Projets novateurs réalisés

Décrire l’expérience de décision partagée de diverses parties prenantes entourant la question de cesser ou poursuivre un traitement antipsychotique après 18 mois de suivi chez la clientèle de premier épisode psychotique

Le premier épisode de psychose, un trouble du cerveau qui entraine une perte de contact avec la réalité, survient généralement au début de l’âge adulte. Les médicaments de type antipsychotiques sont très efficaces pour traiter les symptômes de la psychose, mais une fois le contrôle des symptômes obtenus, ces médicaments servent plutôt de police d’assurance pour éviter les rechutes. La poursuite ou non de ce type de médicament à long terme fait l’objet d’une controverse parce que la balance risque-bénéfice à long terme est incertaine dans certains cas. Cette étude mise à explorer l’expérience des patients et de leurs proches concernant la décision de cesser ou poursuivre ces médicaments, de voir leur niveau d’implication dans celle-ci et de mesurer leur confort suite à la décision. Ce projet vise ultimement à améliorer les services et les soins en santé mentale ce qui s’inscrit directement dans les objectifs de la Fondation CERVO.

Automation of task sequencing and allocation

The National Bank of Canada (BNC) is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in their software development processes. Within their software projects, the team is continuously improving solutions and integrating them within the organization. A key issue in the development and integration cycle is allocating team resources to different tasks. Short-term development tasks (completed under “sprints” in the agile development terminology) can be assigned to different team members based on factors such as current workload, skillset, experience and interests. These factors are manually collected to optimize task sequencing and allocation.
The goal of this project is to automate the integration of such factors into the current project management toolset at BNC. The project will utilize machine learning techniques to learn from previously completed tasks and propose a decision support system that recommends the most suitable team members to be allocated for each specific task.

Mechano-chemically and microwave-assisted catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of sugar alcohols to polymer components

Sugar alcohols such as Xylitol and Sorbitol are an abundant and renewable carbon resource obtained from plant-generated sugars and starches or – preferably – the breakdown of (hemi-)cellulose into the soluble sugars Xylose and Glucose. Already established industrial processes currently running at > 2 million tons/year allow the facile conversion of these sugar to the corresponding C5 (xylitol) and C6 (sorbitol) sugar alcohols. The linear carbon-chain structure of these sugar alcohols predisposes them for conversion to the corresponding alpha,omega-diols 1,5-pentane-diol and1,6-hexanediol, which can be directly used in polyesters (fabrics) and polyurethanes (foams) and, with further modification, in polyamides (Nylon) displacing the non-renewable fossil hydrocarbon (i.e., crude oil) based feedstocks. This goal is however contingent on developing new green chemistry that uses a catalytic process to selectively remove the oxygen atoms connected to the internal carbons in the sugar alcohols, while leaving the terminal oxygens in place.

Sales and Marketing Internship

Market research – Research North American and European cannabis industry / Bee and honey products and by-products (food products, lipbalms, topicals, etc.), identify price points, competitors, target consumers, consumer needs and preferences. Intern will gather as much information as possible from online sources as possible.

Sales Approach – Identifying and contacting retailers (NL Cannabis, OCS, etc.), advertising cannabis/hemp and bee/honey products, selling product, work with “white label” processing companies. Based on this, intern will recommend the most innovative and relevant sales approach to be used.

This project will benefit our business in terms of providing an innovation-based approach for us to enter the market. It will involve identifying our target consumers, determining market values for our products, defining market price points (low-high), selecting appropriate rates/unit, and determining effective and efficient marketing/advertising strategies. The overall objective for this project is to sell quality cannabis/hemp and bee/honey products for top market value and expand into new markets.

Understanding and managing the contraction of infrastructure for internal combustion engine vehicles

The transportation sector is responsible for 25% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to address climate change by electrifying transportation will reduce the demand for gasoline and diesel fuels. At some point in the decline internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle owners will face the same challenges that have plagued electric and hydrogen vehicle owners – namely insufficient fueling infrastructure to allow for convenient operation of the vehicles. This raises a number of potential issues, from the risk of stranded assets for owners of the ICE vehicles, to implications for land use planning for gasoline station locations, that will require policy interventions. This project will examine the process of contraction of gasoline station infrastructure to build a better understanding of how the contraction will progress, identifying potential risks and laying out solutions the Transition Accelerator can develop to manage the transition.

« Partir ou rester: Comprendre l’immobilité climatique et les populations « coincées » aux Etats-Unis ». / Trapped Populations’ in The United States: Understanding Climate Immobility and The Reluctance to Relocate

Ce projet de recherche porte sur l’immobilité climatique et vise à comprendre pourquoi les personnes les plus vulnérables aux changements climatiques ne se déplacent pas toujours, malgré l’intense dégradation de leurs lieux de vie. À travers le cas du sud de la Louisiane, cette recherche s’interroge sur les conditions politiques, économiques, idéologiques et émotionnelles de l’adaptation et de la mitigation des risques climatiques. Nous employons une méthodologie qualitative axée sur un travail d’observations de terrain, d’entrevues, et d’analyses de textes de lois et de documents gouvernementaux. Nous cherchons à identifier l’impact des pratiques de l’Etat et des institutions sur la manière dont les louisianais perçoivent leur propre vulnérabilité et s’adaptent aux changements climatiques, pour comprendre les fondements de l’immobilité dans son contexte.

