Innovative Projects Realized

Hierarchically self-assembled nanomaterials for high efficiency excitonic solar cells

The project proposes the preparation of innovative nanostructured photo-electrodes and their integration in high efficiency excitonic solar cells via spray pyrolysis technique. Quantum dot solar cells are based on photoexcitation of quantum dots (QDs) adsorbed onto the surface of metal oxide nanoparticles (TiO2, SnO2, ZnO). The QD harvests the incident light and injects electrons into the TiO2, where they percolate through the oxide nanoparticles to reach an electrode connected to the load. The QD is regenerated by hole injection into either a hole conductor or an electrolyte. In QDSCs the two main factors limiting photoconversion efficiency are the poor matching of the absorption characteristics of organic semiconductors and the solar spectrum, and the presence of charge recombination phenomena, which significantly limit charge collection in the operating device.
Much of the current research focuses on:
i) improving the range of spectral absorbance by modifying the QD;
ii) improving the optical density of the active layer to maximize the absorbed light;
iii) improving hole transport and cell stability by replacing the liquid electrolyte with ionic solids or conducting polymers;
iv) improving electron transport by using alternative wide-band-gap semiconductor materials.
The self-assembly of functional nano-materials, when combined with low-cost and versatile production techniques, opens perspectives critical to optimal use of natural resources and exploitation of high performance systems obtained by simplified approaches.
In this project we apply spray deposition for the production of new engineered nanomaterials, delivering hierarchical systems that meet the crucial requirements for a high efficiency excitonic solar cell, namely:
(1) high optical density of the optically active layer (light harvesters will be semiconducting QDs), allowing maximum light absorption in the spectral range of the sensitizer;
(2) high light scattering of the absorbing layer, enhancing the time spent by light inside the sensitized film and improving light absorption; and
(3) inhibition

Advanced Terahertz Spectroscopy

Terahertz (THz) radiation science is expected to have an extremely significant impact on a wide variety of disciplines that are bound to shape the life of people in the 21st century. In particular, THz waves (or T-Rays), with frequency ranging from 0.1 to 10 THz, (i) can penetrate and image inside plastics, semiconductor wafers, fabrics, and most dielectric materials that may be opaque to visible light, (ii) have low photon energies that do not cause harmful photoionization in biological tissue, and (iii) exhibit strong dispersion as well as absorption for numerous molecules. Therefore, T-ray imaging and diagnostics have a tremendous potential for applications in non-destructive testing and imaging, medical diagnosis, health monitoring, and chemical and biological identification. Over the past two decades, there has been extensive developments in THz technologies, during which free-space THz optoelectronics has undergone key advances, mainly propelled by the rapid progress in ultrafast laser technology (e.g. invention and development of the Ti:sapphire laser) and in microelectronics fabrication (e.g. micron-size planar photoconductive antennas). Recently developed optoelectronic techniques for the generation, propagation, and detection of T-rays may well provide the spatial resolution, the temporal accuracy and the field sensitivity required for many of the most challenging applications.
However, applications in the THz region of the electromagnetic spectrum are only now reaching commercialization. The full potential of the spectral region is held back by the limited control that we have over the way this form of light interacts with materials.
In this project, we will explore the ultra-strong coupling of THz light with novel materials, especially with graphene in mind. Using this enhanced coupling that occurs with high THz intensity, we aim to demonstrate new ways to generate, detect and manipulate THz light amplitude and phase.
Using unique high-energy THz pulses available at the Advanced Laser Light Source (http://inf.emt.inrs.ca/EN/ALLS.htm), along with sophisticated numerical models, we will leverage our considerable expertise to lead the world in this new area of high-field THz photonics. We have teamed with several Canadian universities who have expressed interest in exploiting the THz spectrum and who will work with us to explore and develop new technologies in the THz spectral region. Future applications range from ultra-high speed wireless communication to stand-off detection of illicit or dangerous substances, all based on non-ionizing THz frequency light.

Creating evidence to better support transitions from residential to community based locations of care

Often entry into a residential care facility is a last resort, when physical and cognitive deterioration results in high level of care needs that exceed the availability of personal and community supports. Residential care facilities are increasingly becoming places where older adults receive care until death. Few transition back to the community. Although it has been suggested that a substantial proportion of individuals residing in residential care in Northern British Columbia do not exhibit the clinical need for this level of care the actual prevalence and clinical profiles of these unique residents is currently unknown. These persons may require an alternative setting of care [ASC] where their care needs may more appropriately be met in non-institutional community based settings. A potential solution to address the increasing numbers of ASC persons in residential care who do not exhibit the clinical need for this intensive level of care may be discharge with support to community settings.

