Projets novateurs réalisés

Closing the Gap: A Study of the Implementation and Effectiveness of theYouth in Transition (YouIT) Intensive Case Management Services.

This evaluation will investigate the implementation and effectiveness of the integrated

community mental health services for youth and young adults with mental health and

addiction problems. The evaluation will entail two distinct pieces of research: (1) an

evaluation of the implementation of the program and (2) an evaluation of the outcomes of

participants in the program. The implementation evaluation will be conducted to describe how

the program was implemented, and to evaluate the fidelity of the program. The second part

of the research will examine the outcomes of clients over the course of their involvement in

the program. The data for the outcome evaluation will be collected through the administration

information system, and through self-reported client data. If the evaluation is found to be

effective, the approach could be replicated by partner organizations allowing them to better

serve their clients.

Establishment of bovine embryonic cells derived from blastocyst for producing high quality cloned embryo

Nuclear transfer is a technique to clone animals of the same trait and it is industrially very valuable to clone animals of excellent traits. However, there is no standardized technology to secure, store and supply enough quantities of superior genetics to clone elite farm animals so it has limitation to use in industry field. Although various studies have been conducted and reported in humans and murines, many studies have not yet been conducted on farm animals. Therefore, we will conduct an overall optimization study on securing superior genetics such as cell establishment methods, low-genetic mutation culture protocols and cryopreservation methods. And we will produce cloned animals using genetics from optimized systems. This will result in improved efficiency of cloned animal production through optimization of genetics securing technology and preservation technology, which will lead to subsequent research and industrial technology development.

Handheld Histories: Collecting, Modding, and Playing the Portable Platform

Thirty years after its landmark 1989 release, Nintendo’s Game Boy and its long line of successors continue to capture the imagination of thousands of players who harbor a nostalgic attraction to the technologies of their youth. Montreal-based Retro Modding has developed a profitable business modifying (or “modding”) old video game handhelds and selling them alongside tools and parts for do-it-yourself projects. These alterations combine today’s expectations for consumer electronics (like backlights and rechargeable batteries) with the iconic form factors of early handhelds. This research project, which documents Retro Modding’s history and its position within a larger gaming community, believes mods have a lot to say about the way people use their video game hardware in ways that exceed what Nintendo and other hardware manufacturers intended. This project investigates how practices of repair and modification emerge out of social, cultural, aesthetic and even environmental contexts, changing the way we think about video games and about obsolete technologies more generally.

Mixed Supports in Chemical Looping

The subject of this project is to investigate the use of various materials in chemical looping combustion on a bench scale. The University of Manchester in Manchester, the United Kingdom will be hosting me during a 3-month internship. The main purpose of this work is to improve the efficiency of the capturing process and lower the cost to obtain a good alternative when dealing with CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. I will study the effects of theses material on many factors such as stability, durability as well as reactivity and investigate the type of gases released during the reaction and their perspective concentrations. At the end of the study I expect to obtain results comparable to the smaller scale that has been tested and verify that the reactor produces the right gases (which are CO2 and vapor water).

Improvement of the Robotic System for Stereotactic Neurosurgery in the MRI-guided process

In the MRI-guided stereotactic surgery, a robotic system is applied to assist the efficient workflow, process accuracy and safety. An important issue in the robot system is that the MRI closed-hole design limits its dimensional requirements and flexibility. In this project, a conceptual design will be proposed to reduce the robot size and increase its flexibility. The proposed design will be better used in conjunction with MRI scanners for the brain stereotactic surgery. Cubresa Inc. dedicates to the development of brain PET and intraoperative nuclear magnetic technology. The proposed robotic system will be compatible with a new generation of intraoperative nuclear magnetic scanner developed by Cubresa Inc. The project will provide innovative technologies for the brain disease treatment.

Straits Salish Plant Stewardship in the 21st Century:Cultivating Co-management Relationships in BC

This research supports the T’Sou-ke Nation to re-establish connections with culturally important native plant species cultivated and stewarded by traditional T’Sou-ke peoples for food, medicine and technology and to store this information in database and maps. The product of this research will be accessed when T’Sou-ke consider both large, economic development projects proposed within their territory, and for plant harvesting opportunities (for food and commercial purposes) by their members. Using community engaged methods alongside of ethnography, mapping and vegetation surveys, the Intern will establish the breadth and depth of plant use and management in T’Sou-ke’s traditional food system at the time of contact with Europeans, and suggest how the T’Sou-ke’s current interests in these plant species can be accommodated now and in the future.

