Innovative Projects Realized

Mining sites as incubators for green energy and other value added products

The mining industry is a key economic driver for Northern Ontario, and mine and associated support and

processing facility closures result, therefore, in significant impacts on the local community direct and indirect

employment and economy. Despite each mining operation representing a significant investment in preparation,

transport, infrastructure and technology, much, if not all, is lost to the community after closure. A mine site also

creates and occupies significant tracts of land that are essentially non-productive assets.

To address this issue, this is a multi-disciplinary, multi-company research program that involves both a school of

process engineering and of medicine, and links energy recovery and greenhouse gas accounting with

generation of biofuels and natural microbial sourced heath compounds. It is based around innovative uses of

mine lands for achieving extractable energy value from sources of waste heat generated. In particular use of

these sites as an “incubators” for the production from indigenous microalgae of renewable biofuels and…tobecont’d

The human dimensions of wetlands and waterfowl conservation: Developing measures of stakeholder involvement in conservation activities and nature-based recreation

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) is an international partnership to conserve abundant and resilient waterfowl populations and sustainable landscapes. Through their work with the four Canadian NAWMP Joint Ventures, Ducks Unlimited Canada collaborate on waterfowl and habitat management issues, including social issues that are relevant to wetland and waterfowl conservation. This project will increase the human dimensions capacity of the Joint Venture community and develop and measure repeatable indicators of conservation and nature-based recreation involvement among wetlands and waterfowl conservation stakeholders in Canada. This project involves three studies that will (1) identify relevant stakeholders with interests in waterfowl and wetlands conservation, (2) identify measures of conservation and nature-based recreation involvement, and (3) test and implement these measures in a national web-based survey of waterfowl and wetlands conservation stakeholders.

Development of Functional Calcium Imaging with Quartet®, for studying odor memory circuits

1 in 5 people suffer from a mental illness, such as depression, Alzheimer’s & Parkinon’s during their lifetime. Currently, there are no treatments for these diseases, because the underlying causes of these diseases is not known. Neurescence has developed a technology that is essential for understanding how local and long range neuronal circuits form to create healthy brain function, hence understand how these neuronal circuits are disrupted in each disease. This project is related in developing the techniques required to use this technology and the creation of training material, enabling Neurescence to offer training to its customers along side the technology, hence facilitate technology adoption. The result is not only helping to push our knowledge of the brain to find treatments for its diseases, but also helping Neurescence realize its commercial goals, resulting into creation of jobs for highly skilled workers in STEM fields.

The prosody of Uruguayan-Brazilian border Spanish: Cross-generational and Social variation

The present dissertation has the main aims of describing the Spanish prosody of bilingual speakers of Portuguese living in the Uruguayan-Brazilian border and observing how it varies across three different generations of bilinguals through an apparent-time analysis. In particular, I will explore whether this variation could be attributed to the influence of Montevideo Spanish (MS), the national prestige language in Uruguay; i.e. I will explore whether younger speakers, who travel to Montevideo more often and avoid the use of Portuguese (UP and/or BP), approach the patterns of Montevideo Spanish more closely than older speakers who have spent most of their lives in the border and have stronger ties to the local identity. I will also look at their place of origin, urban vs. rural, and socioeconomic status. I intend to test and record a list of stimuli produced by the mentioned bilinguals in different contexts of production (mediated vs. unmediated) to also control for influence of beliefs about the interlocutor). This study will allow us to understand the role sociolinguistic factors play in bilingual speech and how variation can be traced in prosodic factors such as speech rhythm, speech rate and intonation.

Improved Radiative Recombination in Silicon Carbide Through Neutron Irradiation

White light emission from blue-emitting Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) is now replacing virtually all other types of lighting and display lighting in commercial and residential sectors.
Currently, such LEDs are made using gallium indium nitride, gallium indium aluminum phosphide and gallium arsenide compounds that are expensive to produce. Instead we are seeking to use very low cost silicon carbide by introducing damage into the crystalline structure of this material. This damage is known to enable improved radiative efficiency. Without modification, silicon carbide provides virtually no light emission.
Damage as a result of neutron bombardment will be studied. High energy neutrons are available from the nuclear reactor at McMaster University. This gives us a unique opportunity to study neutron damage in silicon carbide and its effect on the radiative efficiency of silicon carbide LEDs.

Impact de saines habitudes de vie sur la condition métabolique de femmes ayant été atteintes d’un cancer du sein

Le projet CHANGE est une étude multicentrique qui a pour but de renverser le syndrome métabolique, c’est-à-dire de ramener vers la normalité la condition de personnes à risque de développer le diabète. En pratique, le diagnostic de syndrome métabolique est posé par le médecin de famille qui réfère par la suite son patient à un kinésiologue et un nutritionniste dont l’intervention est centrée sur l’amélioration des habitudes de vie. Dans ce cas-ci, le kinésiologue et le nutritionniste sont des professionnels certifiés qui sont également inscrites à des études graduées à l’Université Laval. Cette implication contribuera à leur formation clinique et scientifique. Pour le partenaire externe, soit la Fondation cancer du sein du Québec, cette collaboration représente une opportunité unique de bonifier ses activités de promotion de la pratique d’activité physique tout en y greffant un volet nutritionnel visant l’acquisition de saines habitudes alimentaires.

