Projets novateurs réalisés

« Les protocoles de consultation autochtones, le consentement libre, préalable et éclairé et des traditions juridiques autochtones au Canada et au Brésil : une perspective pluraliste – Études de cas brésilien »

Depuis 2014, au Brésil, les peuples autochtones élaborent des protocoles de consultation et de consentement pour les projets d’extraction et de développement qui seront réalisés sur leur territoire. Ces protocoles peuvent être fondés sur leurs traditions juridiques et leur interprétation des droits des peuples autochtones reconnues par le droit national et international. Ce projet de recherche souhaite comprendre comment les peuples autochtones du Brésil évaluent les processus de consultation et de consentement libre, préalable et éclairé (CLPE) qui suivent ou qui ont suivi leurs protocoles. Ce projet vise à répondre aux problématiques suivantes : comment les peuples autochtones évaluent-ils ces processus de CLPE? Considèrent-ils que l’État brésilien et les entreprises respectent leurs protocoles? Leurs protocoles les ont-ils aidés à être mieux consultés et à donner (ou non) leur consentement? Quels sont les principaux enseignements que l’on pourrait tirer de la mise en œuvre de ces protocoles? Et comment les leçons apprises pourraient-elles aider à créer de meilleures conditions pour la réussite de la CLPE?

Optimal experimental design for enhanced oil recovery monitoring with electromagnetic remote sensing

The amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field can be increased by injecting gas or

water into the reservoir. This process, generically-termed enhanced oil recovery (EOR), can be

monitored using geophysical remote sensing techniques. In this project we will focus on monitoring of

EOR gas injection with time-domain electromagnetics (TDEM). TDEM uses electric and magnetic

fields induced in the earth to make inferences about the distribution of subsurface electrical

conductivity. We will develop techniques for recovering three-dimensional conductivity models from

observed TDEM data. In addition, we will examine how TDEM sensors can best be deployed to

recover high resolution conductivity models during gas injection

Optimal Initial Conditions for the Zeroth Law of Turbulence

In this research project, we wish to further understand turbulent flows and the laws that govern them. In particular, we hope to mathematical understand the phenomenon known as “anomalous dissipation” or the “zeroth law of turbulence”. This anomalous dissipation refers to when the viscosity coefficient in a fluid approaches zero, the rate of energy dissipation in the system approaches a nonzero limit. Although this shown been experimental, it is still yet to be understood from a physical and mathematical sense. In this research project, we propose to use an optimization approach to try and further understand this phenomenon. In this approach, we intend on combining the tools of scientific computing and mathematical analysis, to give insight to old-standing open problem. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of turbulent flows, this work will have a significant impact on several fields such as engineering and fluid mechanics.

The impact of public SME finance on R&D and innovation

It is well-known that the growth of young firms accounts for a disproportionate share of employment growth and the associated economic welfare. In Canada and Japan, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent around 99.7 percent of each country’s total firms and over 70 percent of each country’s total employment. However, SMEs are known to suffer from difficulties in accessing external financing, especially those that invest in R&D and innovation activities. Government initiatives targeting SMEs and those that invest in these riskier activities have been adopted worldwide to address their financing difficulties. The limited research on this topic has utilized outdated datasets within a single country context. This research project seeks to address these limitations by investigating the impact of public funding on R&D and innovation for start-up SMEs using more recent data and lead to a comparative study between two countries, Japan and Canada. Overall, this research seeks to shed light for policymakers on effective channels of funding for SMEs.

The influence of absolute strength on metaboreflex activation

Premenopausal women typically have lower blood pressure responses to static exercise compared to age matched men despite similar relative exercise intensity. Some research attributes this difference to an innate effect of biological sex due to differences in metabolism and sympathetic transduction, but work from our lab shows that matching for muscle strength abolishes within and between sex differences in blood pressure responses. This might be due to a matching of the muscle metaboreflex between men and women with similar strength, a pathway occurring during exercise which increases blood pressure from accumulation of metabolites. We propose to study the influence of the metaboreflex in mediating strength based differences in exercising blood pressure responses by measuring blood pressure during static leg exercise with and without partial vascular occlusion to increase metaboreflex activity, and to compare the responses between men and women. We hypothesize that increasing metaboreflex activation in women will match the blood pressure responses to that of men, and that in strength matched men and women increased metaborefelx activation will result in similar increases in blood pressure during exercise.

Prédisposition génétique à la neutropénie liée au traitement chez les patients atteints de leucémie infantile

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common malignant tumour in childhood. Over the years, the treatment of ALL has improved considerably. Intensive chemotherapy administered during the treatment protocol is nevertheless associated with adverse drug reactions. One of the adverse reactions associated with several anti-leukemic drugs is severe neutropenia, leading to life-threatening infections or frequent treatment interruptions. Genetic factors could influence the risk of neutropenia by modulating the progression of the disease and/or the effects of drugs. In this project, an association study between neutropenia and infections in children with LAL (whether or not these complications or their frequency occur) and genotypes of genetic variants will be conducted. Data on neutropenia and infections will be collected through hospital databases and medical records. The identification of polymorphisms that can predict the progression of treatment complications can help in the development of individualized treatment strategies that reduce the risk of toxicity.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Dense gas in the galaxy merger NGC3256

