Projets novateurs réalisés

Effects of Geomechanical Heterogeneity on Wormhole Development During Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand – Phase 2

Canada possesses vast resources of heavy oil, which is oil that is too thick to flow through porous sandstone reservoirs and into production wells at economic rates when conventional operating practices are used. Since the mid 1980’s, heavy oil operators have demonstrated their ability to increase heavy oil production rates by encouraging the creation of porous and permeable zones (“wormholes”) within their reservoirs by allowing sand grains to detach from the reservoir rock and flow into the well (along with the oil). However, in order to improve the efficiency of these operations, a better understanding of the processes controlling wormhole growth is required. The proposed project involves construction of a novel laboratory testing system, and use this system to run experiments that will help us better understand wormholes in heavy oil reservoirs.

Effects of non-native dandelion on the reproductive success of Asteraceae-specialist bees

There is little known about the extent to which native bees can incorporate non-native plants into their diets, and the costs or benefits associated with their use. Many wild bees are dietary specialists, collecting pollen exclusively from certain plant families, and many specialists prefer pollen from the daisy (Asteraceae) family. In our high-elevation study system in the Colorado Rockies, non-native common dandelion flowers in early June, while most native Asteraceae species flower later. The Forrest lab has observed that bee eggs laid late in the season often don’t survive the winter, suggesting that the earlier availability of dandelion could provide a reproductive advantage to those Asteraceae specialists that use it. This study tests the success of bee larval development on dandelion pollen and explores whether those bees that use this early-flowering plant produce more offspring (have greater fitness) than other Asteraceae specialists. Determining the effects of this non-native species on bee reproductive success can help us to better understand the capacity of these native bees to adapt to changing conditions in their environment.

Inference faiblement supervisee de roles semantiques a partir de documentsspecialises

L’extraction d’information est un processus de structuration de I’information pertinente de documents et elle est

un element cle des applications gerees par KEATEXT. Elle est constituee de trois etapes : extraction des entites

nommees, identification de patrons d’extraction pour detecter leur role et fusion des informations des entites

autour d’evEmements. Ce stage est consacre a la deuxieme etape, celie de I’annotation semantique des

documents avec des roles. Ce probleme est tres difficile a traiter dans Ie cas general, mais nous pensons

pouvoir proposer une solution viable pour des domaines specialises, p.e. medical ou juridique. Les roles

representes par des classes semantiques sont dependants du domaine. Par exemple, pour des documents

composes d’actes notaries de ventes d’immeubles, ces roles pourraient etre Vendeur, Acheteur, Bien_achete,

MontanCde_ Vente.

Neonatal Imitation and Language Preference

This study will examine the relationship between language and communication in newborn infants. In the past, it has been found that newborns are able to imitate the facial expressions of adults. It has also been found that newborns generally prefer the sound of their mother’s native language(s). This study proposes to explore the connection between these two findings by testing whether infants are more likely to imitate an adult who is speaking their mother’s native language. It is expected that infants with monolingual mothers will be more likely to imitate the adult speaking their native language. Newborns with bilingual mothers, however, are expected not to show this bias when exposed to adults speaking both their native languages. The collection of data will take place in a maternity ward of a hospital and will include both monolingual speakers of French and bilingual speakers of French and English.

Effect of Exendin-4 on Cognitive Function in Down Syndrome

Down syndrome (DS) is caused by the presence of three copies of chromosome 21, leading to dementia in later life of the patients. DS patients develop characteristic Alzheimer’s pathologies, including the amyloid-beta plaque formation, tau hyperphosphorylationto form neurofibrillary tangles and abnormal synaptic function and plasticity. Growing evidence has shown that impaired insulin signaling plays a key role in the development of AD and also the pathophysiology of DS. Exendin-4, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist has been found to improve glucose homeostasis by promoting insulin signaling. In the current proposal, we attempt to investigate the protective effect of exendin-4 on neurons in DS and the role of insulin signaling in DS-induced cognitive deficits. This study will help us to define the mechanism underlying AD pathogenesis and the prevention and treatment of dementia in DS patients.

Charaterizing Effects of Dye on Microbubble Shells

In photoacoustic (PA) imaging, pulsed light irradiates a sample. Light-absorbing molecules experience a pressure rise and generate an ultrasound wave, from which, an image of the sample is obtained. If the image contrast is insufficient, contrast enhancement is applied by locally introducing stronger light absorbers. In ultrasound imaging (US), shelled gas bubbles are used to enhance contrast. Dyed-bubbles have been proven to be successful PA-US multimodal contrast agents. However, we propose that the process of dying these shells alters the efficacy of the bubbles in US. We aim to study the effects of dye on micro- and nano-sized bubbles on US imaging through computational and experimental methods. Using developed mathematical models, we will estimate the effect of dye on the shell and associated consequences to bubble dynamics. We will validate model results with experimental data. This approach has the potential to optimize bubbles as multimodal contrast agents for PA-US imaging.