Suspended sediment contributions from Forest Roads in the Honna River watershed

The Honna River is a source of drinking water for the Village of Queen Charlotte on Haida
Gwaii, British Columbia. There is concern that sediment from a highly traveled logging road is
contributing to poor water quality in the Honna River. This project is following up on the work
of Elizabeth Baird (2010 MITACS Intern), where she determined what factors controlled
sediment leaving logging roads. However, the dataset she used was limited to a 10 month
period. This project has two main objectives using a longer dataset collected over the past 3
years: 1. determining what impact logging truck traffic has on sediment transported to
streams during typical rainfall events and; 2. assessing how improvements to logging roads
could reduce sediment transported to nearby streams. This proposal is intended to focus on
the first objective, with a separate proposal to focus on the second in 2013. This study will
aim to provide….TOBECONT’D

The Role of Surface Oxidation on the Behaviour of Metal Alloy Microparticles in Electronics Assembly

Solder paste is a material that is approximately 90 % metal alloy powder by weight and 10 % flux medium, a material consisting of organic compounds whose principal function is to remove oxide from the powder surface, is used in the assembly of electronic devices. This material is printed onto circuit boards, after which components are mounted onto them. The assembly is then passed through an oven in a process known as reflow fusing components to the board. The effect of the powder’s surface characteristics on paste behaviour is poorly understood. This research project aims to take advantage of high-resolution surface characterization techniques to establish a link between the composition and thickness of the powder’s surface oxide and the solder paste behaviour.

Urban Indigenous Housing in BC: Means of and barriers to addressing Indigenous housing need in municipal housing policies and plans

This study aims to understand how municipalities in British Columbia (BC) address urban Indigenous housing need within their Official Community Plans and housing strategies by reviewing a sample of plans and strategies from throughout BC and interviewing municipal planning staff. For AHMA, the Umbrella Organization of Indigenous Housing Providers in BC, this research is necessary to identify policy gaps and influence decision makers accordingly. In addition, municipalities in BC are now eligible to receive funding from the Province to perform a Housing Needs Report in their communities, so this project will help AHMA identify the gaps in Indigenous inclusion for these assessments and intervene to maximize the impact of provincial funding.

Développement d’une méthode d’optimisation pour la génération des horaires du personnel de soins afin de minimiser l’absentéisme et les arrêts de travail

Le projet de recherche tente de réduire l’impact de l’absentéisme et des arrêts de travail (chez le personnel de soins) sur la qualité des services proposés dans les hôpitaux. Pour cela, des emplois du temps optimisés seront générés à l’aide de nouveaux indicateurs. Ces indicateurs seront créés avec des algorithmes issus de l’intelligence artificielle à partir des données historiques sur les quarts de travail, dont l’absentéisme et les arrêts de travail. Par exemple, nous pourrons identifier (prédire) le quart de travail présentant le plus de probabilité d’être en sous-effectif et compenser ce risque en affectant un plus grand nombre de collaborateurs. L’objectif final est d’améliorer le bien-être au travail du personnel de soins en réduisant la surcharge liée au manque de personnel et de faciliter la tâche des gestionnaires dans la réalisation des emplois du temps.

Isolation thermique des vêtements de protection en condition de froid extrême

Le froid extrême est un environnement quotidien pour de nombreux travailleurs canadiens. La conception de vêtements de protection efficaces contre le froid passe par une connaissance parfaite de son isolation thermique, ce qui n’est pas actuellement le cas. Pour pallier à cette lacune, ce projet propose 1) de déterminer l’isolation thermique de différents assemblages de textiles développés par notre partenaire industriel et dans des conditions d’utilisation réelles et 2) de comprendre le comportement structurel de ces assemblages par différentes techniques d’analyse.
Ce projet offrira un avantage concurrentiel non négligeable à Logistik Unicorp dans la conception de vêtements de protection contre le froid. De plus, les innovations qui en découleront seront utilisés par notre partenaire à des fins de formations tant en interne qu’auprès de l’industrie textile canadienne.

Evaluating anthropogenic impacts on arctic breeding raptors

Peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) and rough-legged hawks (Buteo lagops) breed throughout the Canadian Arctic. Several monitoring programs were established in the 1970’s and 1980’s to evaluate the recovery of these and other raptors following the banning of DDT. DDT is a pesticide that was once widely used, but resulted in severe population declines in many raptors via its action of reducing egg shell thickness, resulting in low breeding success. Although raptor populations have recovered over the last several decades, the arctic is increasingly affected by other anthropogenic impacts including landscape disturbance from industrial activities (e.g., mining) and climate change. This project will study peregrines and rough-legged hawks at two sites Nunavut with the aim of understanding how these raptors respond to human-generated disturbances. Specifically, this project will address the following three questions: 1) How does proximity to anthropogenic disturbance such as mining activity affect nesting site selection? 2) Does the intensity of response to human observers visiting the nest predict other parental care behaviours? 3) How does year-to-year variation in environmental conditions affect the provisioning behaviour of parents? Each of these questions will be considered in light of their consequences for breeding productivity.