Projets novateurs réalisés

Simultaneous Functional Calcium Imaging with Quartet® for studying odor memory circuits and developing second generation Quartet® – Year two

Episodic memory refers to an ensemble of memory processes and is the capacity to recollect where and when past events occurred, which involves subjective consciousness and a sense of time in retrieving past experiences. The hippocampus is essential for representing spatiotemporal context and establishing its association with the sensory details of daily life to form episodic memories and the olfactory cortex shares exclusive anatomical connections with the hippocampus as a result of their common evolutionary history. This makes olfaction a privileged sense for accessing memories. The AON receives unidirectional, monosynaptic inputs from the CA1 and it has been shown that hippocampal inputs to the AON can alter olfactory perception and odour-guided behaviors. The HPC-AON pathway provides a novel circuit model for studying fundamental aspects of human episodic memory. Here we propose to develop optical imaging methods for studying odor memory circuit. simultaneous image acquisition using Quartet® to monitor neuronal activity between the ventral hippocampus and AON. This will help to understand the circuit mechanisms between the ventral hippocampus and olfactory cortex and also demonstrate that odour memory information is delivered by hippocampal inputs to the AON. We also propose to develop second generation Quartet® (Ver.2) with improved accessories.

Simultaneous Functional Calcium Imaging with Quartet® for studying odor memory circuits and developing second generation Quartet®

Episodic memory refers to an ensemble of memory processes and is the capacity to recollect where and when past events occurred, which involves subjective consciousness and a sense of time in retrieving past experiences. The hippocampus is essential for representing spatiotemporal context and establishing its association with the sensory details of daily life to form episodic memories and the olfactory cortex shares exclusive anatomical connections with the hippocampus as a result of their common evolutionary history. This makes olfaction a privileged sense for accessing memories. The AON receives unidirectional, monosynaptic inputs from the CA1 and it has been shown that hippocampal inputs to the AON can alter olfactory perception and odour-guided behaviors. The HPC-AON pathway provides a novel circuit model for studying fundamental aspects of human episodic memory. Here we propose to develop optical imaging methods for studying odor memory circuit. simultaneous image acquisition using Quartet® to monitor neuronal activity between the ventral hippocampus and AON. This will help to understand the circuit mechanisms between the ventral hippocampus and olfactory cortex and also demonstrate that odour memory information is delivered by hippocampal inputs to the AON. We also propose to develop second generation Quartet® (Ver.2) with improved accessories.

Experiences and perceptions of newcomer women navigating sexual and reproductive health in Metro Vancouver: Facilitators and barriers to access for screening, treatment and care of HIV & STI

As the number of im/migrant women in British Columbia (BC) continues to grow – the majority of whom are of reproductive age- there is a need to ensure that im/migrant women have adequate access to healthcare, including sexual health services. While BC is one of Canada’s top destinations for im/migrants, robust evidence regarding im/migrant women’s access to sexual health screenings (e.g., HIV, sexually transmitted infections) is particularly lacking. This study will assess the experiences and perceptions of im/migrant women on access to HIV & STI services, and will elucidate im/migration-related structural barriers and facilitators to inequities in navigating and accessing these services. The partner university for this work is Simon Fraser University and the partner organization is the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE), an independent research centre at Providence Health Care whose mandate is to advance gender and sexual health equity for marginalized populations by informing policy and practice with the best available science. CGSHE is comprised of a diverse team of researchers, clinicians, community-based staff, trainees, and policy and community-based partners with diverse expertise in the areas of im/migrant health, HIV/STIs, clinical and community-based im/migrant support, and clinical practice.

Nuclear Generation Emissions and Aquatic Biota

The interns will improve the scientific understanding of the biological effects of thermal and

radiological emissions that may have impacts on aquatic environments. Thermal emissions fi-om the

generating station may have impacts on developing fish embryos in local populations. Research will

include development offield monitoring as well as laboratory experiments. Additionally, low-levels of

historic and current radiological emissions may be detectable in aquatic organisms; if concentrated in

the food chain, these emissions may have unrecognized impacts. Post-doctoral fellowship interns will

develop a research program to determine potential environmental impacts that will suppOli Bruce

Power’s objectives to maintain the lowest levels of environmental impacts.

Understanding how river bank side slopes and sediment size control failure thresholds in steep streams – Year two

Northwest Hydraulic Consultants Ltd. (NHC) is often involved in the restoration and design of steep streams. To date when assessing these river channels, NHC has relied upon experimental results conducted with fixed vertical river banks and a series of assumptions have been used to figure out how to make river channels with sloped banks. These assumptions introduce risk into the design process and likely result in the rock used to make the channel banks being over-sized. We plan to address this issue through a combination of physical experiments and field data collection. In this project we will (a) run experiments in the UBC laboratory facilities under different channel geometries (such as channel width and bank angle) and particle size conditions, (b) inform and validate experiments with field data collected in British Columbia and (c) update the design tools used by NHC to design steep channels. As part of this research project the water velocity, water depth, river bank angles, and range in sediment size will be evaluated. The project will increase our knowledge on the factors that influence stability of mountain streams and produce a quantitative design tool readily available for fluvial geomorphologists.

