Color-based sensing enables sensors to be utilized in more places and by more people, particularly those who do not have access to or required training for sophisticated and expensive sensing technologies. This cost-effective sensing process is based on the change in an indicator’s color in response to the stimulation that is being sensed. This project seeks a novel
application for a color-based sensing method (Optical Liquid Fingerprinting technology), previously developed by the project’s partner organization.

Often, a single employment notice may receive hundreds of applications. Manual inspection of applications is extremely time-consuming, and may be approximated by a computer program. Such a program would automatically extract a number of features from each application. For example, relevant work experience, skills, and qualifications might represent appropriate features. After extracting these features, the system would be able to score and rank applications in an effort to reduce the number of applications that would then need to be reviewed.

Long-term effects of forest harvest and other land uses on boreal forest birds are unknown, because most studies of forestry practices on boreal birds occur over short periods, while effects of habitat fragmentation may be realized over longer periods and affected by climate change. I will analyze >20 years of forestry treatment and bird abundance data from Alberta forest sites that were revisited yearly to survey birds, and use results from these analyses to predict bird abundance within future land use scenarios created by timber supply and land use simulation software.

Most economically important traits associated with lactation and reproduction in pigs are either less heritable, sex-limited, expressed later in life, or difficult to measure on a routine basis. Genomic predictions using single step best linear unbiased prediction (SSBLUP) methodologies, which utilizes information on phenotypes, pedigree and markers from genotyped and non-genotyped animals simultaneously, is an alternative to phenotype and pedigree based (BLUP) methods.

This project aims to provide real-world, verifiable estimates of impacts to watersheds from usage of back-country logging and resource roads. fRI in partnership with the University of Alberta, MiTACS and Canfor is testing computer-based tools developed in the United States to apply them to watersheds in Alberta. Given the different geography, soil types, and relief in Alberta, these tools may need to be refined to reflect the unique conditions present in our foothills natural region.

Predicting the quantity of mineral (gold, coper, etc) or hydrocarbon (oil, gas) extracted from a given deposit is difficult. One concern is the uncertainty in the resources underground. A few initial wells or drill holes give us access to an estimate of the quantity of resource, but there is great uncertainty because sampling can be hundreds of meters or kilometers apart.

To create the impetus for industry-level improvements in safety, the COAA has embarked on an initiative “Twice as Safe, Twice as Productive by 2020”. The purpose of this project is to support this initiative by understanding the safety cultures and the levels of maturity across the construction industry and motivating improvements in all Albertan construction companies. This will be accomplished by first surveying individuals working for owner companies, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers.

Increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance is becoming a major public health concern and is linked to use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics in agriculture. Sub-therapeutic antibiotics have been used for years in swine production to mitigate diarrheal diseases observed at weaning. Thus, development of alternative nutritional strategies to minimize sub-therapeutic antibiotic use is vital. Mannan-oligosaccharides may be useful as a feed additive to mitigate post-weaning diarrheal diseases.

Presently medical personnel do not have adequate tools to assess disorders of conscious awareness after severe brain injury if the patients have difficulty speaking & moving. These people are frequently deemed unresponsive when they may be “in there" but unable to respond. Our research team has developed a rapidly administerable, portable system that measures brain waves in response to sounds & spoken sentences. Once diagnosis has been established, personnel are more equipped to make decisions regarding a patient's candidacy for rehabilitation.

There have been many new operational drivers that require changes to the traditional training processes in small and medium companies, i.e. the advancement of technology, the mass retirement of the baby boomer generation, and the ever more dynamically-changing values of the web-generation workforce. Dealing with bridging the skill gaps may deem to uproot the company paradigm and demand for a new and more efficient model. Is there a solution to reduce the growing pain of workforce renewal?