Innovative Projects Realized

The hypersomnolence neuroimaging initiative: the first global consortium for harmonized MRI mega analysis on central hypersomnolence disorders

Central hypersomnolence disorders are characterised by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and strongly affect patients’ quality of life. A lack of awareness, as well as poorly understood underlying biology is hindering early identification and adequate treatment of hypersomnolence disorders. Ultimately, strongly reduced daytime functioning and quality of life in patients with central hypersomnolence disorders presents a burden for patients, partners, and society.
Neuroimaging studies in hypersomnolence disorders could help to improve our neurobiological understanding, but are often limited in size. Together with large variation of analysis methods that have been used across sites, this contributes to inconsistent findings and possibly overlooked, true effects in the search for more disease insights. To tackle these issues, the first international multicentre consortium ‘Hypersomnia-MRI’ has recently been initiated by research groups in Amsterdam, Leiden, and Montréal, reaching the largest sample size in the field of hypersomnolence disorders to date. Within this global consortium, existing scans will be processed with harmonised analysis methods and consequently pooled at a central site to increase statistical power. This results in high-impact overarching meta- and mega-analyses.

Optimization and value determination of products attained from wood waste materials through a novel dewatering and lignin extraction process.

Bridges Environmental Solutions Inc has developed a novel and low cost process for dewatering wood and waste wood materials and extracting a lignin-based solution useful in subsequent wood reforming and laminating processes, which they have helped develop. They use this lignin product to both chemically modify cellulose structures and permanently reform wood for improved mechanical properties. Their technology reduces the chemical and energy investments needed for attaining lignin and offers an environmentally friendly alternative to adhesives and laminates used in other manufacturing processes. Their dewatering process also represents a means for taking wood waste materials that have very low value, such as legacy sawdust piles and bush grind with high moisture content, and converting them into useable feedstock for biofuels and syngas production. To further develop their technology, they need to 1) validate the energy balance and cost recovery of their novel dewatering process; 2) chemically characterize the composition of the lignin product they produce; and 3) improve the colour, purity and stability of that lignin product to better serve the product quality requirements needed by other industries.

Control of shock-induced turbulent boundary layer separation using air jet vortex generators

Internship in analytical chemistry – trace element analysis with LA-ICP-MS

Mammalian genome architecture and mobility

Molecular mechanisms of DNA methyltransferase recruitment in health and disease

Vibration Analysis of Rotating Composite Compressor Blades

Machine learning for inline quality analysis in a mechanical press-line

Reinforcement Learning for Traffic Light Optimization

Automated Mapping of Software Projects to Common Platform Enumerations (CPEs)

Creating a Blood Vessel Model to Study Atherosclerosis by Using Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Gaze Detection with Monocular Cameras