Innovative Projects Realized

Biodegradation of Dissolved Organic Matter

Water is vital for life; it is a resource we interact with daily and rely on implicitly. Our reliance on water resources is why water pollution is a global concern. One risk to water quality is elevated levels of toxic trace metals. While metals occur naturally in aquatic environments, human activities can increase natural concentrations to toxic levels.
Interactions of metals in aquatic environments are complex, and many metals may bind with organic matter in the water. This is a concern because this can increase the movement and availability of the toxic metals in the water. Therefore, understanding the cycling and interactions of organic matter is key to the study of trace metals. The proposed project aims to increase understanding of dissolved organic matter, which will also inform our understanding of trace metal interactions in aquatic environments. TO BE CONT’D

Investigating the scope of dsRNAi in human cells

Long dsRNA is produced by viruses during their replicative cycle. In plants and invertebrates, long dsRNAs block crucial cellular processes through RNA interference (RNAi). In vertebrates, long dsRNA is a potent inducer of critical signaling proteins that regulate antiviral immune responses. Although the RNAi system is conserved in vertebrates, there is little evidence to suggest that it plays a major role in antiviral defense. Moreover, it remains unclear whether long dsRNA can function as a template for RNAi (dsRNAi) in vertebrates. The proposed project aims to determine what human cell types are capable of using long dsRNA for RNAi and test this mechanism for novel therapeutic applications in the human cells.

Bohemian Matrices and Applications

“Bohemian matrices and applications” is a new and growing field in computational mathematics invented at Western University. The name “Bohemian” is a mnemonic for “Bounded Height Matrix of Integers”, which means that the entries of these matrices are drawn from a small set of numbers, such as {-1, 0, 1}. The original motivation for starting this field was to test software: we have found bugs in Matlab (a computer program which is widely-used by engineers and mathematicians), notably in the eigenvalue routine. However, as this field progressed, we have found many other applications of Bohemian matrices, such as (but not limited to) vibration analysis, compressed sensing, and optimization problems. The proposed research project (together with two of the top computer algebra research centers in the world) is to establish some foundational technical results for different families of Bohemian matrices. TO BE CONT’D

Mise en place d’outils et systemes de gestion en support a I’implantation de I’innovation ouverte

Dans Ie cadre de la demarche de I’IREO pour adopter I’innovation ouverte, I’equipe de recherche de

la ille, depuis 3 ans, un partenaire avec I’IREO pour: a) Oevelopper des meilleures pratiques et des

outils facilitant I’innovation ouverte, b) partager les meilleures pratiques d’entreprises innovantes en

innovation ouverte, developper les competenees cles chez les stagiaires pour reussir I’innovation

ouverte, c) etudier et evaluer les differents modeles d’organisation, d) planifier les diverses

innovations requlses dans les systemes d’innovation ouverts, adapter les processus et outils de

gestion en innovation teehnologique. Le but poursuivi par Ie projet planifie en 2011 est d’identifieri

accelerer, faeiliter et guider la mise en place de diverses innovations organisationnelles et

administratives specifiques touchant les strategies, processus, outils et methodes de gestion utiles a I’IREO dans Ie cadre de sa demarche d’innovation ouverte dans les 3 domaines suivants:

financement de I’innovation en partenariat, gestion de la en:iativite; gestion des connaissances.

Analyse biologique de différentes espèces de poissons d’eau douce d’intérêt pour la diversification de l’industrie piscicole Québécoise.

L’aquaculture est l’industrie agroalimentaires mondiales avec la plus forte croissance. Au Québec pourtant, la production piscicole ne bénéficie pas de cette croissance. L’industrie piscicole québécoise n’est pas très diversifiée et produit principalement de l’omble de fontaine, de la truite arc-en-ciel et de l’omble chevalier. Le nombre restreint d’espèce et la réglementation rigoureuse rend cette industrie plutôt vulnérable. Le projet vise identifier les espèces d’eau douce qui ne sont pas produites actuellement de façon commerciale au Québec, mais qui auraient une valeur marchande intéressante sur le marché de la table. Le projet permettra de (1) sélectionner et pondérer des critères, tant biologiques, physico-chimiques, techniques, financiers que réglementaires, servant à l’évaluation du potentiel d’élevage et de domestication de poissons, (2) de sélectionner les espèces à considérer pour le développement de l’aquaculture, (3) d’évaluer la préfaisabilité de projets d’élevage grâce à l’élaboration de modèles technico-économiques et (4) d’identifier les avenues de recherche maximisant la rentabilité commerciale.

Partnership Capacity in Australian Community Sport

Community Sport Organizations (CSOs) exist to provide opportunities for sport participation for youth and adults in many countries around the world. These nonprofit, voluntary organizations face many challenges in an increasingly complex environment due to their diverse stakeholders, scarce resources, volunteer turnover among other issues (Allison, 2001; Hoye & Cuskelly, 2007). Interorganizational partnerships have been identified as a central dimension influencing the overall organizational capacity of CSOs and the ability of these organizations to achieve their missions (Misener & Doherty, 2013; Doherty, Misener, & Cuskelly, 2014). This study will research partnership capacity within Australian CSOs. The particular objectives will be:

(1) to explore the type, frequency, and key motives for partnerships in the community sport sector;
(2) to identify the key capacities required to develop and manage effective partnerships;
(3) to understand the outcomes of community sport partnerships in the Australian context.

