Innovative Projects Realized

Global Initiative to Reduce Obesity and Sedentary lifestyles

The purpose of this project is to ultimately decrease the likelihood of permanent sedentary lifestyles for at risk individuals. This includes overweight and obese men and women who are at risk of chronic diseases, and are in danger of excluding themselves permanently from active lifestyles. By developing and testing individualized behavior changing methodologies, this project aims to improve citizen engagement in active lifestyles. Although the solution to the growing epidemic of obesity is simple (exercise and healthy diet), there are many underlying factor that prevent those at risk to take the preliminary steps to adopt healthy habits. This study aims to provide knowledge for the reasons for sedentary lifestyle, and provides methods for at-risk individuals to make changes in an achievable, effective, and motivational way. The multidisciplinary nature of this research initiative allows for a holistic approach with expertise from different areas to ensure an integrated and comprehensive analysis and conclusions.

Debromination and recycling of styrenic polymers

Polystyrene is a non-biodegradable polymer whose versatility has expanded its applicability to consumer products such as packaging and electronic components. For this reason, end-of-life polystyrene has become an environmental burden and recycling is an alternative to close the cycle of this material, preventing it to reach landfills or to be openly dumped. However, high impact polystyrene (HIPS) is found in electric and electronic components containing brominated flame retardants. Those compounds must be removed from HIPS as hazardous compounds can be released when treating it, which limits its recyclability.
This research project aims to extract the bromine compounds from HIPS using an alkali solvent-extraction at temperatures rounding 190 ºC. The procedure will prevent the degradation of the polystyrene and reduce the production of by-products like oils and waxes, thus, maintaining its after-treatment recyclability in regular process lines. TO BE CONT’D

Etude de l’impact sur le potentiel éducatif et sensoriel d’une technologie immersive : modélisation 3D de la ville historique de Paris

Le projet a pour objectif de tester une projection immersive dans la voûte de la Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT) de Montréal. Il s’agit d’un dôme immersif de 18 mètres de diamètre. Une modélisation 3D de la ville de Paris au 19e siècle sera exposée et il sera possible de s’y déplacer à l’aide d’une manette de réalité virtuelle. L’organisation partenaire souhaite tester l’efficacité de cette technologie pour les utilisateurs et pour les concepteurs.
Le premier objectif de cette recherche est de tester l’interface de conception immersive et d’améliorer l’expérience vécue. Le second objectif vise à déterminer si la technologie immersive transmet mieux les notions historiques à son utilisateur qu’un support traditionnel (2D). Les résultats du premier volet sur l’outil de conception vont donner des informations très pertinentes pour la SAT quant aux pistes d’amélioration possibles pour simplifier au maximum cette interface.
Pour le second objectif, des résultats positifs ouvriraient d’énormes opportunités dans le domaine de l’éducation. Par exemple, en utilisant ce type de projection en tant qu’outil éducatif, pour transmettre des connaissances à des étudiants en histoire avec un aspect hédonique et interactif.

Modelling and Verifying Dynamic Properties of Biological Neural Networks in Coq

Formal verification involves with proving properties about a system to make sure that the system is not free of bugs. There are two main methods for verification which are called model checking and theorem proving. Most current approaches to systems biology rely on model checking. Model checking is more automatic but not as general and often must rely on special values and cases. Theorem provers can verify models for arbitrary size, input, and time. In our approach, we use Coq proof assistant to create and verify a model of neural networks. Verifying biological system is a new field of research. A biological system can be from a single cell to whole body of a live creature. Most research in this field focuses on a particular organ. Our research is based on providing a general verified model for human neural networks using Coq proof assistant. TO BE CONT’D

Photosynthetic acclimation of tobacco (Nicotiana sp.) under drought and nitrogen stress

Photosynthesis and respiration are major processes that influence the carbon cycle and will be impacted by future changes in precipitation. Short-term exposure to drought can decrease photosynthetic rates and growth, but plants can acclimate and adjust to water deficits over the long-term by changing their leaf physiology. The rate of acclimation may depend on nitrogen availability, which is necessary to synthesize enzymes. Photosynthetic acclimation can also be influenced by stress memory, where drought preconditioning enhances tolerance to future drought events. However, there are limited studies that examine the photosynthetic rates of plants under long-term drought stress, and carbon uptake models often do not account for drought acclimation, potentially underestimating CO2 uptake by plants. We expect that photosynthetic capacity will initially decline during drought, but photosynthetic rates will recover with prolonged exposure. We also predict that higher N and prior exposure to drought will enhance the ability of plants to acclimate.

Burkholderia Ability to Cross Stinkbug Constricted Region

The goal of the research is to determine which genes in microbes of the genus Burkholderia allow them to cross a barrier in stinkbug guts which blocks any other microbes. Mutant clones of the microorganism will be prepared to deactivate genes suspected of playing a role in allowing passage of Burkholderia in the gut. These mutants will then be fluorescenty labeled and inoculated in a host bean bug. The fluorescence has for goal to easily record the spreading of the microbes in their host. Mutants which will be unable to cross the barier will indicate that said gene plays a pivotal role in allowing passage of Burkholderia to regions of the gut posetrior to the barrier. The relationship between Burkholderia and stinkbugs enhances both of their survival.
Understanding this relationship is therefore crucial tool to deal with stinkbug, who are an important agricultural pest.

