Innovative Projects Realized

Biofiltration as a pre-treatment for membranes

The Windsor Lake drinking water treatment plant (WLWTP) in St. John’s Newfoundland is a
microfiltration (MF) membrane plant. One shortcoming of membrane filtration is a phenomena called
fouling; fouling refers to the build up of rejected particles on the surface or into the membrane’s pores
that can negatively affect the membrane’s performance. Since it’s installment, WLWTP has
experienced high fouling rates, reducing permeate flux and requiring frequent chemical cleanings. The
proposed research project will look into reducing membrane fouling and thus membrane cleaning
frequencies by pre-treating the raw water with a biofilter to remove membrane foulants, namely
natural organic matter (NOM). By partnering with researchers at Dalhousie University, CBCL has an
opportunity to assess the potential of new biological filtration techniques to serve as an alternative to
coagulation in Atlantic Canada. By understanding the capabilities of biofiltration as a pre-treatment for
membranes, CBCL can work towards providing these solutions to their clients in the future.

Development of an Al-controlled closed-loop neuromodulation system form chronic conditions

The treatment of chronic conditions accounted for 58% of the annual healthcare spend in Canada in 2012, primarily through the use of pharmaceuticals. However, these are generally best suited to treat acute diseases, as with chronic use, side effects can accumulate over time while therapeutic effects diminish. Neuromodulation of the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) represents a promising and adaptable treatment alternative to pharmaceuticals in many cases. Such treatments are still in their infancy and are currently dominated (>99.5%) by devices utilizing open-loop stimulation with clinician-led, manual adjustment. A closed-loop system that responds to peripheral nerve activity and other biomarkers in real time would enable dose-sensitive and targeted therapies. However, closed-loop neuromodulation systems face a significant challenge; smart adaptation requires an understanding of how particular nerves encode information to govern the behavior of tissues or organs. New methods must therefore be developed to decode and harness the large volumes of highly complex information transmitted through the PNS. This project will employ the latest findings in machine learning to extract biomarkers from neural data. Semi-supervised training methods will determine how these biomarkers drive physiological responses.

Developing a strategy for ensuring confidence in drinking water quality andquantity for the Samson Cree Nation

The Samson Cree Nation, near Hobbema, Alberta, relies on groundwater aquifers for its water. In the
Samson Nation faced worsening water quality that has resulted in the issue of
more than 65 boil-water advisories to residences, affecting almost ten percent of the wells on the
The source of the problem is unclear, and residents are concerned for their safety. This
to 1) determine source of the well-water contamination, 2) understand water use and
of exposure to water-borne pathogens, and 3) develop best management practices to
ensure water quality and supply for Samson Cree Nation. We will use a combination of water
and meters individual well-sites, computer simUlation models, and geographic visualization
tools to understand the problem, develop solutions, and represent our findings in an approachable,
user-friendly format…

Integrated modeling for systematically examining the performance of the Kennedale constructed wetland for a clean Canadian water environment

Constructed wetland is a critical water infrastructure in major Canadian cities like the city of
Edmonton, which treats wastewater including storm water by reducing the suspended solids and the
related contaminants before entering into receiving waterbody. The design and evaluating the
performance of a constructed wetland requires accurate prediction of flow fields and particle pollutants
settling behaviours. The objectives of this study are to develop a three-dimensional (3D) numerical
model that can predict the flow characteristics in a constructed wetland including the flow fields of
multi-phases and the dispersion and settling patterns of particles considering the effects of vegetation,
evaporation and runoff. The proposed 3D modelingsystern will b~ applied to examine and improve
the suspended solid removal efficiency of Kennedale constructed wetland in the City of Edmonton.
This research program will benefit the city of Edmonton and also Canada by i) systematically
evaluating the performance of the major wetland facility in Edmonton, ii) providing a cutting-edge
design and management method for…TOBECONT’D

Optimisation des systèmes de stockage d’énergie sur les réseaux dedistribution en lien avec des parcs éoliens et solaires

Le développement des énergies renouvelables est l’enjeux énergétique contemporain afin de diminuer l’impact de l’homme sur notre planète. Le stockage de l’énergie est l’un des enjeux les plus importants pour leur développement. Elles ne peuvent pas se développer à grande échelle sans systèmes de stockage en raison de leur intermittence et dépendance aux conditions météorologiques. Ces systèmes, utilisés de façon optimale, permettent de faire coïncider l’offre et la demande et permettent également des gains économiques et énergétiques.

Power Factors possède des clients ayant des sites de production d’énergie éolienne et solaire. La recherche porte sur l’étude du dimensionnement d’un tel système (à l’aide des données opérationnelles et de simulations) pour compléter un parc solaire ou éolien. Certains sites possèdent déjà des systèmes de stockage. La compréhension de leur dimensionnement permettra d’optimiser leur utilisation afin de mieux les intégrer sur le réseau de distribution.

