Innovative Projects Realized

Portable diagnostic device for outpatient BNP detection

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is an established prognostic marker for the early detection of heart failure. Elevated blood BNP levels are directly correlated to the severity of HF and decompensation. Current FDA approved immunoassays for BNP detection can only be carried out in medical laboratories or emergency rooms. Outpatient-use BNP monitors are yet to be developed. The objective of this project is to develop a prototype of the portable diagnostic device that can give a rapid electrical readout of BNP levels in a drop of blood. The applicant will work on the prototype development as a Post Doctoral Fellow both in the supervisor’s lab (Prof. Juewen Liu, Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo) and in the R&D facility of the partner company (LeNano Diagnostics Inc.). The applicant will be responsible for the device fabrication and for carrying out experiments on the electrochemical detection of BNP in whole blood samples. The partner company will benefit from the knowledge and technical skills of the applicant who is an expert in sensing micro-devices and from the scientific expertise of the supervisor’s lab. The partner company will also benefit from the eventual commercialization of the resulted diagnostic device.

Development & Pilot Evaluation of an Online Peer Support Program for Family Caregivers of Ventilator-Assisted Individuals Living in the Community – Year two

Although ventilator-assisted individuals (VAIs) prefer to live and die at home, the family members who care for them often experience stress and poor health. Peer support can mitigate health declines by decreasing caregivers’ isolation and increasing their sense of control. However, no peer support programs exist for this caregiving population. Online support can especially overcome geographic and time limitations that caregivers face. The proposed research aims to develop and conduct a pilot RCT evaluation of an online peer support program for VAI caregivers. This peer support program can improve the well-being of caregivers and allow them to better care for their family members.

Development & Pilot Evaluation of an Online Peer Support Program for Family Caregivers of Ventilator-Assisted Individuals Living in the Community

Ventilator assisted individuals (VAIs) living at home are frail and generally cannot perform most daily activities. This is similarly the case for the palliative population of those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Although these individuals prefer to live and die at home, the family members who care for them often experience stress and poor health. Peer support can mitigate health declines by decreasing caregivers’ isolation/stress and increasing their sense of control. However, no peer support programs are designed to meet these caregivers’ complex and unique needs. Online support delivery is especially beneficial for caregivers given the geographic and time limitations they face. The proposed research aims to develop and evaluate an online peer support program for VAI and ALS caregivers. Caregivers will be asked about the online delivery of the program, how helpful/satisfactory it was, and if it affected their health and well-being. Differences in the needs and experiences of the palliative and non-palliative caregivers will also be explored. This peer support program can improve the well-being of caregivers and allow them to better care for their family members. TO BE CONT’D

Development of high value-added products: from crushed glass to zeolite and active filtration media

In Canada, of the total amount of container glass in the market place (estimated at 850,000 tons per annum), only one-half is collected by recycling programs. The common technical and economic difficulties include the presence of organic and/or inorganic contaminants, which need to be reduced to below 0.05% for glasswork, as well as the issue of mixed color. The cost for making products with relatively low value such as glasswork and road aggregates from recycled glass can be prohibitive, providing no added incentive to improve glass recycling. One solution to this problem is to produce higher value end-products such as zeolite and active filtration media (i.e. calcium silicate hydrate) to make the process more economically attractive. The technology developed from this study can greatly increase the value of recycled glass, and therefore improve glass recycling rates.

Investigating the Health and Economic Benefits of Colostrum and Milk from Dairy Cattle Selected for Enhanced Immunity – Year two

Diseases of dairy cattle adversely affect meat and milk quality. Our research demonstrates that high immune response (HIR™) cattle have many health advantages, including better quality colostrum/milk. HIR™ technology is marketed by our partner Semex Inc as Immunity+. While many advantages of HIR™ exist, there is more to learn, particularly as it relates to colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk from the mother that protects the new born. HIR™ cows have enhanced specific antibody and pass this protection to their calves via colostrum. Apart from specific antibody there is also “natural” antibody that circulates without previous exposure to pathogens. Natural antibody has been under-investigated even though it is known to provide first-line defense. Various other natural defense molecules, known as defensins, also have not been investigated in the context of high immune responders. Examining natural antibody, vaccine response and defensins in colostrum/milk from high versus average immune responders will be the focus here.

Investigating the Health and Economic Benefits of Colostrum and Milk from Dairy Cattle Selected for Enhanced Immunity

Diseases of dairy cattle adversely affect meat and milk quality. Our research demonstrates that high immune response (HIR™) cattle have many health advantages, including better quality colostrum/milk. HIR™ technology is marketed by our partner Semex Inc as Immunity+. While many advantages of HIR™ exist, there is more to learn, particularly as it relates to colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk from the mother that protects the new born. HIR™ cows have enhanced specific antibody and pass this protection to their calves via colostrum. Apart from specific antibody there is also “natural” antibody that circulates without previous exposure to pathogens. Natural antibody has been under-investigated even though it is known to provide first-line defense. Various other natural defense molecules, known as defensins, also have not been investigated in the context of high immune responders. Examining natural antibody, vaccine response and defensins in colostrum/milk from high versus average immune responders will be the focus here.