Understanding how river bank side slopes and sediment size control failure thresholds in steep streams

Northwest Hydraulic Consultants Ltd. (NHC) is often involved in the restoration and design of steep streams. To date when assessing these river channels, NHC has relied upon experimental results conducted with fixed vertical river banks and a series of assumptions have been used to figure out how to make river channels with sloped banks. These assumptions introduce risk into the design process and likely result in the rock used to make the channel banks being over-sized. We plan to address this issue through a combination of physical experiments and field data collection. In this project we will (a) run experiments in the UBC laboratory facilities under different channel geometries (such as channel width and bank angle) and particle size conditions, (b) inform and validate experiments with field data collected in British Columbia and (c) update the design tools used by NHC to design steep channels. As part of this research project the water velocity, water depth, river bank angles, and range in sediment size will be evaluated. The project will increase our knowledge on the factors that influence stability of mountain streams and produce a quantitative design tool readily available for fluvial geomorphologists.

Best Practices and Models for Open, Collaborative Scholarship in the Arts & Humanities

Open, digital scholarship in the Arts and Humanities is significant as a mechanism of Canada’s growing digital scholarly infrastructure for facilitating public access and engagement with research. But the path to adopting open, digital scholarship on a national scale has been challenging. Academic organizations like the not-for-profit Iter Canada are committed to facilitating the engagement of Canadian scholarship in global conversations. How do we do this in ways that speak to the needs of our communities, are open, effective and sustainable? This research program aims to study best practices for the development, maintenance, and sustainability of open digital scholarship for Arts- and Humanities-based collaborations.

I will collaborate with Iter Canada to facilitate the creation of dynamic, open, and data-driven websites for Arts and Humanities research communities. I will draw from my experiences with online digital collections and my professional experience in the digital humanities. The breadth of Iter Canada’ scholarly interests (Middle Ages, Renaissance) offers a significant but manageable scope within the Arts and Humanities. Working with Iter Canada will necessitate the understanding of humanities concepts and ways to realize them as technical solutions to answer research questions -in a way that ultimately benefits the Canadian research community.

LGBT+ Inclusion in Schools: A discourse analysis of the nature of inclusion with in the SOGI 123 programme and the UK’s LGBT+ inclusion policies

LGBT+ Inclusion in Schools: A discourse analysis of the nature of inclusion with in the SOGI 123 programme and the UK’s LGBT+ inclusion policies

Gelatin coated self-made manganese dioxide as cathode material in aqueous rechargeable zinc-ion battery

Aqueous rechargeable zinc ion battery is a competitive candidate for the energy storage system. Compared to lithium ion battery, it has several advantages: high safety, high energy density, low cost and environmental friendliness. From many cathode materials, manganese dioxide (MnO2) has been widely used because of the low cost, abundant resource and environment friendly features. With the MnO2 cathode, the battery will have high discharging capacity. Furthermore, if MnO2 is coated with gelatin, which is a kind of non-toxic biological macromolecule, the battery will be further stabilized and have longer cycle life. In our study, we will try to figure out at what percentage of the gelatin, the battery will have the best performance. Outcomes of this research will enable the partner organization to reduce production costs, increase the company’s profits, increase the size of the market and further increase the compatibility of the company itself within the energy industry.

LE PLUMITIF ACCESSIBLE

La présente demande concerne le chantier de recherche sur le « plumitif accessible » lequel s’inscrit dans l’axe Connaissance et conscience du droit du projet ADAJ (Accès au droit et à la justice) financé par le Conseil de recherche en sciences humaines (CRSH) en partenariat. En effet comprendre le contenu des plumitifs est un défi important. Au Québec, toute personne peut obtenir accès aux plumitifs relatifs à une instance civile ou criminelle. Il s’agit d’informations à caractère public. L’information disponible dans les plumitifs est aride et fragmentaire. Encore aujourd’hui, les plumitifs sont essentiellement consultés par des professionnels du droit, des personnes travaillant à l’administration de la justice ou des personnes faisant de la vérification d’antécédents judiciaires. Or, dans le contexte où le nombre de parties non représentées ne cesse d’augmenter, et que celles-ci devront inévitablement consulter un plumitif, devrait-on se préoccuper de la compréhension qu’elles ont des informations rendues disponibles ? Le projet consiste à évaluer la compréhension moyenne des justiciables et des professionnels du droit à la lecture d’un plumitif et à proposer des améliorations pour favoriser la compréhension et la lisibilité de ce document juridique.

Valuation Analysis of Canada’s Privately-Held Technology Companies

The goal of this project is to develop a financial model which will be used to value privately-held
technology companies in Canada. The research for the summer will be conducted with CoreGen
Capital Partners. Market participants typically pay a liquidity premium when investing in the public
market. The objectives of this research will be to accurately measure how investors determine the
illiquidity discounts and to incorporate those factors into a valuation model for private technology
companies in Canada. Valuation tools learned from coursework in the Master of Financial Economics
program and previous research on private market valuation will be implemented to complete this
research. The end result of the project will be a detailed report and an accompanying financial model
which will be built in Microsoft Excel. This research will streamline CoreGen’s valuation processes
and will increase the accuracy of their financial analyses.

Investigating the role of the deubiquitylating enzyme USP25 in cell cycle control

Proteins are molecular machines that function inside cells to regulate processes such as cell growth, division and death. Protein function is modified by the attachment of regulatory proteins such as ubiquitin. Ubiquitin modification is important in targeting proteins for destruction in the cell during cell division. Dysregulation of protein destruction can lead to inappropriate cell growth and cancer. Understanding normal protein function by modification enhances our understanding of biological processes, and identifies drugs with therapeutic value. This project will investigate how ubiquitin modification regulates cell growth and division by depleting the protein USP25 from the cell. USP25 controls the extent of ubiquitin modifications on proteins. We will investigate how USP25 functions in modulating ubiquitin on UbcH10, another protein that is important in controlling cell growth and division. This project will provide new insights into the fundamental role of USP25 in cell growth and division to help identify therapeutic anti-cancer drugs.