Projets novateurs réalisés

Les afflictions et la guérison spirituelle en Côte d’Ivoire urbaine

Cette recherche porte sur les formes d’urbanité invisibles, la guérison spirituelle et les imaginaires de l’urbain dans la métropole d’Abidjan en Côte d’Ivoire. Au travers d’une perspective ouverte à la diversité des pratiques religieuses (animistes, chrétiennes et musulmanes) et des représentations culturelles des citadin.e.s sur les afflictions, la guérison et la santé présentes dans cette ville, cette étude analyse le caractère particulier et polymorphique des formes d’urbanité et de l’imaginaire de l’urbain à Abidjan. Cette recherche se base sur des recherches ethnographiques fondées sur l’observation participante conduites durant 25 mois en Côte d’Ivoire en 2016-2018 auprès de citadin.e.s et de guérisseurs de différentes confessions religieuses. Il est attendu de ce projet de recherche qu’il pose un nouveau regard sur les relations entre la spiritualité, la guérison et la santé et propose un cadre conceptuel original pour appréhender les contextes de pluralisme magico-religieux et thérapeutiques en milieux urbains postcoloniaux.

Développement de techniques analytiques de pointe pour l’analyse d’éléments traces dans des solutions concentrées à base de lithium

Nemaska Lithium Inc. est une compagnie québécoise innovatrice qui prévoit devenir un producteur important d’hydroxyde de lithium de haute pureté (grade batterie) sur le marché mondiale. Nemaska Lithium a développé un procédé de fabrication de l’hydroxyde de lithium de haute pureté en utilisant l’électrolyse membranaire, une méthode très sensible aux impuretés dans la solution initiale. Ces impuretés ont un impact direct sur la durée de vie et la performance de la cellule de l’électrolyse membranaire et la pureté du produit. De plus, l’entreprise désire proposer au marché de l’hydroxyde de lithium un produit qui sera de qualité supérieure par rapport aux produits existants. Pour y arriver, Nemaska doit utiliser des méthodes analytiques très précises, robustes et fiables.

Assessing the context of agroecological farming and enabling agroecological transitions in SC, Brazil

The industrial agri-food system is a major contributor to global environmental and social problems. One alternative with the potential to jointly address these issues is agroecology, defined as the application of ecological principles to the design of agricultural systems in a way that respects diverse local contexts. Yet farmers’ uptake of agroecological management practices has remained relatively low.

Using Santa Catarina, Brazil as a case study, I will investigate the factors that enable and constrain different farms when transitioning from industrial to agroecological management. While the research will be grounded in Brazil, the diversity found in this large agricultural nation allows for broad conclusions to be drawn about how and to what extent agroecology can be supported in other contexts. These insights will allow policymakers to build an enabling environment that better facilitates transitions toward a more sustainable, healthy, and just global food system.

Bitopic A1 Adenosine Receptor Ligands as Cardioprotective Agents

Adenosine is a naturally occurring molecule that is found in many living systems that can be used as to slow rapid heartbeat and other ailments. Its efficient use as a medication depends on adenosine receptors present on many tissues within the human body. This family of receptors consist of four subtypes with the A1AR subtype being an important therapeutic target known to stimulate protective effects in heart tissue. However, adenosine can have unfavourable side effects. Hence, this project is concerned with the synthesis of chemical derivatives that mimic the activity of adenosine while minimizing or eliminating the deleterious side effects. One fragment of these targeted ‘drug-like’ molecules of interest are identical to adenosine and are linked to a different molecular fragment that is responsible for its desired biological activity and pharmacological effect. This current project aims to further understand the structure-activity relationships of a prototypical compound already prepared in our laboratories and to identify more ‘drug-like’ derivatives.

Ionization instabilities in partially magnetized plasmas

Plasma is a gas of charged particles which is the most common state of the matter in the visible universe. It is also widely used in laboratory and industry for numerous practical applications such as plasma processing devices, spacecraft thrusters, and future fusion reactors. Therefore physics of plasmas addresses a number of fundamental problems such as solar and space activity, solar dynamo, astrophysical jet as well as many applied technology problems. The objective of this project is to study and explain the mechanisms of turbulent low-frequency behavior of Hall effect thrusters, a class of plasma devices used for both electric propulsion in space and for satellite orbit keeping. One of the characteristics of Hall thruster is the presence of turbulence and structures that cause anomalous transport and greatly affect their efficiency. We will involve methods of analytical and computational analysis to address the nature of structures and learn how to control them. This research is not only of great practical importance but also addresses fundamental problems of plasma physics and plasma turbulence.

