Projets novateurs réalisés

HIV infection and fertility among adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa

Adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa are the population group with the highest level of unmet sexual and reproductive health needs worldwide. Early onset of sexual activity is associated with a double burden of HIV infection and pregnancy. However, so far both problems have been analyzed as independent events. My objective is to examine fertility patterns among HIV-positive and negative adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa and study the mechanisms underlying adolescent childbearing and/or adolescent HIV infection. For doing so, I will use household- and individual-level data from the Demographic and Health Surveys collected in 32 sub-Saharan African countries. This project seeks to demonstrate that early pregnancy and HIV infection are two concurrent risks faced by adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa when they initiate sexual activity. Failure to address the dual problems of high HIV prevalence and high adolescent fertility could have negative short-term and long-term consequences for adolescent girls and their future children.

Antireflective nano-patterned surface treatment and glass flow modeling for large-scale glass applications

Based at Montréal, Canada, Edgehog specializes in anti-reflection and other light management solutions for displays and solar panel covers. Their nanostructuring technology aims to enable full display readability from all angles in direct sunlight and reduced power consumption through lowered screen brightness as well as boosting solar panel efficiency by increased sunlight absorbance. As their current technology proofs the concept at lab scale, further research is needed to find scalable fabrication processes for successful technology transfer to industry level and large-scale applications such as solar panel covers. During the proposed project, two academic interns will build on prior build preliminar technology developed under a Mitacs Accelerate grant to contribute to development, and process prediction by numerical modeling, of a scalable fabrication processes that is compatible with state-of-the-art devices and large-scale solar panels. Results of the study will be transferred to Edgehog supporting this Canadian company in successfully entering this market internationally at large scale. This will help position a Canadian company at the forefront of this key market in the electronics and solar industries, leading to the creation of new knowledge on high-precision advanced manufacturing technologies and the creation of new jobs, and thereby provide a benefit to Canada overall.

Effective dynamic stiffness of piping systems under dynamic excitations

Dynamic loading has a significant effect of the structural response of piping systems. Pipelines transmission and distribution systems consist of various components such as pipes, the underlying supporting structures, pipe supports, and fluids conveyed through pipelines. Interactions effects of all these components are not well addressed in the literature. Inaccurate predictions of the response of piping system under dynamic excitation may cause structural, functional, and operational failures which have a significant influence on the society, environment, and economy. This research seeks to develop practical approaches to accurately predict the structural response of piping systems under dynamic loading. At the end of this research, the partner organization will be provided with practical techniques to properly analyze piping systems and choose suitable pipe supports under dynamic excitation.

Identification de l’option optimale de gestion du digestat pour un digesteur anaérobie dans la vallée du Fraser

Anaerobic digestion ias a process that converts the organic waste into methane-enriched biogas and fertilizer by combined action of a mixed community of microorganisms in the absence of oxygen. Fraser Vallet Biogas Ltd. operates BC’s first anaerobic digester that utilizes on-farm and off-farm waste to generate biogas (Methane) and digestate. Crrently the digestate produced is field-applied locally without being dewatered. The volume of the digestate produced daily is very large compared to the amount handled which constrains the volume of waste input that the anaerobic digester is able to process due to the fixed storage capacity. Therefore, Fraser Valley Biogas Ltd. would like to explore various alternative digestate treatment ideas for a better digestate management. In this project, the intern will carry out an extensive literature review which will cover various farm-based digester operations and digestate management practices described in the scientific literature, reports or online sources. Using the data collected, a cost/benefit analysis will be performed. The project deliverable, a final report, is expected to present a fairly clear idea about the direction that Fraser Valley Biogas Ltd. is recommended to take to improve its digestate management.

The Effect of Droplet Size on Automotive Paint Colour

Spray painting in the automotive manufacturing industry is an extremely difficult technical challenge. Approximately 25% of cars coming off the assembly line must be reworked or scrapped due to a poor paint job. Previous research has shown that the droplet size distribution of the paint being applied to the car is important for the final coating finish and colour. In this project, experiments using an automotive paint spray robot will be done to collect droplet size information and paint coating quality and colour data. The correlation between the droplet size distribution and coating quality will be investigated and the results will be used to develop a model to predict when a spray will produce a poor coating based on the droplet size information. This project will further validate Mazlite’s technology in optimizing the automotive paint spray process and accelerate the commercialization of their product line.

Calibrated and automated recognition of barcodes in complex, highly variable scenes

The main objective of this project is to investigate, develop and evaluate state-of-the-art artificial-intelligence (AI) algorithms for the automatic recognition of extremely diversified barcode instances, in complex, highly variable and non-controlled scenes. The application area is of high interest to the industrial partner, and the ultimate goal is to build a state-of-the-art, automated and well-calibrated barcode analysis system, which meets challenging industrial expectations of high accuracy and computational efficiency, while providing measures of confidence of the predictions (to mitigate the risks associated with potential errors). The recent years have witnessed substantial technical advances in deep learning (e.g., convolutional neural networks), which promises to address such complex image analysis problems. The project will involve one intern (a PhD student), whose objective is to adapt, extend and develop state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks for training automatic recognition models, while accounting for specific industrial challenges: high-accuracy requirements, the need for effective uncertainty estimation to mitigate the high cost of errors, and the need for active learning and exploring the diversity of large-scale unlabeled data. These model-calibration, semi-supervision and active-learning problems are of great interest to the industrial partner and to the computer vision community in general.

