Projets novateurs réalisés

Evaluation of the Talk Today program delivered in a hybrid format to elite adolescent male hockey players and their support staff

The Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division (CMHA Ontario) created and implemented a season-long mental health and suicide awareness program to help educate, support, and raise awareness about mental health and the issue of suicidal ideation among elite male adolescent hockey players and their support staff. The McGill Sport Psychology Laboratory (https://www.mcgill.ca/sportpsych/) has partnered with CMHA Ontario to evaluate the effectiveness of their mental health and suicide awareness program. The evaluation will consist of two phases: (1) the distribution of an online survey to all individuals who have participated in an in-person on online training called “Team Up” (i.e., approximately 150 athletes and staff) and (2) individual interviews with 10 program supporters (e.g., mental health coach, mental health champion) who have been involved in the program for at least one season. Findings will provide information regarding the effectiveness of this innovative and new hockey-specific in-person or online suicide awareness training.

Caregiver Skills Training

Early intervention services for children with developmental delays, disorders, and disabilities are important, especially as early as possible in life, to provide the best chances for the child to thrive. Yet, children with these conditions do not receive timely care because relevant services are inaccessible due to long wait-times and high cost for families. The World Health Organization (WHO) Caregiver Skills Training (CST) is a low-cost evidence-based intervention, designed to address these issues. This project aims to facilitate CST implementation in Malaysia and Canada. We will first conduct interviews among participants in Malaysia and Canada to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing CST. We will then develop an implementation blueprint tailored to address barriers and leverage facilitators identified. Finally, we will foster a collaborative learning environment through the formation of an international network of stakeholders, “Early Intervention Global Group” to provide input and advice on the implementation blueprint.

5G-Based Real-Time Smart and Proactive Healthcare

5G network connectivity is important in the quest to revolutionize healthcare in Canada. This is because 5G
technology has the unique capability to support reliable high-speed data transfer. The technology also supports
increased amount of healthcare data that can be transmitted in real time. This project seeks to 1) explore the use
of 5G-enabled healthcare solutions in the community, and 2) understand how the implementation 5G technology
may affect vulnerable and remote populations. The project will explore how 5G can support data connections
between healthcare services and the community. Ethical and societal challenges of 5G data collection will be
investigated as well. Results from this project will help guide the implementation of 5G-enabled data collection
and analyses for healthcare improvement.

Advancing the Utility of Electrochemical Pressure Impedance Spectroscopy (EPIS) as a New Fuel Cell Diagnostic Technique

Fuel cells are versatile, low-emission alternative energy sources, but their optimization is complex due to their black-box nature. For fuel cells to perform at peak proficiency, each component requires a different level of hydration, yet these parameters are currently unattainable with conventional diagnostic techniques. In consultation with Greenlight Innovation, this project focuses on the further development of electrochemical pressure impedance spectroscopy (EPIS) to investigate water transport within operating cells. The initial results are promising and suggest that EPIS can be optimized to probe changes in the hydration state of fuel cell components. As a fuel cell test station designer and manufacturer, Greenlight Innovation would have the ability to incorporate this new technique into their products for widespread commercialization, to be marketed for fuel cell research and development for industrial and academic laboratories. Additionally, test stations already in the field can be remotely retrofitted with EPIS through only minor hardware adjustments. This would provide an additional diagnostic technique to current test station users. The goal is to improve the metrics by which fuel cells are measured by providing new methods to assist in the real-time probing of processes and failure mechanisms within operating cells.

Assessment and Mapping of the Drivers of Temperatures at Thermal Refuges on the Restigouche River Watershed with Management Implications for Climate Change

Critical river habitats are being affected by climate change, and so are the species that need them for survival. These habitats are called thermal refuges, or cold-water patches, and they protect aquatic species from thermal stress and mortality. Some of these species include Atlantic salmon and Atlantic sturgeon, and are found on the Restigouche River watershed. With climate change threatening to increase water temperatures, the need to protect these habitats is becoming increasingly important. These species have cultural and ecological importance to the communities that reside within the watershed. Our goal is to explore how different landscape characteristics create thermal refuges, more specifically confluence plumes, and how we can plan for conservation and management to ensure that they are protected for the species that use them for their survival.

Evaluation of National Physical Activity Initiatives

In 2007, ParticipACTION was relaunched in Canada with the goal of inspiring and supporting active
living and sport participation for Canadians. The focus of ParticipACTION is on social marketing
initiatives The objective of the proposed internship is to take advantage of data collected through
internal evaluations commissioned by ParticipACTION of two national campaigns – Teen Challenge,
and Sports Day in Canada, and address a number of knowledge gaps in the physical activity research field. First, what role can microgrants play in supporting community capacity to promote physical activity? Second, what role do large scale, one-off sporting and PA events like Sports Day in Canada perform in encouraging sport and physical activity participation? ParticipACTION will benefit from having a graduate trainee with research experience and competency in statistical analyses.
ParticipACTION does not currently have the capacity or the statistical expertise to conduct the work
being proposed. Findings from the described project will be used to inform the future planning and
delivery of the two initiatives. .