Conception d’un circuit d’extraction des caractéristiques de commutation des transistors SiCMOS et GaN

Avec l’avènement des véhicules électriques et les énergies photovoltaïques sur les réseaux électriques, il est maintenant requis de convertir l’énergie sous différentes formes. Cette conversion s’effectue par l’utilisation de convertisseurs de puissance qui permettent de relier les différents éléments sur le réseau (batteries d’auto, cellules photovoltaïques,…) Comme élément de contrôle principal, ces convertisseurs utilisent des semi-conducteurs de puissance. En fonction du type de semi-conducteur utilisé, il est possible de réduire substantiellement la taille du convertisseur tout en augmentant son efficacité. Depuis quelques années, des nouveaux types de semi-conducteurs de puissance à faibles pertes sont apparus sur le marché (les GaN et les SiCMOS.) Puisqu’il s’agit de technologies récentes, il est important de bien comprendre les caractéristiques de ces dispositifs. L’objectif de ce projet est donc de développer une approche permettre d’effectuer la caractérisation des différents produits commerciaux basés sur ces semi-conducteurs.

Non-invasive brain stimulation enhanced motor learning and resting state functional connectivity in typically developing children and children with perinatal stroke

How non-invasive brain stimulation works is poorly understood. Advanced neurotechnologies are providing new opportunities to explore transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) mechanisms. Ironically, the developing brain is more “plastic” and highly capable of change, yet tDCS mechanisms are almost exclusive to adults. Though treatment options are limited, we recently demonstrated for the first time that tDCS and High Definition-tDCS enhance motor learning in healthy children. I will to learn an established neuroimaging method of analysis, FMRIB software (FSL), a comprehensive neuroimaging tool created at Oxford University and highly used for the analysis of tDCS, motor learning, and imaging projects in both healthy adolescents/adults and persons with stroke. This project will allow a resting functional connectivity baseline to be established in healthy children. The findings will be applied to our current CIHR-funded phase 3, multicenter, randomized, clinical trial on tDCS in children with perinatal stroke, the largest cross Canada clinical trial.

Analysis of the potential for carbon offsets in North American Tribal Lands

The research objectives for this proposed Mitacs project are to identify the forested

Tribal Lands in the US that hold the most promise for participating in the developing

regional US and Canadian offset markets. The partner organization is Offsetters Clean

Technology, a BC based company with expertise in carbon management and advisory

services in Canada. This project will ultimately result in the creation of a new line of

business for the company focused on First Nations and tribes outside of British

Columbia. The successful completion of this project will result in publishable research

outcomes for the company, in partnership with UBC, continuing a strong tradition of

knowledge translation.

Quantification of Intra-Host Diversity of Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV-1) Infecting Atlantic and Chinook Salmon in BC

The decline in many populations of wild Pacific salmon is of great concern given their critical importance to First Nations, the ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest, and wild and farmed fisheries. The conservation efforts of the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) have provided opportunity for research into infectious diseases like Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) and jaundice/anemia that may contribute to these declines. Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) causes HSMI in Norwegian Atlantic salmon. Recently detected HSMI in BC farmed Atlantic salmon, links between PRV and disease in Pacific species, and healthy PRV-infected salmon, have called into question the threat PRV poses to BC salmon health. When a virus infects a salmon and begins copying, errors are made, which leads to a variety of genome sequences that can have different biological effects. This research investigates previously overlooked genetic diversity of viral populations to help PSF explain differences in HSMI symptoms among salmon populations to inform industry practices, future research, and governmental policy.

High Energy, Range extending battery for Electrical Vehicles (HERA-EV)

We can deal with the daunting challenges of depleting fossil fuels as-well-as the toxic and greenhouse gases emitted from the gasoline/diesel driven vehicles by replacing their internal combustion engine with rechargeable batteries. This project focuses on the development of an all-metal-free and biocompatible rechargeable battery system that will compete with the existing counterparts (Lithium-ion batteries, LIBs) in Electric Vehicles (EVs) currently under development. We herein propose to design and develop dendrite-free organic anode, porous air-cathode, and solid-biopolymer electrolyte based solid-state batteries, having high energy density, enhanced service-lifetime, lightweight, cheaper and much safer than LIBs. This new metal-free, low-cost and solid-state rechargeable battery system when equipped in Ford vehicles (Ford is the industrial partner in this project) will not only enhance their driving range between consecutive recharge but will also provide a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to deal with the environmental problems and rising energy demands in the automotive sector.

Development of an IoT-enabled Controlled-environment Indoor Plant Growth Prototype

The proposed project will establish an echo-system consisting of various environmental sensors and actuators and how they can be integrated to build a prototype indoor garden for demonstration purposes. Through utilizing IoT-enabled sensory data from image and environmental sensors, one can obtain relevant information about plant growth in real-time or use the data for a posteriori analysis. The large number of generated data will be used to create mathematical signatures that can be used for a variety of applications such as detecting anomalies in the growth process. The prototype will be used to investigate challenging problems in controlled environment agriculture such as resource optimization (electricity, water, and nutrients) in the area of intelligent ho