The objectives of the proposed research are to develop fully compostable and biodegradable beverage cups in Manitoba, using paper made from “waste” biomass (canola straw, cattail biomass) biodegradable polymers.

Women with elevated cardiovascular disease risk can improve their health by participating in interventions that encourage health promoting behaviours, such as physical activity. However, although a person may know that they will benefit from participating in a health promotion program, there are many reasons why people do not adopt healthier lifestyles. Patients with lived experience have specific knowledge of the barriers and facilitators that limited or supported their failure or success completing health promotion programming.

Salmonella (non thyphoidal) is a bacterium that can cause illness in animals and humans. Salmonella can contaminate eggs, it can be transferred from infected hens before the egg is laid, or after due to environmental contamination. Producers can reduce the risk of Salmonella infection in their flocks by cleaning and disinfecting layers houses between flocks. However, Salmonella can use different mechanisms to persist in the environment. Surface adherence and biofilm formation are two of the more important mechanisms that allow Salmonella to survive in the environment.

Detecting the presence of bacteria at a low concentration during a wound healing process can eliminate catastrophic results such as chronic infection and amputation. The available diagnostic techniques with high sensitivity require high-tech equipment and are expensive. Moreover, to monitor the wound with these kits/technologies, wound dressing removal is needed, which causes the second trauma. In order to overcome these shortcomings, we are fabricating Nanosheet™ Biosensor.

Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) or drones have numerous applications in different industries. Data-based agriculture is an emerging field that can widely benefit from the drone technology through accurate data collection via drones. However, drones have limitations like short flight time, limited flight range, and they are prone to failure. To mitigate these limitations, we propose using a cooperative group of drones. The resulting parallel operation increases the efficiency and reduces required flight time.

In a world where animal health and welfare are receiving increasing attention, it is crucial that we understand and support livestock farmers who are under an incredible amount of stress. This research is designed to start a supportive discussion and to collect information on the topic of farmer mental health in the beef and dairy industry, including factors affecting mental health and connections with animal health. We will survey beef and dairy farmers to gain a better understanding of how they are doing and which factors are related to their mental health.

Efficient animal production with a reduced environmental impact requires healthy animals, higher performance, increased feed conversion, and the use of available nutrients. The improvement of those traits could be accomplished by understanding how the gut microbiome plays a vital role in nutrient digestion and feed efficiency.

Our project investigates the effects of ultrasonic/sonic vibrations on assisting penetration for subsurface investigation of remote surfaces such as the Moon and Mars, where there are restrictions on mass and volume transportation. Such lateral vibrations, at a lower frequency, are used by snakes to hide in granular materials. Our final goal is to design a prototype that can withstand the lunar environment, contains the required scientific instruments and has a bio-inspired burrowing tool.

Designing new anticancer agents using structure based drug design and the 3D structure of the biological targetis becoming an increasingly important field of study. The main objective of this project is to develop and identifyanticancer drug candidate(s) for advanced preclinical testing, with the end goal of identifying drug candidatessuitable for clinical trials and commercialization. Currently, we have synthesized several novel drug candidatesdesigned to mitigate the increased toxicological effects observed in a significant proportion of patients receivingcurrent therapies.

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.