Actualisation du guide de mise en marché de la musique québécoise francophone (MQF)

Le guide de mise en marché de la musique québécoise (Guide MQF) consiste en une vaste étude de marché visant à permettre aux responsables de la commercialisation de musique enregistrée et de spectacles musicaux en français de bien cerner les habitudes de consommation de musique des Québécois et Québécoises dans le but de maximiser leur stratégie de mise en marché.

L’organisme partenaire, l’ADISQ tirera parti des connaissances et de l’expertise d’un étudiant qui viendra remplir des mandats ponctuels dans les diverses étapes devant mener à cette nouvelle mouture du guide MQF. Ensuite, cette collaboration permettra à l’ADISQ de bénéficier de l’expertise en recherche propre au milieu universitaire pour enrichir sa réflexion autour de la démarche et développer de nouvelles perspectives sur les problématiques de commercialisation à l’origine du projet.

Pour l’UQTR, cette collaboration avec l’ADISQ permet d’offrir une expérience terrain à un étudiant et d’enrichir la réflexion de ce dernier grâce à une expérience tangible. Elle lui offre l’occasion de tisser un réseau de contacts qui lui permettra de disposer d’une meilleure cartographie du milieu, ce qui aura un impact considérable sur sa perspective de l’écosystème musical québécois et sur les enjeux qui préoccupent ses acteurs, auxquels son projet de maîtrise souhaite proposer des pistes de réponse.

Evaluating St. Lawrence River waves and shoreline erosion with application to fish habitat

Large ships routinely pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway. These ships generate waves that could exacerbate erosion of the St. Lawrence River shoreline. This research project will measure waves continuously during a shipping season and simultaneously measure turbidity of the nearshore water to link ship waves to sediment mobilization events. Bank line recession rates will also be monitored using high resolution surveying techniques. Sites with and without exposure to ship waves will be sampled to distinguish erosion due to ship waves versus other river erosion processes. The outcomes of this research will provide greater insight into St. Lawrence River sediment transport processes, which the River Institute has been researching for many years.

Statistical Perspectives on Drug SafetyScreening using Spontaneous Reporting Dataand Electronic Health Records

Screening spontaneous reporting (SR) or electronic health records (EHR) data sets for adverse drug reactions (ADRs) has become an important component of drug safety. Much methodological work has been historically done on SR data, however, novel approaches are continually being suggested which merit critical review. Thus, we will first investigate some of these approaches as well as consider the issues of drug-drug interactions in SR data. Next, we will address the analysis of EHR data from two perspectives. First, standard approaches to analyze time-to-event data can be employed ; however, misclassification of the study variable (misdiagnosis) can shift ADR risk estimates. We will use an internal validation sampling approach to derive adjusted methods of estimation to minimize this effect. Second, we propose to model EHR data from a multiple failure with competing risks framework. All approaches will be investigated through the use of large scale simulations. Finally, Risk Sciences International (RSI) will benefit from the development of a breadth of algorithms that can be used to search from potential problematic drugs in both types of data. Screening these data sets can be marketed to regulatory businesses in government or the private sector.

Development of a Portable Internal Welding Robot for Pipeline Applications

Welding robots have been employed in pipe connections for some time. However, robotic welders for pipeline welding have not been fully developed for massive pipeline connections. Because most current industrial welding robots are giant and stationary, workpieces have to be transferred to the robot’s site for welding, which is impossible for pipeline connections. In addition, due to the limited space inside the pipe and high operational space required by current robots, they cannot operate inside the pipe for internal seam welding. Thus, a new generation of portable welding robots dedicated to pipeline internal seam welding are required. The objective of this project is to develop a lightweight robot mechanism that can be mounted safely inside the pipelines and perform flawless welding on the internal seam. The proposed welding robot will improve weld quality with minimum operator interference, lowering operational costs by decreasing the setup time and labor hour

Impact of the addition of a newly developed bio-resin called Biofusion on the strength of concrete

Concrete—the most common construction material in the world—represents the main component of construction. Aggregate materials normally occupy about 70% of the concrete volume and their production results in excessive emission of carbon dioxide. One potential solution to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from the construction industry is to use the newly developed bio-resin Biofusion in the concrete mix. The benefits of Biofusion, such as being used as a sealant (Yang, 2020), have been previously studied, however, little attention has been paid to its use in the production of concrete and concrete blocks. Therefore, the overarching aim of this work is to study the effect of using Biofusion as an additive in concrete, the effect on its strength properties and to determine the optimal usage in conventional concrete applications.

Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy: Nisia Floresta

Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy is engaged in retrieving historical philosophical works of women and individuals from other marginalized groups and sustaining their presence in the history of philosophy. Our overall goal is to change the ways we do history of philosophy to enable the discipline to become more inclusive and diverse. The historical scope of the project includes the medieval period, the Renaissance, early modern period (17th and 18th centuries), and the 19th and early 20th centuries (up to 1940). As part of our effort to transform the history of philosophy we are building open-access digital resources to aid future research, the incorporation of findings into curriculum, and to preserve the diversity of our intellectual past. This research project will involve developing digital resources associated with a specific woman philosopher of the past: Nísia Floresta [Dionísia Gonçalves Pinto] (1810-1885).