regulated through RNA processing, A-I editing, and potential double stranded RNA formation.
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    Targeted irrigation scheduling for hybrid canola seed production under water deficit
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Science, 2026) Huvenaars, Renee M.; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science; Johnson, Dan L.
    Field experiments were conducted in Alberta, Canada on targeted irrigation scheduling for hybrid canola (Brassica napus) seed production under water deficit in 2024 and 2025. Supplemental irrigation was applied (0.5 in. per week for three consecutive weeks) on inbred parent lines used for hybrid seed production beginning at targeted growth stages: early vegetative, late vegetative, early flower, late flower, and pod fill. The treatment which received targeted irrigation during early flower yielded most similarly to the nominal treatment (control), which received full water. Treatments that received targeted irrigation during late flower and pod fill stages suffered the greatest yield reduction relative to the nominal treatment. The pattern of treatment effects on seed yield was similar in the two years, with no significant treatment-by-year interaction effect. No differences in thousand-seed weight (TSW) were observed among irrigation scheduling treatments in 2024, although significant differences were observed in 2025. Treatments which received targeted irrigation during vegetative growth stages had a smaller TSW than the treatment which received targeted irrigation during pod fill in 2025. No differences in quality, such as weed presence, weed seeds, dockage or green seed percentages were observed from irrigation treatment effects. Water use efficiency (WUE) was different between treatments, with the deficit treatments achieving higher WUE than the nominal treatment.
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    Cannabinoids alleviate the LPS-induced cytokine storm via attenuating NLRP3 inflammasome signaling and TYK2-mediated STAT3 signaling pathways in vitro
    (MDPI, 2022) Suryavanshi, Santosh V.; Zaiachuk, Mariia; Pryimak, Nazar; Kovalchuk, Igor; Kovalchuk, Olga
    Cannabinoids, mainly cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), are the most studied group of compounds obtained from Cannabis sativa because of their several pharmaceutical properties. Current evidence suggests a crucial role of cannabinoids as potent anti-inflammatory agents for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases; however, the mechanisms remain largely unclear. Cytokine storm, a dysregulated severe inflammatory response by our immune system, is involved in the pathogenesis of numerous chronic inflammatory disorders, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which results in the accumulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, we hypothesized that CBD and THC reduce the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting key inflammatory signaling pathways. The nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome signaling has been implicated in a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases, which results in the release of pyroptotic cytokines, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18. Likewise, the activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) causes increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. We studied the effects of CBD and THC on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory response in human THP-1 macrophages and primary human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs). Our results revealed that CBD and, for the first time, THC significantly inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation following LPS + ATP stimulation, leading to a reduction in the levels of IL-1β in THP-1 macrophages and HBECs. CBD attenuated the phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), and both cannabinoids inhibited the generation of oxidative stress post-LPS. Our multiplex ELISA data revealed that CBD and THC significantly diminished the levels of IL-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) after LPS treatment in THP-1 macrophages and HBECs. In addition, the phosphorylation of STAT3 was significantly downregulated by CBD and THC in THP-1 macrophages and HBECs, which was in turn attributed to the reduced phosphorylation of tyrosine kinase-2 (TYK2) by CBD and THC after LPS stimulation in these cells. Overall, CBD and THC were found to be effective in alleviating the LPS-induced cytokine storm in human macrophages and primary HBECs, at least via modulation of NLRP3 inflammasome and STAT3 signaling pathways. The encouraging results from this study warrant further investigation of these cannabinoids in vivo.