Examination of Foundations and Disbursement Quota in Canada

The purpose of this project is to provide a study of charitable spending by members of Philanthropic Foundations Canada, document the historical impacts brought about by changes to Canada’s disbursement quota (DQ) policy, and recommend changes to the T3010 form. The intern will lead knowledge generation in the form of member engagement, issue briefs, and attending conferences. Throughout this process, the intern will encourage Canadian charitable foundations to embrace DQ-related policy positions that promote sustainability and the success of the charitable sector as well as supporting the application of best-practices. This research will provide a foundation for further study.

Comprendre la migration, l’alimentation et la structure des populations des rorquals minké dans l’Atlantique Nord

Les baleines minke sont communes dans l’Atlantique Nord, mais il existe d’énormes lacunes dans les connaissances scientifiques sur cette espèce. En collaboration avec Mériscope, nous attacherons des balises satellites aux baleines minke qui se nourrissent dans l’estuaire du Saint-Laurent (SLE) durant l’été afin de suivre leur migration tout au long de l’année. En même temps, nous collecterons des échantillons de tissus des minkes du SLE, que nous analyserons en comparaison avec des baleines minke d’autres parties de l’Atlantique. En examinant leur génétique, nous pouvons identifier les différences et la connectivité entre les groupes, et en utilisant d’autres signaux chimiques dans leurs tissus, nous pouvons éclairer l’alimentation des baleines, ce qui peut à son tour fournir des informations sur l’écosystème plus vaste. Dans l’ensemble, une meilleure compréhension de la biologie des rorquals minkés sera essentiel tant pour leur conservation que pour comprendre comment les changements climatiques affectent le paysage marin de l’Atlantique Nord.

Améliorer la production d’énergie en reconnaissant mieux les événements problématiques de qualité de l’énergie grâce à l’apprentissage automatique

L’énergie solaire offre un avenir énergétique vert tant pour le Canada que pour le monde. Pour mieux collecter cette énergie, les fermes solaires, les collections de panneaux solaires, sont souvent distribuées afin d’assurer une collecte locale efficace. La météo est souvent un défi pour la production; cependant, la défaillance des composants peut aussi nuire à cela. Ces défaillances peuvent être difficiles à suivre et à prévoir; Dans ce projet, nous proposons de développer des outils pour aider les opérateurs à anticiper des événements pouvant entraîner des pertes d’énergie et améliorer la récolte de l’énergie solaire en utilisant à la fois des outils analytiques standards et de l’apprentissage automatique. Cela conduira à de meilleurs avantages économiques pour le Canada et à des améliorations de l’efficacité de la production.

Les effets du stress durant la vie précoce de l’esturgeon blanc sur la physiologie, le développement et la sensibilité olfactive des larves

Des niveaux élevés d’hormones du stress (c’est-à-dire le cortisol) offrent un mécanisme potentiel par lequel l’état du substrat affecte le développement larvaire et la survie de l’esturgeon blanc en voie de disparition. La possibilité que les hormones du stress médient la réponse larvaire aux conditions du substrat sera étudiée en augmentant artificiellement les niveaux de cortisol et en identifiant les effets sur la physiologie larvaire. Les niveaux de cortisol des poissons adultes capturés à l’état sauvage seront également étudiés afin de déterminer les effets de la capture et de la manipulation sur le succès de frai et la qualité des larves. Deux projets finaux étudieront si l’état du substrat (stress de l’habitat) affecte le développement olfactif larvaire et/ou les niveaux d’hormones thyroïdiennes. Ces deux facteurs peuvent être liés au mécanisme d’empreinte par lequel les poissons retournent à leur lieu de naissance pour frayer (par exemple, le saumon). Une meilleure compréhension des facteurs qui influencent la survie et la qualité des larves aidera les deux partenaires du projet à mettre en œuvre à la fois les composantes d’écloserie et d’habitat du plan de rétablissement de l’espèce.

Functional and structural characterization of clinically relevant amyloid fibrils

Irreversible, progressive, and incurable neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Parkinson’s disease (PD), constitute severe challenges for the modern and, in particular, for the healthcare system. Recent reports suggest that worldwide >50 Mio. people and >10 Mio. people are living with AD or PD, respectively. Both diseases are related to protein misfolding and aggregation towards elongated and helical amyloid fibrils. However, although amyloid fibrils are considered pathological hallmarks for AD and PD, the mechanisms of how such fibrils hamper normal cellular function are largely unknown.

The long-term objective is to shed light on the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular AD and PD. Therefore, we integratively combine high-resolution structure determination of clinically relevant amyloid fibrils with modern biochemical in vitro and in vivo characterization. Our approach may elevate the understanding of the pathologic mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, which is essential to promote the rational search for novel, innovative drugs.

Cross-frequency coupling in organoids

By growing stem cells in the right conditions, we are able to create miniature brain tissue structures called organoids. These organoids have many properties that make them similar to adult brains, which makes them a valuable tool to study how brain tissues might be affected by drugs, or how brain diseases like epilepsy can occur. One method that doctors currently use to choose which drugs to give to an epileptic patient is to examine the electrical activity of an epileptic brain for the kinds of rhythms that are present and to test different anticonvulsants over time to find one that works. Our project aims to measure the electrical activity of organoids for the same kinds of rhythms that might be present in an epileptic brain, to see if these same rhythms can exist in organoids. In order to make sure we mimic what happens in epilepsy, we can add a chemical convulsant to stimulate epilepsy-like behavior from the organoids.