Women use sports bras to reduce the breast movement and discomfort during exercise. In order to provide support, sports bras have a tight fit, adding pressure to rib cage. Pressure applied to the rib cage via a sports bra, can provide resistance during inspiration, and increasing the effort and work required to breath. The purpose of this study is to measure how the tightness of a sports bra affects how women breath at rest and during exercise.

Modern machine learning methods are data-intensive processes, requiring massive amounts of training data to achieve a high level of performance. As such, these techniques are challenging to deploy on tasks where datasets are especially difficult or expensive to obtain or where edge cases and other rare events are most relevant and worth learning. In such occasions, data augmentation techniques offer enormous benefits to alleviate the issue of limited training data.

This proposed Mitacs project will investigate and further develop EIS (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy), or AC-impedance-based measurement hardware used for diagnosing faults in PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell systems (FCS), and incorporation of this on-board EIS function in the fuel cell dc/dc converters used to transfer power from the fuel cell to the vehicle traction drive.

This research explores the different functional properties that hydrolyzed fish collagen and collagen peptides have after modifications. Hydrolyzed fish collagen and collagen peptides are significantly ‘smaller’ than collagen molecules after hydrolysis. Low molecular weight (LMW) C1-C4 collagen molecules under investigation are 3-8 kDa in size, which collagen on its own tend to exist at a molecular weight of 300 000 Da. Collagen from each different species exhibits different functional properties, but can be modified to exhibit a desired property.

Hyivy Health and McMaster University are collaborating on a research study around the effects of the Hyivy Therapy Device as a non-hormonal therapeutic for people with endometriosis. The goal is to track the effects on chronic pelvic pain while exploring the impact on quality of life, usability, and sexual function. Results of this study will provide a new strategy for people suffering with endometriosis to manage their pain.

The proposed Mitacs E-Accelerate project mainly focuses on developing the application of the wire arc additive manufacturing technique as an alternative automated repair and restoration method for current manual processes implemented in Canadian industrial sectors. The main barrier toward the application of the wire arc additive manufacturing as a repair/restoration technique is the challenges in the resultant mechanical and electrochemical response of the restored component.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, is found in the stool of the infected individuals and eventually ended up at the wastewater treatment plants. Since COVID-19 pandemic started, researchers all around the world have been investigating SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater to understand fate of SARS-CoV-2 and predict a potential outbreak by monitoring wastewater for the detection and quantitation of SARS-CoV-2. Wastewater treatment plants, especially which don’t have disinfection processes, may not able to remove SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater.

Audyse Technology is currently developing a Bluetooth communication system to be embedded into personal protective equipment for people who work in environments with consistent noise, this includes factory workers, construction, land scaping, as well as recreational activities such as motorcycling. Current Bluetooth provides point to point connections and can generally support two (sometimes three) devices connected at once. This will not work for scenarios where multiple people need to talk to each other at once and are spread out over a range that standard Bluetooth will not work.

In the shadow of a worldwide pandemic, the importance and need for pharmaceutical research is abundantly clear. In Canada alone, 25 billion units of pharmaceuticals are dispensed every year, and of that 30% of the total product ends up as waste, about 1.1 million kilograms per year. How these pharmaceuticals are wasted has impacts both economically and environmentally. Thermochemical conversion is a method to thermally decompose the waste pharmaceuticals in order to convert them into high value added materials. This process leads to obtain a carbon based material called char and a rich oil.

This research intends to investigate the impact of media type and size on stirred mill performance. Stirred milling tests will be performed with ceramic medias of different mechanical properties and sizing. The energy-size reduction relationships under each test condition will be analyzed. The effect of media type and size on media wear rate will also be investigated as the media cost accounts for alarge portion of the total cost of stirred milling process.