Projets novateurs réalisés

Deer browsing effects on understory diversity

Deer populations have increased in recent years throughout Europe; deer browsing of plants and tree seedlings is an important contributor to the overall species composition of the forest. Over the last decades, data has been collected in several forests throughout France, measuring deer browsing activities and their effects on the understory diversity, based on fencing experiments, some dating from the 1970s. The proposed project will involve analysing changes over time of plant communities composition and diversity. R statistical software (mutivariate analyses, analyses of variance by mixed models) will be used to identify vegetation changes and to test their significance. Since deer selectively browse, the overall diversity of the forest might have decreased. It is expected that browsing will influence the composition and abundance of the understory, shifting the species composition towards grasses, sedges, ferns and other less palatable species.

Romanitas Perdita ? Une germanisation de la Gaule postromaine

D’où vient la langue française ? Du latin c’est sûr, mais plus précisément, elle viendrait des ténèbres du Moyen Âge, une époque durant laquelle Gaulois, Romains et Francs établissent de nouveaux modèles de cohabitation. Étant donné que les dialectes se développent par l’isolation des régions ou par l’apprentissage imparfaite d’une langue seconde, il est maintenant possible de suivre l’évolution de la langue sur le terrain. C’est grâce à cette rencontre des sources latines et de témoignages linguistiques dans l’espace et dans le temps que l’on parvient à découvrir les différentes couches sociales de l’ancienne Gaule, dont les parlers s’entendent encore dans nos dialectes et les patois. Cette recherche propose une différente histoire dans la langue, une qui se lit dans l’encre de Grégoire de Tours et qui s’entend sur les lèvres de Charlemagne. TO BE CONT’D

Centre for Operations Excellence Summer Internship Cluster 2011

The Summer Internship Cluster project organized through the Centre for Operations Excellence at UBC is a

cluster of nine Operations Research sub-projects done for a number of different clients. These projects form the

centerpiece of the Master of Management in Operations Research at UBC and are the key link in the three part

mission of the COE.

i) Education: to provide outstanding masters level and professional training in Operations Research to ten

student interns, each leading a team on one sub-project,

ii) Research: to use mathematical Operations Research techniques to solve challenging problems in

industry and to use these to generate an informed research agenda within the Sauder School of

Business at UBC, and

iii) Outreach Value: to provide significant value to partners through creative solutions to problems.

The summer 2011 cluster will again include a variety of challenges in a variety of settings including shift

scheduling, resource planning, R&D project management, patient flow planning, health treatment planning,

logistics optimization and location…

Recommandations française en acides aminés chez les ruminants laitier (chèvres et vaches)

Le projet de recherche s’inscrit dans l’amélioration des systèmes d’alimentation des chèvres et des vaches laitières. Une meilleure maitrise des apports en acides aminés (AA) des rations doit favoriser leur utilisation pour la synthèse de protéines du lait et limiter leur catabolisme qui engendre la production d’azote urinaire, néfaste pour l’environnement. Le nouveau système INRA d’alimentation des vaches laitières permet de calculer ces variations d’efficacité d’utilisation de deux AA (Lys et Met) entre les synthèses de protéines et le catabolisme. Ce projet a pour objectif d’analyser si les nouvelles recommandations en Met formulées pour les vaches peuvent s’appliquer aux chèvres en lactation au travers l’analyse d’un essai de supplémentation en Met de deux rations de chèvres. Pour cela, l’étudiant s’appropriera les concepts du système INRA de recommandations en AA des vaches laitières. TO BE CONT’D

Foreign capital and state intervention: the political economy of inward FDI opposition to Chinese Investment in France

Do levels of state-owned capital and regime type explain countries’ decisions to refuse foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals from authoritarian regimes? Do democratic institutions – with separation of powers, a mature civil society, and unrestricted lobbying – add an element of unpredictability to FDI decision making? This project investigates how business interests, security concerns, and political bargaining combine to limit foreign capital inflows. It revolves around a case study on political reactions to FDI proposals from China in France. The project also uses archival research and interviews with stakeholders to trace the historical evolution of institutions restricting FDI since their inception in the 1930s and identifies the critical junctures that shaped their transformation into the system we see today. TO BE CONT’D

Unistructuralité des algèbres amassées provenant de surfaces

Les algèbres amassées sont des objets d’études mathématiques générés par un ensemble de variables initiales. Pour construire une algèbre amassée, on modifie cet ensemble de variables en échangeant une à une n’importe quelle variable par une nouvelle variable construite grâce à des règles de mutation. Toutes les variables obtenues par ce procédé récursif répété une infinité de fois sont appelées des variables amassées et chacun des ensembles de variables traités à chaque étape est un amas. La conjecture dite d’unistructuralité stipule qu’il est possible de déterminer comment les variables amassées se séparent en amas si l’on connait uniquement l’ensemble des variables amassées. Cette conjecture a effectivement été prouvée pour certains types d’algèbres amassées précises. Le but du projet est de la prouver dans un cadre un peu plus large, soit celui de toutes les algèbres amassées provenant de surfaces. TO BE CONT’D

Modélisation de l’utilisation du phosphore alimentaire chez le poulet de chair pour optimiser les coûts d’alimentation et le bien-être animal tout en réduisant les impacts environnementaux.

