Projets novateurs réalisés

Kyiv at War: Frontier, Conflict, and Urban Text

The project (future monograph) will investigate representations of Kyiv in Ukrainian and Russian literatures and media of the past two decades in the broader context of the cultural history of the city and text of Kyiv in the modern epoch. I will examine how Ukrainian and Russian intellectuals, writers, and activists have conceptualized and claimed Kyiv’s history, legacy, and identity, focusing on the pivotal historical moments when these claims clashed. My work will highlight the competitive, confrontational nature of the text of Kyiv, a multicultural dynamic system of heterogeneous narratives, images, cliches that conditions the perception of a city by its own inhabitants and the outside world. In particular, I will analyze a body of popular novels set in Kyiv that reflect Ukrainian and Russian reactions to the transformations of the city and Ukraine in the twenty-first century: the development of Ukrainian democratic society through a series of mass civic movements, the modernization and commercialization of Kyiv, and the growth of Ukrainian national identity and culture as the country copes with its past colonial Soviet and Russian imperial legacies, and most recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and attack on Kyiv in February-March 2022.

Rethinking the urban-rural interface. Developing a Typology for Land Use Transitions in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM)

To address climate change, sustainable growth, and biodiversity loss, Halifax needs to manage growth through the sustainable development of its urban, suburban and rural communities. To better understand challenges and opportunities, research is required to support the development of a policy framework for these areas. The proposed project will identify policy options for sustainable land use management in HRM’s urban-rural interface through a series of research tasks undertaken by a team of interns, including a review of literature, jurisdictional scan, geospatial mapping, best practice review, and stakeholder workshops. The outcomes and deliverables will directly influence ongoing and future work pertaining to suburban and rural planning projects stemming from HRM’s Regional Plan Review.

Assessment of correlations between consumption of non-target prey items and lice cleaning efficiency of lumpfish of different sizes inside Canadian Atlantic salmon production sea cages using morphological and metabarcoding techniques.

Salmon aquaculture loses money when the salmon being farmed are infested by small parasites called “sea lice”. In Newfoundland Atlantic salmon aquaculture farms, the most common type of sea lice is the salmon louse. They can greatly reduce the number of salmon produced and cause health issues for the salmon. To manage the sea lice in cold waters, lumpfish are used because continue to eat sea lice down to 4?C. My primary goal is to see how lumpfish size affects how quickly they reduce the number of adult lice per salmon. I will also update the BOLD mtDNA database so that it includes all species that lumpfish commonly eat. I will collect lumpfish from salmon farms and use DNA barcoding and visual identification of their stomach contents to achieve my goals.

A Novel Design of High Temperature Ultrasonic Transducers, Manufacturing, and Testing

The project objective is to design and manufacture ultrasonic sensors capable of operating at temperatures up to 800 oC. Such transducers can be affixed to hot piping systems and pressure vessels in petrochemical plants, electrical power generating stations, and manufacturing plants. These sensors can then provide continuous information to the plant operator regarding the onset of cracks or corrosion in the pipe wall. In addition information related to fluids flowing in the pipe can also be gathered, such as flow rate, fluid temperature, turbulence. Our industrial partner Advanced Measurement and Analysis Group provides fluid-flow measurement instrumentation and consulting services to the electrical power generating industry and would like to extend its service into the petrochemical field. A key component holding such industrial expansion is the unavailability of
affordable, reliable ultrasonic sensors that can operate at the high temperatures needed for on-line instrumentation in these plants. This project directly assesses that critical area.

Analyse comparative des principaux facteurs pouvant faciliter ou réduire l’accès à des traitements pour des maladies rares dans différentes juridictions (CA, UK, NZ, AU)

La stagiaire réalisera un projet de recherche sur l’évaluation économique des traitements pour les maladies rares. L’objectif principal est de déterminer si un coût élevé par rapport aux avantages cliniques limite l’accès à ces traitements au Canada et dans d’autres pays tels que le Royaume-Uni, la Nouvelle-Zélande et l’Australie. La première étape consistera à comprendre comment ces pays définissent une maladie rare et quels critères sont utilisés pour cela. Ensuite, l’étude examinera les recommandations des agences d’évaluation des technologies de la santé pour les médicaments liés aux maladies rares depuis 2019, y compris les réductions de prix éventuelles. Enfin, elle identifiera les produits ayant reçu une recommandation positive et qui sont listés, et déterminera s’ils sont remboursés dans les pays étudiés (Canada, Royaume-Uni, Nouvelle-Zélande, Australie). L’organisation partenaire, Merck, soutiendra la stagiaire dans la collecte et l’analyse des données pour atteindre ces objectifs. Les résultats de cette recherche aideront à comprendre les défis liés à l’évaluation des traitements pour les maladies rares et à faciliter l’accès à ces traitements pour les patients canadiens.