Any physical processes that we aim to study in space have probably been influenced at some point by the process of star formation. Whether it be the interstellar gas and dust, the formation of clusters of stars, or galaxy evolution, star formation plays a role as a strong driving force for the physics behind these fields of research. In this project, we will use observational data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to study and compare the properties of two molecules, HCN and CN, in three nearby galaxies. HCN has been shown to trace the dense gas in which stars are forming, while CN is less understood but connected to HCN through chemical evolution. The goals of this project are to identify physical properties, such as temperatures and densities, of HCN and CN using multiple transition lines, compare the spatial distributions of the abundance ratios of the two molecules throughout the galaxies, and compare the results to the literature to offer support for or against existing ideas about where these molecules are dominant and the physical mechanisms producing the observed abundance ratios.

Paramétrisation des modèles climatiques de surface continentale à l’aide du code hydrologique intégré HydroGeoSphere. Application à différents bassins d’Amérique du Nord et d’Afrique de l’Ouest.

Les modèles climatiques de surface continentale utilisent une discrétisation spatiale de l’ordre de la centaine de kilomètres et reposent sur l’hypothèse de flux hydrologiques essentiellement verticaux. Ce choix, guidé par des raisons de temps de calcul, conduit à négliger la variabilité hydrologique sous maille et, de ce fait, à proposer des lois et paramètres effectifs pour la maille de surface continentale difficilement justifiables, car éloignés de ce qui est observé et mesuré localement. Pour remédier à ce problème, nous avons mis au point une stratégie de changement d’échelle qui permet, a priori, d’améliorer ces paramétrisations. Cette stratégie doit être validée à l’aide de simulations fines de bassins versants effectuées avec le code numérique HydroGeoSphere développé à l’Université Laval. Les bassins proposés se situent sur le continent Nord-Américain et en Afrique de l’ouest.

Workplace Resilience Training: Evaluating the impact of the Be Fit at Work program on individual and organizational outcomes

This research has two main foci: (1) resilience and resilience intervention and (2) workplace dignity. The first main focus of this project is to evaluate Air Institute’s current evidence-informed Pathway to Resilience program, specifically their effectiveness in impacting the key resilience factors targeted in each workshop. This research will also examine data in order to identify certain resiliency factor correlations and/or profiles in order to provide more value to current organizational reports and key insights. Furthermore, this project will develop and deliver online resilience resources (designed in an online course format) based on Air Institutes’ Be Fit at Work program and examine whether this alternative program delivery method can impact the same outcomes as the original in-person workshop intervention model. The second main focus of this project is to validate a newly developed measure of workplace dignity that can eventually be used for additional research and organizational assessment purposes. This project will examine the relationships (both cross-sectionally and longitudinally) between workplace dignity and other important workplace constructs such as mental well-being. All data will come from a mix of cross-sectional and longitudinal self-report surveys.

Supporting Scientific Computing with Parallel Architectures

Our long-term agenda associated with this two year proposal is to address the needs of researchers

working with large-scale scientific applications through our contributions to highly parallelized system

infrastructure software. At the application level, we are targeting real-world projects such as the

computational demands associated with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions and NEPTUNE

Canada. Additionally, emerging needs that deeply integrate privacy with these solutions, such as

electronic health care records and Aboriginal natural resource management, are also part of our

longer-term research agenda. At the infrastructure level, we have established partnerships with three

key experienced system developers using Cell BE architecture—Electronic Arts (EA), Los Almos

Research Center and Yellow Dog Linux. Working with these experts, we will incorporate their

feedback into tool support and application development for the 20 node Cell BE cluster we have at

UVic. Our research will establish tradeoffs with our approaches versus commodity systems in terms

of terms of performance, quality of….TOBECONTINUED

Decolonization, engagement and multi-sectoral collaboration from an urban Indigenous perspective.

The research project will look at how EndPoverty Edmonton has engaged with the diverse Indigenous population that lives in Edmonton on their interests and perspectives on eliminating poverty. Indigenous peoples and communities continue to experience social and economic inequality as compared to other Canadians. Their social and economic inequality can be linked to the impacts colonization which has marginalized Indigenous peoples and require them to conform to the cultural values of mainstream society. Increasingly, Indigenous peoples are calling for increased control and influence over those issues that affect them. Potential benefits to EndPoverty Edmonton include understanding ways to incorporate Indigenous interests and perspectives in the development and implementation of their engagement strategies and in their collaboration with Indigenous peoples.

Developing Gaze and Movement Key Performance Indicators for User Experience Assessment

There’s nothing quite as delightful as using a well-designed product, especially a piece of software. A field of research known as User eXperience (UX) tries to define measures that describe what a good design feels like. While conventional measures of UX for software work well (how long things take, whether or not you complete your task successfully), we suggest that tracking your eye and hand will reveal other useful information. These easy-to-get measures, which we call Gaze and Movement Assessment Key Performance Indicators (GaMA KPI), are calculated from where the eyes look, how the hand moves and their coordination, to tell us how the user’s experience is going. The videogame Anthem will be used as a tool to assess the feasibility and usefulness of these GaMA KPI. We hope to demonstrate that GaMA KPI are useful measures to collect during the design process in the development of a software product.