Natural Language Processing for Automated Classification and Analysis of Aviation Safety Reports

The aviation industry connects people, markets, and cultures around the world and aviation is the key to ensuring that air transport continues to play a major role in driving sustainable economic and social development. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), as the trade association for the world’s airlines, representing some 280 airlines or 83% of total traffic, established one of its strategic objective to continuously improve safety and security performance and achieve year over year reduction of the 5-year accident rate from 2019-2035.
This project is to support effective risk identification by applying Natural Language Processor technologies in classifying accident and incident report into global harmonized classification system. This will support efficient and effective data-driven safety risk analysis, supporting global aviation safety community and return socioeconomic benefits of safe and reliable air transport to public.

Mobile Applications to Facilitate Physician-to-Physician Consultation

In the Nova Scotia healthcare system (and indeed across Canada), waitlists remain a major problem, particularly with regards to access to specialty care services. Virtual Hallway is a novel telehealth solution to this problem, providing an online platform which allows for rapid doctor-to-doctor communication with the goal of fast-tracking and improving patient care and reducing waitlist times.
The goal of this project is to design and apply the first prototype of a mobile application for the Virtual Hallway platform. This would allow for even more rapid telephone consultations between doctors right on the doctors’ own cell phones. This design follows all Canadian healthcare laws and prioritizes personal health information safety and security accordingly. It would work by allowing family doctors to log in on their cell phone, choose which specialist they need to talk to, and to book a date/time that is convenient to both them and the specialist. It also takes care of all the documentation and billing for both the family doctor and the specialist so they can focus on the patient care while also being appropriately paid for their work.

Impacts of invasive European Cattail on Invertebrate Communities in the Fraser River estuary

Estuaries are important ecosystems which provide us with many benefits, some of which include storing carbon, dampening the impacts of rising sea levels, and are areas of high biodiversity. The Fraser River estuary in the lower mainland of British Columbia is seeing alteration from human presence, including the introduction of invasive species. One invasive species of interest is the European Cattail (Typha angustifolia) and its hybrid TyphaXGlauca. It grows in dense stands where it outcompetes native vegetation, but we don’t know what impact this is having on sediment dwelling insects and crustaceans, which are important food sources for residents of the estuary such as salmon. In partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), this study will investigate the differences in invertebrate communities between invasive and native vegetation dominated stands. The information gained from this study can be used by DUC to help further their restoration of the estuary for juvenile salmonids.

Microbial carbonate precipitation by autotrophic and heterotrophic bacterial species for crack prevention of overlaying concrete

Because of the crack’s appearance in concrete over time, the concrete strength decrease. To prevent deterioration and heavy costs of reparation, concrete chemical additives are usually added but their cost are prohibitive and not very sustainable along time. Successful research projects have been using encapsulated bacteria in the concrete which reactivate at the contact of air and water -when cracks appear. These bacteria multiplicate in the cracks and die which create a precipitation and fill the cracks. These bio-based solutions make it possible to consider a self-healing concrete, which is more sustainable.
Our research project aims to assess cyanobacteria’s precipitation properties for self-healing concrete. Photosynthetic cyanobacteria grow by capturing carbon dioxide and have already shown their great potential of microbial precipitation. Longer and real tests in concrete should be done to estimate their performance and capacity to heal cracks compared to other existing additives.

Efficient representation, compression and real-time delivery of stereoscopic 360-degree video

The emerging 360-degree video applications provide the user with an immersive experience. This comes at the price of high computational complexity to process the high-resolution content (e.g. 4K or 8K) and of high data rate to deliver it in real time to the user. The user’s experience can be made more realistic using stereoscopic 360-degree (3D-360) video as it adds depth to the scenes as experienced in real life.
In this research, we will explore the representation, compression and transport of 3D-360 video content. We are particularly interested in the optimization of video coding methods to maximize quality of experience for the user at the lowest cost in terms of bandwidth and computations for the system. To succeed in this endeavor, we plan on developing specific algorithms and novel approaches to encode 8K 3D-360 video content to be streamed on IP networks over wired and wireless channels.

Gut loading crickets (Gryllus sigillatus) to improve their nutritional value for use in pet foods

Insects are a high protein feed ingredient that can be grown sustainably. Insects need less food input, use less water, and grow well indoors making them more sustainable than traditional pet feed ingredients such as soybeans and animal proteins. Some aspects of the nutritional profile of insects can be manipulated by growing them on different feed ingredients. In this study we hope to improve the vitamin E, manganese, and iron content of insects for use in pet foods. We will feed insects sunflower seeds to crickets for various lengths of time. We will design an optimized feeding regiment to boost the nutrient profile of crickets, with the lowest increase of feed input costs.

Thousand Protein Multiplexed Mass Spectrometry Assay for Biomarker Discovery

In recent years, the interest given to disease biomarkers has boomed. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are exploring ways to use biomarkers to speed up the drug development process, as well as to rapidly assess a diseases state, staging, progression and response to therapy. Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) Mass Spectrometry (MS) has been shown to be well suited for the selective and sensitive quantification of proteins in plasma and has recently emerged as the technology of choice for disease biomarker study. The focus of this research project is to develop a quantitative multiplexed MRM assay as a biomarker discovery tool to directly detect and quantify proteins secreted from various tissues into plasma from the rat. This assay will then be used to screen and quantify protein biomarkers associated with various disease states, such as cardiovascular disease, in the rat plasma.