Development of lighting system optimized for photosynthetic plant and algae growth

The photosynthetic performance of certain desirable plants and algae depend strongly on the exact spectrum and light/dark cycle of their illumination. Several modern and emerging technologies have the energy efficiency, and the spectral and temporal characteristics to provide optimal lighting in an amenable form factor. This project aims to compare the costs and benefits of […]

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The impact of the physical and social environment on epigenetic modifications, telomere length and the development of breast cancer

Recent studies have shown that interactions between beings and the environment, including social practices and human behavior, have an impact on the susceptibility to develop chronic diseases such as cancer, through epigenetic modifications or telomere shortening. The term epigenetic applies to the modifications that regulate gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence. Furthermore, telomere is […]

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Assessing Social Cognition in Autistic Youths and Adults

The goal of the project is to develop a series of standardized, performance-based computerized assessment tools for use in the examination of social cognition deficits in ASD. Drawing on the available experimental literature a number of potential assessment tasks will be identified, reviewed and configured for computer-based administration to children / youth with ASD. Programming […]

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Automatic Spam Alert System for Online Social Media

Online discussion forums are examples of social media that are becoming popular. The goal is to develop efficient and scalable techniques that work on large amounts of conversational text to separate the posts that truly matter from irrelevant ones, as well as techniques that are easily adaptable to new domains and forums. VerticalScope, Inc. is […]

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Distributed Control Strategy Development for Demand-Side Energy Management in Commercial Buildings With Photo-Voltaic and Energy Storage

Increasing global energy demand coupled with efforts to reduce our carbon emission has pushed for improved energy efficiency in many areas. One area in need of improvement is residential and commercial buildings. Specifically, the demand-side energy management of commercial buildings can be improved significantly with improved control. With the addition of on-site renewable energy generation […]

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Methods to improve high-resolution airborne thermal infrared (TIR) imagery in support of urban waste heat mapping, monitoring and metrics

This proposal builds on 5 years of research in the award winning HEAT (Heat Energy Assessment Technologies) project. Every year, billions of GJ of wasted heat leave millions of buildings in thousands of cities world-wide. In an effort to support urban energy efficiency, this research proposes four novel image post-processing techniques to improve/verify the geometry, […]

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Spelling Correction for Improved Detection of Malicious Chat Messages

Cyberbullying, sexting, profanity and other forms of malicious chat messages have become increasingly common in online virtual worlds and social networks that are used by children and teenagers. These conversations are dangerous to children. The partner organization has already implemented a rule based filtering system to filter out malicious messages. However, not all the malicious […]

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Human umbilical cord perivascular cells as cell therapeutics for biodefense and immunomodulation

Mesenchymal stromal / “stem” cells (MSCs) are found in adult tissues such as bone marrow and fat and also in neonatal tissues such as the placenta and umbilical cord. Among these sources, Human Umbilical Cord PeriVascular Cells (HUCPVCs) are the richest source of MSCs described. Importantly, they possess immunomodulatory and immuneprivileged properties which enable them […]

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Optimization of wood bison interspecific somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryo culture for species conservation

Interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (iSCNT) is a promising technique whereby a bison donor cell is transplanted into a domestic cattle oocyte. Different fibroblast donor cells have been demonstrated to have different embryonic outcomes. Problems with SCNT embryos have been also reported after in vitro culture. Toronto Zoo’s efforts have focused on wood bison iSCNT, […]

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Tailoring few-cycle pulses: Terahertz time-domain differentiator

The employment of THz radiation, i.e. radiation with frequencies falling between the microwaves and infrared domains, is arousing an ever-increasing interest in the last decade. Thanks to its invaluable features, such as transparency to the most part of the materials, negligible ionizing energy and availability of high frequency carriers, this technology is penetrating in lots […]

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Understanding behaviour change regarding a decrease in resource use in the Halifax Peninsula, Nova Scotia

Behaviour change and the use of nudges are not new phenomenon within academia. However, the difficulty of measuring behaviour change hinders the development of a solid understanding of how behaviour change transpires. As such, the intern will use primary data to asses Thinkwell Shift and ENSC’s current and historical resource use reduction and hevaioural change […]

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