In partnership with Northern Health (NH) this mixed methods study will expand understanding of ASC in three phases. In phase one (secondary data analyses); person-specific health and clinical data will be analyzed for all persons assessed for care in NH to determine the prevalence of ASC residents in residential care. Bivariate, multivariate, and thematic analyses will profile ASC persons in residential care compared and contrasted to all persons assessed for care in NH.

Phase two (qualitative analyses) will examine ASC persons’ preferences, and the preferences of their family/caregivers, for location of care including perspectives on potential discharge to community based care settings (such as private residences, retirement homes, or assisted living). These findings will identify resources and supports necessary to facilitate this transition in a rural and remote context. Together, findings from phase one and two will inform development of a phase three pilot project to support transition for residents back to the community.

Considering the increases in pressures on limited health care resources, reducing the demand for residential services by supporting the relocation of ASC residents from residential care back to the community has the potential for significant impact. A move to residing in the community not only has potential for positively impacting the health and quality of life of the person but also has potential for financial cost-saving implications for health policy decision makers. Findings may also be applicable to other regional jurisdictions to inform similar challenges with the emerging population of ASC residents in residential care.

Parallel Programming for Real-Time Applications on Multi-core Processors

This project explores online real-time task scheduling and mapping on multicore systems. A software tool is being developed to create code dependency graphs, generate task sequences, and then perform real-time scheduling and mapping on multi-processor platforms. The tool will be able to handle tasks with precedence constraints and non-preemptive task executions.

Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks Using metaheuritics algorithms

Due to advances in low-power wireless communications, low-power analog and digital electronics, the development of low-cost and low-power sensor nodes that are small in size has received increasing attention. Sensor nodes have the ability to sense the environment nearby, perform simple computations and communicate in a small region. Although their capacities are limited, combining these small sensors in large numbers provides a new technological platform, called Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). WSNs provide reliable operations in various application areas including environmental monitoring, health monitoring, vehicle tracking system, military surveillance and earthquake observation

Wireless Sensor Networks consisting of nodes with limited power are deployed
to gather useful information from the field. In WSNs it is critical to collect the information
in an energy efficient manner.

In this project, we will present a new protocol for WSN routing operations. The protocol is
achieved by using metaheuritics algorithms (such as Ant Colony Optimization algorithm, Hybrid Genetic Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm, and Hybrid Simulated Annealing Algorithms ) based optimization technique in network routing to optimize routing paths, providing an effective multi-path data transmission method to achieve reliable communications in the case of node faults. We will aim to maintain network life time at a maximum, while data transmission is achieved efficiently, so an adaptive approach is developed according to this goal. The proposed approaches are compared to a well known other algorithms such as ant based algorithm named EEABR using an event-based simulator. Our goal is to offer significant reductions of energy consumption which is used as a performance metric for different sized WSNs. Also, we will implement our approach on a small sized hardware component requiring minimum connections suitable for tiny node designs and we will develop an methods for handling the routing tasks by using the proposed approaches router chip. We will test our alhorithms running on the router chip and obtain their performance results, including response times of the chip.
Response time of the header request for the routing operation would be satisfactory for many WSNs where transmission speed is not essential. The proposed approaches for WSN routings and its hardware implementation seem to be a very good potential/ promising solution for node designers. WSN settings, including nodes having high mobility.

Interaction Between Lantibiotics and beta-Lactoglobulin by MALDI-Mass Spectrometry

Beta-lactoglobulin (?-LG) is a major whey protein found in the milk of many ruminant species. As a lipocalin, it is suspected to be involved in the transport of small hydrophobic molecules, and some evidence suggests that it can bind to vitamin A. ?-LG is an antigen in milk, causing allergic reactions in some individuals. This is due to the presence of several epitopes, or antigenic binding sites. Lantibiotics are antimicrobial peptides produced by Gram positive bacteria. Lantibiotics are generally regarded as safe for consumption by both humans and animals. Nisin is a Class A cationic lantibiotic that is produced by Lactococcus lactis. Nisin is typically used as a bio-preservative, especially in dairy products, and can either be applied as a purified lantibiotic to the food product, or can be produced by bacteria that have been added to the food product. Duramycin is a Class B neutral lantibiotic that is produced by Streptoverticillium cinnamoneus. Duramycin has the ability to treat bovine mastitis in the milk of cows. Mastitis is a disease that can cause abnormalities in the udder of cows such as swelling, heat, redness, hardness or pain if it is clinical. Other indications of mastitis can be seen in abnormalities in milk such as a watery appearance, flakes, or clots.