Développement d’une méthodologie d’évaluation des facteurs ESG des municipalités sans notation de crédit

Ce projet vise le développement d’une méthode d’évaluation des facteurs environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance (ou facteurs ESG) adaptée aux municipalités canadiennes sans notation de crédit dans le but de soutenir l’investissement responsable d’AlphaFixe Capital. Les activités envisagées comprennent l’élaboration d’une méthodologie adaptée aux spécificités locales, son essai et l’automatisation de la collecte de données à des fins de suivi annuel. Cette méthodologie se distinguera par l’intégration d’indicateurs de performance et d’initiatives développées en études urbaines aux mesures comptables habituellement utilisées par les institutions financières. L’approche considère les spécificités locales et régionales, et introduit un coefficient de proactivité pour mettre en valeur les efforts des municipalités en matière d’ESG, récompensant ainsi les initiatives au-delà de la simple performance.

Utilizing pre-trained vision models for object-centric reinforcement learning

The way humans perceive their surroundings relies heavily on some sort of decomposition of those into smaller atomized entities (objects, or parts of objects). This allows for complex reasoning and prediction capabilities which are mostly seen as mundane in humans but are still a challenge to propagate to artificial systems. My project wants to explore the advantages of incorporating this intuition about how humans perceive into a Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm. We will do this by employing computer vision models trained for identifying objects on large and diverse datasets, so that the general knowledge of what “objects” are is already learned and “stored” in their weights, and little to no additional training is required on our end. The segmentation these models will provide will be further “fed” into an RL agent. We hope this will be beneficial for the agents ability to “solve” the environment it’s in, be it a video game or a robot control task.

Canadian Start Up and Global Agtech Ecosystems Research to Support Investment Opportunities

The project focuses on conducting macro research on the agtech and early stage technology sectors in North America and abroad with the goal of providing private venture capital investment to fund Canadian technology innovation as well as agtech and agribusiness innovation.

Expanding sustainable commuting designation across Canada

pointA is seeking an intern to provide a marketing and sales support to develop a strategy to expand its Best Workplaces for Commuters designation, which was developed by the US Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency in 1999. pointA is the first Canadian partner to bring this designation to Canada to provide employers of all sizes with the recognition and programs to support less driving alone by employees.

Fundy Biosphere & Stonehammer Geopark: Infrastructure and Storytelling

Fundy Biosphere UNESCO Global Geopark is a 2500 km2 region that includes 60 geosites. This region tells a nearly complete story of almost 1 billion years of Earth’s geologic history. Fundy Biosphere is part of a global network of over 177 parks in 46 countries. It was the first UNESCO Global Geopark in North America, designated in 2010. Fundy Biosphere is characterized by its exceptional geological diversity, which includes some of the oldest rocks and fossils in Atlantic Canada, as well as evidence of ancient riverbeds, volcanic activity, glaciation, and plate tectonics. Through engaging and educational programming, we tell stories of natural and human landscapes and work with partners to create healthy, thriving communities that celebrate and protect this exceptional region.

The Government of New Brunswick of Environment-based initiatives as one of its six priorities.The Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture indicated supporting tourism recovery as one of its performance outcomes for the province based on these priorities. As such, this project aligns well with the articulated goals of this province and supports further growth opportunities in this sector.

Beyond Disability Management and Towards Health

This project seeks to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms by which disability affects workers. We will utilize an occupational health psychology perspective to examine the ways different types of workplaces supports (like social support) might be effective at reducing experienced disability and promoting health. For this purpose, the research team will first interview workers living with disability to identify criteria by which we can assess disability support strategy. In the second phase of the project, we will then survey participants at multiple times to understand how various types of supports interact with disability and health at work. The findings of this research will serve as the foundation of a framework designed to facilitate effective disability strategy. This work will help us understand a more complete picture of workplace disability and better support individuals experiencing mental health crisis.

Peripheral contribution of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in the brain steroidogenesis

DHEA is a major neurosteroids precursor, and a decrease in its serum levels have been associated with neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer’s disease. Little is known about steroid hormones localization and levels in the major functional areas of the human brain and which enzymes are involved in their synthesis and inactivation. We will investigate steroids levels in these areas using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-Imaging mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry using the monkey brain as model. This work will be done in partnership with the R&D team at Endoceutics, which has extensive expertise in the study of steroid formation, metabolism and action. Data generated by this partnership will shed light on the physiological importance of brain steroids and whether DHEA administration may restore their physiological concentration. If so, this study could lead to new clinical trials on DHEA as a preventive therapy for Alzheimer’s disease in humans.