La présente proposition de recherche porte sur le développement d’un outil de recherche et d’aide à la décision pour la formulation chez le poulet de chair. L’outil de modélisation mathématique permettra de prendre en compte simultanément les mécanismes principaux impliqués dans le métabolisme de P et de Ca et de prédire les relations qui décrivent son comportement en intégrant les données déjà publiées. L’optimisation de l’utilisation du P sera ainsi possible, et ce, par une approche multicritères. De plus, les principaux facteurs qui modulent l’utilisation de P, notamment les formes alimentaires de P, les niveaux d’apports de P et de Ca, le potentiel génétique de croissance et de minéralisation osseuse et le statut minéral des oiseaux seront pris en compte. Ainsi, au-delà d’optimiser les performances de production, cet outil permettra de formuler des aliments en intégrant des contraintes environnementales, économiques et de bien-être animal afin d’augmenter l’efficacité d’utilisation de P.

Perception of terrain characteristics in professional heli-ski guides

In the backcountry, the best powder skiing can be found in terrain that is susceptible to snow avalanches. Travelers are responsible for managing this threat by choosing terrain that will minimize this threat, and they must strike a balance between minimizing risk and finding an enjoyable skiing experience. Perception plays a fundamental role when selecting terrain, which means that these choices are influenced by a suite of psychological factors. This research project will utilize the experience of expert heli-ski guides to find what attributes they find attractive when choosing safe terrain for skiing. This is the first project to investigate the tacit knowledge of desirable terrain features in mountain guides. Further, it will assess for any variability in how these guides view terrain, which will significantly contribute to guiding teams’ understanding of how guides make decisions and view their surroundings. TO BE CONT’D

Automatic 3D Object Matching with Functional Maps

This proposal introduces a method for finding corresponding regions between 3D shapes automatically. Existing methods require users to provide several point-to-point correspondences, but are not capable of solving correspondence problems when we have a large amount of 3D objects. I propose to resolve the correspondence problem by studying the relationship between functions on shapes, rather than measuring point similarities directly. Further, a hierarchical method is introduced for generating correspondences automatically. This framework can automate the process of finding corresponding parts between 3D shapes, which can be applied to animate and colorize a high volume of virtual 3D contents.

Hepatic miRNA regulation by dietary carbohydrates in trout

In order to improve the sustainability of salmonid aquaculture, it is now essential to reduce dietary levels of fish meal by replacement with alternative and terrestrial plant products, and particularly digestible carbohydrates, in the aquafeed formula. However, when fishmeal is substituted at more than 20% by digestible carbohydrates, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), the economically most important freshwater finfish species in France and Canada, display persistent postprandial hyperglycaemia defining it as a glucose-intolerant (GI) species. TO BE CONT’D

Tools to Support Embedded Data Representations in Physical Environments

In our data-saturated world, people could greatly benefit from understanding data in their daily lives through visualization. Currently, many visualizations are situated out of context from the physical world, leading to a loss of data-richness gained from in-context analysis. Using tabletop robotic devices and projectors, Dr. Jansen’s research team are developing infrastructure to generate and embed visualizations in-context to the physical environment. However, research is still needed: 1) to develop tools that allow people to create these visualizations, and 2) to investigate how to best represent the visual output of the data. We will extend the existing infrastructure, by building tools that allow users to gather and visualize data in their environment. The long range goal is to create devices and processes that allow people to “paint” data visualizations at will into their environment. Our project will provide working prototypes to further advance research in the field of embedded visualizations.

Salmonella biofilm forming ability on Reusable Plastic Crates: Risk of transfer of contamination to fresh product and challenges in sanitizing

Reusable plastic crates (RPC’s) are being adopted by the food industry due to the perceived benefits of reduced waste (i.e. paper board), economics and sustainability. However, by reusing crates there is a possibility of distributing contamination from one user to the next if the RPC’s are not sanitized after leaving retailer. Evidence collected over the last 3 years has highlighted that RPC’s delivered to growers/packers can have high microbial load through improper sanitation. However, the actual risk of pathogens, like Salmonella, persisting on crates and contaminating fresh produce remains unknown. The proposed work will establish the extent of food safety risks of Salmonella being present on RPC’s used to pack fresh produce (cucumber and tomatoes) and the efficacy of current sanitizing methods to inactivate the pathogen. Understanding the risk posed by RPC’s will enable interventions to be put in place to enhance food safety of fresh produce.