As both nisin and duramycin can be found in dairy products, and ?-LG is a major component of whey in dairy, it is possible for the molecules to naturally interact. An interaction between these molecules could reduce the ability of ?-LG to act as an allergen by the binding of one of the lantibiotics to a site close to one or more of the epitopes on ?-LG, interfering with the ability of an antibody to recognize and bind to the epitope, or by changing the structural conformation of the protein, therefore compromising the stability of the epitope. If the epitopes of the protein have been blocked or compromised, the ability of the protein to act as an allergen and trigger an immune response will have been reduced or prevented. This would mean that the presence of ?-LG in milk would no longer cause as strong of an allergic response, if any at all. An interaction between the ?-LGB with a lantibiotic could also increase the solubility of the lantibiotic, since such compounds are generally charged, and do not easily remain dissolved in a solution of higher lipid content, such as dairy products. This increased solubility would enhance the ability of the lantibiotic to act as an antimicrobial agent. As such, applications of an interaction between these molecules would be beneficial and it is important to study the potential interactions between them. This work will involve the application of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry to study the interaction of nisin and duramycin with ?-LGB. This work will evaluate the strength and type of the noncovalent interaction that may exist between the lantibiotics and ?-LGB.

Molecular mechanisms of obesity-induced cardiac dysfunction – role of lysophospholipase signaling

Obesity and insulin resistance are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease including cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is characterized by the reduced ability of heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) to contract and/or relax. Maladaptive changes in cardiomyocyte lipid signalling and energy metabolism (increased fatty acid utilization) have been implicated in obesity-induced cardiomyopathy, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) has emerged as critical extracellular signalling messenger in the heart that reduces contractility, increases fatty acid delivery, and stimulates hypertrophic remodelling. A major proportion (~40%) of plasma LPA is produced by autotaxin (ATX) secreted from adipose tissue. ATX is a lysophospholipase D that converts lysophosphatidylcholine into LPA in an endocrine or paracrine manner. Interestingly, ATX expression is increased during adipocyte differentiation and in adipose tissue from obese, insulin resistant mice and humans, suggesting that ATX may influence obesity-induced cardiomyopathy. The aim of this research is to examine whether increased circulating LPA due to adipose tissue ATX upregulation following obesity and insulin resistance alters cardiomyocyte energy metabolism and insulin signalling to induce cardiomyopathy.

Combinatorics and Algorithms for Video-on-Demand

The project involves constructing and evaluating mathematical algorithms for scheduling media content (TV shows, sports games, movies) in video-on-demand systems, typically on virtual machines in the cloud. Although the problem is stated as a real-world problem, it is, at heart, a mathematical one—an understanding of the real-world issues is easy enough to acquire if the student already is keen on and knowledgeable in mathematics. This is a project for a student who loves mathematics and is curious about how theoretical mathematics can actually create an impact in the real world.

The specific project is to use combinatorics to construct new algorithms to allocate programmes to servers in the video-on-demand environment. Video-on-demand is an important new way of serving content to users, and provides programmes only when users request them. It thus offers users flexibility and freedom, but the downside is that it is more difficult for providers to anticipate and serve demand while keeping costs down. For example, we could satisfy all users by giving each user a server dedicated to her or him alone, but the cost would be prohibitive. The key to solving this is an efficient assignment of programmes to servers, but such an assignment is challenging in an environment where demand is constantly in flux as users come and go, and where users get impatient if their content is not served immediately. From a technical perspective, this is a bi-criteria optimization problem: we need to minimize cost to providers, but also minimize delay of users.