We anticipate that this study will result in theoretical development related to partnership management as well as cross-cultural comparison in addition academic manuscripts and technical reports for participating CSOs will be developed at the end of the study. This will also serve as a foundation for my future dissertation studies related to building capacity in youth sport organizations.

The effects of One to Zero Technique on neural function, health and well-being

The one-to-Zero (OTZ) Tension Adjustment is a chiropractic technique which corrects articular dysfunction of the articulation between the skull and the top vertebrae of the neck, also called the atlas. The goal of this study is to determine whether correcting dysfunction using OTZ affects brain processes and overall health and well-being. Participants will complete questionnaires relating to health and well-being before and after treatment. Researchers will also measure neck, arm and leg muscle strength, heart rate variability, and awareness of head position in 3D space, twice before treatment begins and at the completion of treatment. This study will help researchers to understand more about how altered sensory input from the neck muscles impacts overall health and performance. It will help Dr. McCord’s practice by providing evidence of the impact of OTZ on health.

Energy Selection Functions: Evaluating Polar Bear Movement Energetics

The energetic cost of traversing the environment is a fundamental component of an animal’s energetic balance and subsequently, their body condition. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) occupy dynamic sea ice habitats, which result in spatiotemporal variation in their energetic costs of movement. My objective is to evaluate the role of energetic balance in governing polar bear movement decisions. Most animal movement models ignore the role of energetics when evaluating space-use and movement patterns. I will modify a popular model to include estimates of energy expenditure/gain, resulting in variant models referred to as energy selection functions (ESFs). I will calculate energy expenditure from remotely sensed ice data and estimates of polar bear metabolic rates, and energy gains as a function of prey densities. This will form an energy landscape, onto which I will overlay bear GPS data to evaluate movement in relation to the energetic costs/gains of each GPS relocation path. ESFs will be the first animal movement models to consider energetics as a determining factor in animal movement decisions.

Analyse et prévision des prix du bois d’œuvre

Les prix figurent parmi les décisions importantes à prendre par les responsables des ventes. En particulier pour les entreprises du bois d’œuvre, les responsables de ventes se fient aux estimations des prix, basées sur le jugement d’experts, fournies hebdomadairement par le Conseil de l’Industrie Forestière du Québec (CIFQ). La génération hebdomadaire de ces estimations de prix nécessite beaucoup d’effort et ne représente pas une procédure viable à long terme. De plus, le CIFQ dispose d’un grand volume de données qui doivent être prises en considération pour générer des prévisions de prix. Ce projet vise à fournir aux experts du CIFQ un outil qui permet de valoriser les données dont ils disposent et de faire ressortir toutes les informations pertinentes permettant de prévoir de façon

Device-free indoor activity detection and localization using Wifi signals

Creating smart indoor environments that detect and understand human daily life activities is attracting significant amount of attention, due to their huge potential impact on context-aware technologies. Aerial Technologies, our partner organization, is developing products that provide device-free indoor localization and activity recognition Wi-Fi signals generated by off-the-shelf Wi-Fi enabled devices. This project will use state of the art machine learning and time-series analysis algorithms to improve the detection and classification capabilities of these systems.

A Novel Bone Anabolic Treatment in a Mouse Model of Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heritable disorder that causes bone fractures. The drugs that are used at present help to decrease the number of fractures by about half, but most people with OI have many fractures despite receiving currently available treatments. Mesentech Inc has developed a new drug that has shown a strong effect on bone formation in rats. In this project, we will test the effect of this drug in a mouse model of OI. The new drug will be injected three times per week during a period of four weeks and the effect on bone strength will be assessed. We expect that the new drug will increase bone formation activity and make bones stronger in OI mice. This will open a potential new treatment avenue for patients with OI.

Design and manufacturing of a plastic anchor using a chemical product acting as a time-dependent expansion mechanism

The objective of this project is to investigate the feasibility of a novel anchor fixation device for which the anchoring mechanisms is prompted by the expansion and polymerization of a polymeric material. Accordingly, an innovative solution inspired from the self-healing polymer concept is proposed for sufficient expansion and fixation to wall panels for masonry and commercial buildings of North America. The anchor must harden in less than 30 seconds after expansion and when exposed to air. In addition, the chemical component must have a shelf-life of at least 36 months. In association with Polytechnique Montréal, Cobra Fixations target to design, manufacture and test the tailored wall anchor. To achieve this goal, the first and foremost is to perform a comprehensive literature review on plastic wall anchors existing in the construction market and then self-healing materials, which provide autonomic repairing mechanisms, used to various engineering systems. TO BE CONT’D