Physiological assessment of cochlear and auditory nerve integrity in children suspected of auditory processing disorder – Year two

Nearly 2 % of school-aged children face difficulty in understanding speech in the presence of background noise. These children are often referred to audiology clinics for a central auditory processing (CAP) assessment. The purpose of the referral is to rule out an auditory processing disorder (APD). The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association recommends to include electrophysiological measures to assess the neural integrity in children sAPD. However, less than 15 % of audiologist include the electrophysiological measure in their battery of assessment. The aim of this project is to develop or improvise existing electrophysiological measures to detect auditory brainstem abnormalities in children sAPD. This will be achieved in collaboration with Vivosonic. Inc. Clinically available two-channel Vivosonic Integrity system will be used to record auditory evoked potentials (AEP) in APD children, typically developing children and adults. Findings of this study may provide novel information regarding the neural processing in APD children. TO BE CONT’D

Physiological assessment of cochlear and auditory nerve integrity in children suspected of auditory processing disorder

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) recommends to include electrophysiological measures in their auditory processing disorder (APD) assessment battery. But few audiologist include electrophysiological assessment due to lack of evidence. There is strong evidence of auditory brainstem abnormality in these children. However, very less is understood about stimulus processing within the cochlea, auditory brainstem coding in noise (ipsilateral) and the thalmocortical functioning in APD children. As these evoked responses provide information regarding pre-neural processing, functioning of low spontaneous discharge rate (LSDR) fibers and upper-brainstem, respectively. With slight modification, these responses can be recorded using clinically available two-channel auditory evoked potential (AEP) system. In collaboration with Vivosonic. Inc, their existing AEP system will be improvised to record the electrocochleography, auditory brainstem responses in noise and the middle latency responses to a click and chirp stimulus. Evoked responses will be recorded from children sAPD, typically developing children and adults. The outcome of this project will provide novel information regarding the pre-neural and neural processing of acoustic stimuli in children sAPD. The collected data can be used in differential diagnosis of other auditory disorders such as auditory neuropathy.

Using LSA for Automatically Assessing Free Texts

To evaluate the content of free texts is a challenging task for human. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) can be used to automate this process. ShirWin Knowledge and Learning Systems Inc. is currently considering two instances of “free texts” assessment problems, one is automatic essay grading and the other is fact verification in a virtual learning environment . Both problems involve understanding the inner meaning of the free texts which can be successfully accomplished by using the LSA technique. The main objective of the proposed project is to verify the effectiveness of the LSA technology and conduct extensive experiments to provide solutions for the two problems. The performance of the LSA

models will be evaluated by measuring their correlation with the human-graded essays where better correlation will denote better effectiveness of the LSA technology.

Concussion Diagnosis: Improving clinical decision making in football

Diagnosing and managing concussions have become an increasing priority in sports medicine. The King-Devick test is a screening assessment of neurological functioning detecting impaired eye movements and saccades. During the 2016 Canadian Football League (CFL) season, all players will undergo pre-season (baseline) and post-injury testing with the King-Devick test in addition to the CFL’s standardized medical evaluation for concussion. This project will conduct a sensitivity and specificity analysis of the King-Devick test to evaluate its effectiveness in diagnosis concussions. It will be correlated with other well established concussion assessment tools such as the Sideline Concussion Assessment Test (SCAT). The utility of the King-Devick Test may enhance concussion diagnosis and management in professional football.

Signal in the network: public opinion polling using social media data

Can social media be used to make valid claims about public opinion? Skews in the usership of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook mean that the opinions of social media users usually do not reflect those of the population as whole. This project aims to develop a technique that corrects for the bias in social media data so as to make continuous, real-time, representative inferences about a target population. This project serves a case study focusing on the ability to predict political and electoral outcomes from social media. It aims to advance the scholarship in political methodology and contribute substantially to the research on political behaviour and electoral politics. It will also further the partner organization’s facility in predictive analytics using Big Data.

Deriving probiotics for male health

We are starting to understand a lot more about the bacteria in our intestinal tract which is called the microbiome. We think that these microorganisms are able to modulate the production of human hormones such as testosterone and actually produce some of these substances under specific conditions. We will look at the ability of beneficial probiotic strains to stimulate host or bacterial production in order to improve men’s health and ultimately would like to produce a probiotic product to do this for commercialisation. This will benefit the intern through microbiological investigations and the partner (Lallemand) who is a commercial producer of probiotics.