This kind of scheduling is an old problem in mathematical optimization, and many techniques are already known for circumstances such as scheduling jobs on machines in a factory. Thus there are good starting points for approaching the problem. However, the video-on-demand situation creates new challenges with regard to speed, cost, availability,

Geo+Social Analytics for Healthy Urban Environments

We will develop new computational tools that will mine and classify social media for statements that represent varying types and degrees of emotional stress. These tools will allow us to apply geospatial analysis methods to define dynamic stress landscapes, or stresscapes, that will help us to understand how stress varies from place-to-place and from time-to-time within urban centres. This will lead to new insights into how emotional stress is related to particular conditions (e.g. traffic congestion), place types and designs (e.g. public versus private places, high versus low density) and times (e.g. commuting rush hours) within urban communities.

UNDERGROUND RESIDUAL OIL GASIFICATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO EOR

Concerns about future energy supply and recent advancements in technology are leading to a renewed emphasis on Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) as EOR techniques can significantly improve the recovery factors. It is estimated that Saskatchewan has approximately 40 billion barrels of oil in place that is a target for the use of Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques. However, prominent EOR techniques such as CO2 injection have some major economical and technological constraints. The technique requires construction of vast network of pipelines from sources to the target basins and hence a significant capital investment is needed that must be supported by long-term production potential of the target basin. Also, among the many other EOR methods tested, only a few have been found to be commercially successful and it has been experimentally proven that EOR methods can yield maximum up to 60-65% of the original oil in place (OOIP) and the remaining oil to be extracted requires long term commitments in capital and human resources as well as extensive Research and Development in EOR practices. The proposed technique of Underground Residual Oil Gasification (UROG) will exploit the challenges and opportunities of improving the recovery in the form of synthetic gas (syngas) beyond the limits of EOR and will significantly help coping with the future energy challenges of increasing energy demand. The UROG technique has the potential of converting unworked residual oil – oil left in the ground – into a combustible gas which can be turned into high value products such as liquid fuels, clean power generation or the production of hydrogen, synthetic natural gas, fertilizers and other chemical feedstocks. This technology will allow countries that are rich in heavy oil such as Canada to fully utilize their resource from otherwise unrecoverable oil deposits in an economically friendly and environmentally sound way.

Design and development of a submersible rope climbing robot

offshore oil well platforms are supported by huge guy wires. Ocean waves and motion in the control stations would cause continuous change in tension and slack in the wires. This can cause failure in internal fibers in the wire, which would be invisible. Breakage of a large number of internal fibers can lead to a snap off with catastrophic consequences.
This research project is on design and development of a submersible rope climbing robot that can move along underwater guy wires to probe them using on board sensors such as ultrasonic and vision.
The faculty adviser, along with his graduate students, have developed a re-configurable rope climbing robot. Further modifications would be needed to make it fully autonomous and submersible.

Biological communities in a human modified coastal landscape

Shellfish aquaculture activities that occur in the intertidal environment can directly and indirectly affect the organisms that live on and within the sediment and higher trophic level organisms (e.g. fish) that utilize the habitat. These activities include the following:

1) Altered species composition and increased densities: Bivalve species compositions are altered by planting economically valuable species at high stocking densities.

2) Aquaculture structure deployment: The placement of structures such as fencing in the intertidal to create ‘pens’ to outplant oysters into and deployment of nets over clam beds to keep predators out. Further, the practice of outplanting the oysters themselves on the beach changes a naturally soft-bottom habitat type to a mixed soft and hard bottom. These modifications may influence the abundance and type of organisms that can utilize and live in these habitats.

3) Predator management: Exclusion of predators (e.g. crabs, seastars) from aquaculture sites through net placement may increase predator concentrations on nearby beaches that are not protected, potentially reducing important food sources for other predators, such as birds.

To help understand the cumulative impacts of aquaculture we need to determine how community composition in ‘natural’, unfarmed habitats compares to communities in shellfish aquaculture habitats. Comparing diversity of three biological communities (epifaunal, infaunal and pelagic) in two very different landscapes – the ‘natural’, unfarmed sites being relatively flat and simple versus the altered, more complex aquaculture sites – is also important from an ecological perspective to understand how organisms respond to, and utilize, anthropogenically altered habitat.

While some aquaculture activities may act to decrease diversity (e.g. increasing commercial species density) others may increase it (e.g. putting oysters on the beach adds habitat complexity). Despite the extent of aquaculture in many regions, and the importance of maintaining diversity, very little research has been done to examine the effects of