Elucidating the degradation pathway of Ibuprofen

Ibuprofen is at the top of the World Health Organizations listing of essential medicines. As such, Ibuprofen is commonly consumed in nearly all countries. Considering Ibuprofen is poorly degraded by the human metabolism, wastewater tends to be a significant source of Ibuprofen in the environment. Concern has arisen over the past decade due to Ibuprofens endocrine disruption capabilities on fish and potential toxicity. To understand how Ibuprofen is degraded, the ipfFABDE proteins thought to be involved in its degradation need to be purified. This will be achieved by producing large amounts of the enzymes in a suitable host such as E. coli. Pilot studies can then be conducted to determine what factors are needed for the activity of these enzymes. Knowing what enzymes are used, how fast they act and what genes make these proteins allows governments to monitor environmental areas more closely for the effects of Ibuprofen contamination.

Wild Blueberry/European blueberry Molecular Responses to Floral Diseases

The wild blueberry is an important crop in the Canadian Atlantic provinces with 140 million kg of fruit being produced in 2016 with a farm gate value of $155 million. However, gray mold disease caused by Botrytis cinerea can cause substantial damage with 20% crop losses being reported. This study seeks to the genes and natural compounds including phenolic compounds produced in wild and European blueberry plants that provide resistance to this fungal organism. Outcomes from this study will include the generation of critical, basic knowledge on mechanisms conferring disease resistance in blueberries, and new technologies that will negate the need for blanket applications of disease control products to blueberry fields. When completed, this research is anticipated to benefit over 2000 producers by improving berry yields, production sustainability and global competitiveness. This study will also provide the student with an opportunity to gain new knowledge and skills that is presently not available elsewhere in Canada.

Natural Language Interface for Ad Hoc Queries in Analytics

The main aim of this project is to design a database that provides a simplified way for individuals without the technical background to query information from the database. Such a database will operate on natural language, where the user asks the database a question about information retrieval and it presents the user with suitable answers. A database of this format aids users who are unfamiliar with scripting and database management languages, such as SQL, to use it seamlessly without the need for any prior training.

Intelligent Perception of Mining Equipment Operation using a Single Camera

In order to further enhance the productivity of mines, it is crucial to optimize mining operations. Motion Metrics Int. Corp. offers a wide range of machine vision based products to monitor mining excavators, and to generate actionable information for the mine management board. Performance of the current Motion Metrics’ products can be improved by intelligent perception of equipment operation state from the videos captured by a single camera. Perception of the operation enables the existing solutions to understand equipment activity from video stream and take a proper action in real-time. Video streams can be annotated based on the activity of the target equipment, e.g. an excavator digging cycle, and can be redirected to different proprietary processes, such as algorithms to measure teeth length, analyze content of the loaded bucket etc. TO BE CONT’D

Assessing Volatile Organic Compounds as a Measure of Crop Health

Plants produce a blend of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) quickly in response to various growing conditions and plant stressors. These compounds are released well before there are any obvious signs of stress, such as wilting or loss of chlorophyll. Blueberry and other crops with thicker leaves, are slow to show obvious signs of stress and therefore are more prone to reduced crop quality and quantity than other field crops. As a first step to developing an unmanned crop monitoring device, we will be measuring VOCs produced during crop stress and measuring changes in these VOCs during the growing season, as the stress levels increase.

Northern Centre for Sustainability: research and advocacy for changes in municipal regulations and building code for the construction of a carbon-negative, energy-positive, waste-positive and closed water loop building above the 60th parallel

Ecology North wants to hire architecture, engineering and urban interns to assists in the research, outreach, awareness and education of the world’s most advanced sustainable building practices, towards the creation of a building that makes the best use of regenerative architecture, to heal the planet and the people. The project is for the construction of the Northern Centre for Sustainability. The building will be a place for not-for-profit organizations whose work is related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to centralize their operations, synergize on capacity and be better equipped to share knowledge and monitor and encourage best practices in terms of sustainability in the built environment.

Pilot and Full-Scale Filtration Investigations of Pathogen and Index Organism Removal During Drinking Water Treatment: Enabling Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment for Utility Management

The City of Ottawa is proactive in its drinking water treatment practices and has worked with Health Canada in developing frameworks for integration of quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRA) into drinking water treatment decision-making. While considerable data necessary for applying QMRA in Ottawa are available regarding protozoan pathogens and treatment indicators during various periods of filter operation, significantly less information regarding bacterial and viral pathogens is available. In response to this need, pilot- and full-scale filtration experiments will be conducted using a suite of pathogen (i.e. disease causing bacteria, virus, and protozoan) indicators to evaluate and optimize filter performance. The resulting data will contribute to QMRA approaches to assess the importance of this barrier relative to other key pathogen treatment process; most notably, disinfection. This work will contribute critical operational information to better the management of public health risk from disease causing organisms.