Immigrant Identity, Belonging & Integration in a settler society vs. ethnic nation

The research aims to compare and contrast the integration and ‘belonging’ of newcomers in Canada and Germany through following research questions:
• Canada is considered to be a “settler colony”, and Germany an “ethnic
nation”. How does this affect their immigration policies and integration of
newcomers?
• How do the newcomers identify themselves in these ‘multicultural’
countries?
• Since 2015, both the countries have seen a shift in the national discourse
and a rise in Right-wing populism. With increasing number of immigrants,
how will their integration look like in such a polarized environment?

In order to answer the following questions, the relation between migration, settlement, displacement and subordination of Indigenous peoples (historically and even today) will be studied through political, social and historical lens.

Validation de divers algorithmes de reconnaissance de cristauxappliqués à la tomographie d’émission par positrons.

La tomographie d’émission par positrons (TEP) chez le petit animal présente des défis par

rapport à son pendant clinique, particulièrement au niveau de la résolution spatiale. Une

façon de minimiser ce problème est d’utiliser deux cristaux scintillateurs par photodétecteur

pour améliorer la résolution sans augmenter le nombre de voies électroniques. Cette astuce

permet d’améliorer la résolution à faible coût, mais nécessite de bons algorithmes

d’identification des cristaux afin d’obtenir la meilleure précision possible. Plusieurs

algorithmes ont déjà été conçus et testés par simulation, mais n’ont jamais été implantés

dans les tomographes. L’objectif de ce stage est de faire l’inventaire de tous ces algorithmes,

de les tester avec différents types de cristaux pour identifier les plus performants et de

procéder à leur implantation sur les scanners LabPET. Des modules de détection basés sur

de nouveaux scintillateurs seront aussi testés afin d’éprouver les algorithmes de

discrimination choisis.

Urban ecosystem service valuation: Exploring participatory greenspace planning processes that support more equitable outcomes for residents of the Greater Toronto Area

How urban residents perceive and value nature within our cities shapes how we manage it for current and future generations. Given the diversity of perspectives and beliefs brought to bear on an urban system, we can expect that not everyone will enjoy nature the same way, or for the same reasons. If democracy is our goal, then we must create processes that allow people to express their opinions about where they want greenspace, what they want to use if for, and how it ought to be managed. When disagreements or trade-offs arise, we need to be able to navigate a path forward that fairly considers all options. This research will explore novel decision-making tools that are designed to encourage stakeholder deliberation about management choices for greenspace in cities. The intent is to provide planners and greenspace managers with tools and knowledge that will support more participatory and inclusive land use planning.

Using observational learning to examine retrograde interference when learning with different limbs.

People have to constantly adapt the way they move to achieve their daily goals. For example, an individual needs to use more force when walking through water than on dry land, and further adapt the direction of those forces if the water develops a current. Similar adaptations are needed when wearing a new pair of gloves, using a new tool such as a golf club or hammer, or when moving in virtual reality for the first time. In many situations, motor adaptations suffer from a strong presence of retrograde interference (i.e., competition between the previous and the to-be-learned movement pattern which negatively affects the learning of the new movement). The proposed project will determine if observational practice (watching someone else perform a task) can eliminate the potentially negative after-effect experienced when learning to adapt to a new movement environment. Observational practice might help limit this retrograde interference effect because the processes that underlie observational learning are similar to, but different in important ways from the processes that lead to learning when people physically practice a movement. The results of this study will help us understand the learning process and, as a result.. TBC

pH equilibrated water for pets

VETWATER (Sainte-Brigide-d’Iberville, QC) produces pet equilibrated water under the commercial name of “VETWATER urinary solution for cats” (VC), which helps preventing urinary crystals and stones (urolithiasis) by equilibrating pH strictly in the 6.2-6.4 range. Besides urolithiasis, feline lower urinary tract diseases (FLUTDs) affect the urinary bladder and urethra of cats without any obvious underlying cause- so called “feline idiopathic cystitis” (FIC). Differently, depending on various patterns, dogs are prone to urolithiasis either due to struvite (pH< 6.4) or cysteine, oxalate and urate (pH > 7.0), requiring the formulations of two different “VETWATER urinary solution for dogs” (VD). VETWATER aims at launching on the market two new product lines. i) A new VC that prevents a wider spectrum of urinary pathologies in cats, i.e. urolithiasis and FIC at the same time, by the addition of LT to the current commercial formulation; ii) A new VD line with pH balanced either at 6.2-6.4 or 7.1-7.4 and containing bioactive antioxidants at the same time. In this project we formulate stable “VETWATER urinary solution for cats” and “VETWATER urinary solution for dogs” that minimize urolithiasis by equilibrating the pH and TBC.

Endogenous pain modulation in patients with knee osteoarthritis