Synthesis of Nanostructured Mesoporous Nickel Materials for Energy Storage Applications

With the advent of fuel cell technology, people began to believe implementation of a zero-emission energy system through the construction of a hydrogen-based energy infrastructure. The conventional system for hydrogen production is water electrolysis; however, the production cost is far too expensive for widespread adoption due to the usage of noble metals required as electrocatalysts. Thus, the enhancement of catalytic activity in the lower cost alternatives is of paramount importance. We aim to prepare nickel-based mesoporous materials, which are expected to dramatically reform the electrode function with their improved catalytic activity and surface reaction density. In addition to the comparative inexpensiveness, the high abundance of nickel is appropriate for heavy industry utilization and mass production. This enhancement promotes system function and encourages their acceptance for large-scale hydrogen industries. Eventually, the breakthrough will be the trigger that sets off an energy revolution shifting society towards renewable energy.

Effects of microplastics in soil food webs

Microplastics (Mps) are usually defined as plastic particles <5mm with benefits to human life, although they have become an environmental threat with potential negative interactions with organisms, therefore being considered one of the most important topics for biodiversity conservation. The effects of microplastics have been studied in aquatic systems, however, only a few have looked at the effects of Mps on soil organisms, and the consequences are still not well understood. Lately, increasing evidence has shown that microplastics are ubiquitous in soils and largely influenced by anthropogenic activities. In this study I will focus on mites and collembolans in soil systems because of their high potential for microplastic interactions and their importance role in ecosystem services. Effects of polyester and polyacrylic fibers on microarthropod communities, nutrients and decomposition will be addressed. With microplastics potentially being an issue in urban areas, this topic may also deserve attention of policy makers and regulatory bodies.

Ehrhart Theory on Arrangements of Hyperplanes

Hyperplanes can be thought of as codimension 1 affine subspaces of a given Euclidean space. Given an arrangement A of hyperplanes in R^d, the set of intersections of hyperplanes define a partially ordered set called intersection poset. The characteristic polynomial of A can then be defined using Mobius function of the intersection poset. One can recover some topological information about the complement of hyperplane arrangement from its characteristic polynomial. Some family of arrangements of interest are Catalan arrangements, Shi arrangements and Linial arrangements. Another way of recovering characteristic polynomial is finite field method, which involves counting points in the complement of good reduction of A. Recently, Yoshinaga used Ehrhart theoretic methods to give a uniform proof of Postnikov-Stanley conjectures on m-Linial arrangements. In this project, we would like to extend these methods to other problems of interest. We would also like to explore further into relation of characteristic polynomial and rook factorial polynomial.

The effect of speaker ethnicity and accent on speech processing and speaker evaluation

There is some evidence that people’s beliefs about how someone is ‘supposed to sound’ may affect how they perceive someone’s speech –to the extent of them hearing an accent that isn’t there. This response time study investigates in what ways “expected” and “unexpected” combinations of speaker ethnicity and accent can affect how speech is processed and evaluated. Because these kinds of expectations involving accent are highly culturally- and context-specific, one study was conducted in Vancouver with Japanese and Canadian speakers, while this proposed study will take place in the Netherlands. The reason for this cross-cultural approach is that while Vancouverites generally do not hold strong negative associations with Asian immigrants, Dutch natives DO hold strong negative attitudes toward Moroccan-Dutch immigrants.
For this Dutch replication study, the voices and faces of two white Dutch and two Moroccan-Dutch women will be mixed and matched to create 16 unique ‘speakers’ which together can provide insight into the question whether certain combinations of ethnicity and accent cause a delay in speech processing… To be continued.

Adaptive Algorithm for End Point Estimation in Steel Making Refining and its Industrial Application

In the steelmaking industry, process control models need to be based on a sound physical understanding of the process but should also account for many uncertainties due to the nature and complexity of the environment in which the process is carried out. As a result, it is crucial to extract useful process control information from the raw data stream acquired by the industrial sensors. The proposed project aims at developing advanced algorithms to improve the estimation of key control parameters in the Argon-Oxygen Decarburization (AOD) process, by leveraging on Machine Learning approaches and tools applied to manufacturing data. This research, while being a valuable training for a high-talented student in Canada, will help the partner organization Tenova Goodfellow Inc. in maintaining its leadership in process optimization applied to steel making furnaces.

Morphological investigation of adhesive blends and its effect on multilayer coating performance

In the pipeline industry, the heat shrink sleeves (HSS) are the protective layer usually composed of two layers, namely, an adhesive layer and a crosslinked backing layer such as polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE). In order to maintain the desired properties of HSS, each of the layers must maintain their properties during processing, storage, and installation. In partnership with Canusa-CPS, the proposed research aims at addressing the relationships between the morphological structure and interfacial strength of the adhesive layers with their performance. Combining the characterization, rheological and mechanical analysis, the proposed study will correlate the mechanical performance of the adhesives to their material, design and morphological parameters. The research will be beneficial to our partner in developing a new generation of adhesives.