Détermination des mécanismes d’action expliquant les effets bénéfiques du sirop d’érable sur la santé métabolique

La production de sirop d’érable est un des moteurs de l’agriculture québécoise et plusieurs études indiquent que la consommation de cet agent sucrant naturel complet est à privilégier d’un point de vue santé métabolique comparativement aux sucres raffinés. Néanmoins, les agences de santé ne font aucune distinction entre les formes de sucres ajoutés, plaçant le sirop d’érable et le sucre raffiné dans une seule et même catégorie. L’objectif de ce projet est donc de mieux comprendre comment la consommation du sirop d’érable est moins dommageable que celle du sucre raffiné sur la santé métabolique afin de mieux en faire valoir les bienfaits auprès de la population et des instances gouvernementales. Pour ce faire, nous prendrons avantage d’échantillons biologiques récupérés d’une étude clinique récente où il fut observé que lorsque les sujets consomment le sirop d’érable à la place du sucre blanc, leur santé métabolique est améliorée par rapport aux effets occasionnés par la consommation de sucre raffinés.

The Effect of Cathode Particle Surface Area on the Performance of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries have become a crucial tool in countering global fossil fuel reliance; when paired with electric motors, they provide an alternative to petroleum-based energy storage for internal combustion engines. The cathode (the positive electrode) in a lithium-ion battery is typically made up of lithiated transition metal oxides, each of which presents a unique set of challenges. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is one such cathode material that suffers from a relatively low conductivity, thus requiring a carbon coating to improve its electrochemical performance. The nature of this carbon coating and the available surface area of the cathode materials are expected to have an effect on the overall performance of the material when assembled into a battery. These properties will also impact the suitability of the material to certain applications such as for sustained operation (e.g., automotive applications) or for short term, high power needs (e.g., power tools). This study aims to systematically evaluate the effect of LFP particle surface area and the nature of the carbon coating on the electrochemical performance of these materials.

Analysis of the National Chiropractic Mental Health and Wellness Survey

The public greatly depends on a country’s health care providers to be sufficiently healthy to deliver care themselves. When the wellness of health-care workers suffers, then the health of the public at large is put in jeopardy.

This project represents a ground-breaking collaboration between the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) who created a comprehensive mental health survey for their members, and the Canada Chiropractic Association (CCA) who has adapted the CMA survey for their profession and its members.

This MITACS proposal provides the CCA with additional support to perform analysis of the resulting survey data while providing an intern with a unique training opportunity to gain experience in advanced analytical techniques and their interpretation.

The resulting national report will be an important contribution not only to the chiropractic profession, but to the public it serves.

Portrait des personnes non rejointes par les activités et services offerts sur le territoire de l’arrondissement Ahuntsic-Cartierville

Cette étude a pour but de décrire les niveaux de connaissance, d’intérêt et d’utilisation des services et des activités par les citoyens de l’arrondissement Ahuntsic-Cartierville en fonction des différentes interactions entre les
déterminants sociaux (caractéristiques démographiques, économiques, sociales, culturelles et techniques). Elle permettra également d’identifier des facteurs facilitateurs ou des obstacles à l’accessibilité et l’utilisation de
l’information. Les résultats permettront également d’identifier des pistes de développement contribuant à mitiger certaines contraintes, à améliorer la connaissance des services et des activités et à augmenter le taux de
fréquentation des personnes aux activités et services de l’arrondissement. Ces résultats contribueront à l’avancement des connaissances scientifiques sur les comportements de recherche d’informations de la vie
quotidienne et sur les processus de communication des institutions publiques. Ceux-ci pourront potentiellement informer d’autres arrondissements ou villes dont les populations présentent des caractéristiques similaires.

Nozzle Based Localized Ultra Active Micro-Reactor (UAMR) 3D printer

The present project introduces the fabrication of a portable 3D printing apparatus based on a newly developed technology called Direct Sound Printing (DSP) for 3D printing of materials such as Silicones and PDMS that cannot be printed by any other existing technologies unless changing their composition by using additives that can make the material toxic for bioapplications. PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) and Silicone, in general, which have a wide range of applications in medicine, automobile, aerospace, and fabrication of industrial parts such as Microfluidic devices and Valves. This project not only expands the variety of 3D printable materials but also promotes the industrial applications of AM technologies among the other manufacturing processes.

Développement d’une méthode de tokenisation du génome des cancers

Ce projet vise à transformer la prise en charge des patients atteints de cancer en combinant l’intelligence artificielle et l’analyse du génome. En utilisant des techniques avancées d’apprentissage automatisés, nous allons développer un modèle novateur de tokenisation du génome des cancers, permettant d’identifier rapidement les marqueurs génétiques associés à la maladie. En parallèle, nous allons explorer l’utilisation de l’intelligence artificielle pour analyser ces données génomiques transformées en token/jetons uniques. L’objectif est de prédire les meilleurs traitements pour les patients, facilitant ainsi une prise en charge personnalisée. Cette approche révolutionnaire pourrait non seulement réduire les délais de diagnostic et de traitement, mais aussi ouvrir la voie à de nouvelles thérapies anti-cancéreuses. Une opportunité unique pour améliorer la lutte contre le cancer et offrir de l’espoir à ceux qui en ont besoin.