Numerous industries and government agencies carry out analyses every day using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) instruments that typically waste 95% of the sample and consume large amounts of argon. A greener approach would not generate any sample waste and reduce expensive argon consumption. The first year will be devoted to making a viable commercial product from an infrared-heated sample introduction system for inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). If the prototype can be developed as a financially feasible product, the company would patent it.

The goal of this project is to develop a faster and more accurate way to detect ventricular tachycardia using an algorithm to analyze the signal results from Paced Electrogram Fractionation Analysis (PEFA); ideally real time through use of a basket catheter. St Jude Medical, our research partner, creates medical hardware specifically geared towards detecting and treating heart disease, including arrhythmia. If we are successful in our endeavor, they hope to gain an improved diagnostic system.

There is a controversial relationship between the levels of democratization and violence. Although it is assumed that more democratic a country becomes less violence occurs, there are some counterarguments (Tezcur 2009). This project is an attempt to test the viability of whether democracy leads pacification. We will compare two time periods to evaluate the impacts of change in state strategy toward Kurds in Turkey’s borderlands. The first is the period from 1990 to 2004, which is a period of military domination. The second time period is commonly associated with political liberalization.

Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes used in CANDU reactors are susceptible to hydride cracking-induced crack initiation mechanisms, a.k.a delayed hydride cracking or DHC and overload crack initiation. For the integrity assessment of CANDU pressure tubes, it is required to evaluate the likelihood of DHC and overload crack initiation from serviceinduced flaws and to determine whether the pressure tubes are still fit for continued service. The main focus of this proposal is to evaluate the effect of in-situ flux effect on the structure and fracture properties of zirconium hydrides.

Acne is a common human skin disease which is highly prevalent during adolescence, and often continues into adulthood. Retinoids, such as isotretinoin (Accutane/Roaccutane), have been particularly effective systemically in the treatment of acne. Although, millions of patients have been treated with Accutane/Roaccutane which for many years generated more than $1B U.S. in annual sales, the side effects, such as birth defects and inflammatory bowel disease, can sometime be severe. The market opportunity of an effective treatment with a better safety profile than isotretinoin is significant.

Cervical insufficiency (CI) is a condition in which the cervix prematurely shortens and dilates during pregnancy, typically resulting in mid-trimester pregnancy loss or premature labour. The causes of CI are currently unknown. However, recent studies have associated abnormalities in immune system regulation with pregnancy complications such as spontaneous abortion and premature birth. Since the immune system is regulated by circulating molecules known as cytokines, abnormal cytokine regulation could be associated with these pregnancy complications and with cervical insufficiency.

Connected Cars is an emerging technology that aims at enhancing driving experience and improving safety, productivity, and integrity of transportation systems. Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. (IMS) is a leader in telematics and infotainment technologies, including the convergence of both technologies in delivering the ultimate connected car experience. One of the core components in connected cars environment is an accurate and robust positioning system that can work in all environments. Current location technology is dominant by the popular Global Positioning System (GPS).

This project is going to digitalize a patented method of presenting the guitar tablature and build an online system to assist guitar teaching. The new method can present the guitar tablature with 8 building clocks. People can easily learn the chores of thousands of songs, which is impossible with the other methods. The system is called Novaxe. Novaxe is going to have a graph screen to display the fretboard with the information about the chord progression, rhythm pattern, tempo, key, `position`, song form, chord form, title, artist, year, and genre of a song.

Features identification and extraction from remotely sensed (RS) image is an ongoing research endeavor and has wider applications. Traditionally it has been based on pixel-based image analysis which has proved to be inefficient and ineffective especially for very high resolution (VHR) data. More recently object-based image analysis (OBIA) has gained a wider recognition because of its potential for accurately extracting objects from RS data corresponding to real-world features.