The healthy human gut contains a network of millions of bacteria that help to digest food, fight infection and promote human health. Stress, changes in diet, antibiotic use, and other environmental conditions can disrupt the bacterial network, and contribute to a wide range of illnesses including irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety depressive behaviors, autism, mood disorders, […]

Research has documented evidence of the positivity and desirability of self-continuity. A sense of self-continuity can be achieved by holding an identity that is stable, construing one’s life as a story, and making an associative link to the past. However, the current literature on self-continuity has not yet shown which strategy is more effective to […]

In the operation of CANDU reactors, the Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes holding the cooling water and fuel bundles are susceptible to hydride cracking-induced crack initiation mechanisms, known as delayed hydride cracking and overload crack initiation. It is required to evaluate the likelihood of DHC and overload crack initiation from service-induced flaws to determine whether the pressure […]

The problem of accurately predicting the onset of sustained postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) remains open. Investigators have reported many clinical indices currently associated with postoperative AF following CABG. Contemporary machine learning techniques are well-suited to recognizing underlying trends in ‘training’ data consisting of several labeled examples, and […]

Flexible wearable sensors have found increasing application in many situations, especially in biomedical engineering and health care. Recent research has presented methods for fabricating flexible, stretchable, and conductive sensors using silver nanowires embedded in a flexible silicon elastomer (typically polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)) as dry electrodes for ECG (electrocardiograph). In this project, we will investigate how the […]

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most prevailing infectious diseases on a global scale. Every year, an estimated of 150 million people are affected by UTIs worldwide, and the majority of those infections (~ 80%) are caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Rapid, inexpensive and sensitive detection of UPEC is critical given its recurrence […]

For over than thirty years, chemists have applied sulfur-based organic molecules to gold sheets to form coatings with a single molecule thickness. Although these coatings have potential applications in sensors and microelectronics, they gradually decompose under moderate heat and in air, limiting their applications. In 2014, the Crudden group demonstrated that N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), which […]

Pulmonary hypertension or elevated blood pressure in the lung caused by left heart diseases such as mitral valve stenosis is classified as Group 2 under the World Health Organization pulmonary hypertension classification system. Group 2 pulmonary hypertension is the most common type of pulmonary hypertension, but currently there is no approved therapies for this disease. […]

White-box cryptography seeks to maintain the secrecy of cryptographic keys used by software, despite an attacker having full control over the software. This project extends the work by Dr. Lin on the Chinese cipher SM4, as well as its application to a further cipher. The goal of this project is: 1) To implement a complete […]

The objective of the research is to provide international development agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with decision making and evaluation tools that are practical and, at the same time, are based on sound academic foundations. These tools are specific to a sector, such as nutrition, and a country, such as Guatemala. The resulting documents will […]

Stamping presses are widely used to make metal parts in the automotive industry. Currently, lubrication for a die in a stamping press is applied to the whole sheet. Although this is the industry standard, this approach has a problem. By the time the sheet exits the press, the lubricant may have run out. This can […]

Mental health issues affect a large percentage of the military population. The HERE4U Military Version will be an instant messaging smartphone application to connect military family members (adults only) who are dealing with mental health problems to a mental health counseling solution that uses the IBM Watson cognitive platform. Being able to engage with Watson […]