Innovative Projects Realized

Settler-Indigenous Alliances in Food Governance Processes in Canada and Australia

Current approaches to food policy and governance have resulted in a range of social, environmental and economic problems, including inequity and food insecurity among Indigenous people. Projects in Canada and Australia have shown promising approaches to achieving more sustainable food systems, a central piece being constructing meaningful relationships between settler and Indigenous peoples. Building on a research project linking Canada and Australia, this project will look at relationships between Indigenous and settler people in the food movements in each country. This work will help inform growing international research collaborations as well as respective civil society organizations at a time when both countries are moving towards national food policies.

Investigating commercial impact of applied research funding in NB

In an atmosphere of dwindling research funding availability, making sure that the limited money is wisely invested is of critical importance. In our study, we propose to investigate how applied research has been funded in NB over the last decade, and how this funding has impacted economic growths. This study will attempt to make a link between applied research and creation of start-ups and spinouts, with the objective to determine what kind of research funding, at what stage in the research continuum, has the greatest economic impact. This will directly benefit the NBIF and other funding agencies by allowing them to target their funding programs and thus maximising the benefit for New Brunswick.

Total Synthesis of (?)-Acaranoic acid

Lichens are a symbiosis of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria. Lichen substances have been reported to show a wide array of biological activities including antiviral, antioxidant, antitumor action. This project aims to establish a reliable way to prepare (?)-acaranoic acid, a lichen substance isolated in 1895, from commercially available chemicals. The proposed synthesis of this natural product highlights a novel dynamic kinetic resolution via olefin hydroacylation, which can potentially deliver multiple stereocentres to the molecular architecture with excellent control over selectivity. Successful accomplishment of (?)-acaranoic acid will make it an asset for biological screenings, as well as stimulate future application of dynamic kinetic resolution exploiting C-C bond formation in target-directed synthesis.

Quantifying Motor Function: A Proof-of-Concept Investigation

Stroke is the leading causes of permanent disability in adults in the world. However, rehabilitation can be a long process requiring hard labor with high cost. This project proposes to develop a rapid and easy to record indicator of motor performance for individuals with neuro/motor conditions. The team intend to develop an electroencephalography (EEG) based technique to derive a motor score suitable for assessing impact of rehabilitation protocols/interventions. The team intend to test the EEG-based M-Score of the first objective in a proof-of-concept rehabilitation study where the Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS™) developed by the supporting organization is paired with state-of-the-art robotic systems available in Dr. Menon’s laboratory to improve motor performance.

Correction de mouvement en tomographie d’émission par positrons à l’aide d’un système de stéréoscopie optique et de la reconstruction en mode liste événement-par-événement

La Tomographie d’émission par positrons (TEP) est une modalité d’imagerie médicale qui permet d’observer des processus biologique in vivo. L’imagerie TEP trouve de nombreuses applications en neurosciences, notamment pour la détection et le suivi des maladies neurodégénératives. Pour des images précises, le sujet doit demeurer immobile pendant l’acquisition des données qui peut typiquement durer plusieurs minutes. Le flou induit par le mouvement peut être mitigé en subdivisant l’acquisition en segments où le sujet est immobile. Une approche plus efficace qui élimine toute perte de données consiste à corriger au vol chaque événement à l’aide d’une lecture par stéréoscopie optique de la position du sujet. Notre objectif est d’implanter cette technique dans un processus de reconstruction événement-par-événement pour un imageur TEP cerveau d’ultra-haute résolution conçu à Sherbrooke en collaboration avec, et grace a un financement NIH obtenu par le Gordon Center. TO BE CONT’D

The Feminist Buddha: Revisiting the Role of Gender within Buddhist Communities in Sichuan Province, China

This project will be researching gender inequality in Buddhist communities within Sichuan province, China. I will be conducting interviews with both monastic and lay practitioners to get firsthand accounts of the role of gender in Buddhist institutions. Previous scholarly work concludes there is significant gender inequality within Buddhist institutions. This project will revisit the issue of gender inequality in Buddhism to provide updated research on the perceptions of gender by Buddhist practitioners, how gender roles function within Buddhist communities and whether any actions have been taken by these communities towards creating greater gender equality. The goal of this project is to connect previous literature and proposed resolutions for gender inequality to the current functionality of Buddhist communities in Sichuan province. Furthermore, I hope to develop a more thorough understanding of how gender plays a role in contemporary Buddhism.

War remote from physical contact: the ideology, form and strategy in Chinese and Japanese visual propaganda during WWII

During WWII, unlike radio programming, electronic visual media were not widely popular in Chinese and Japanese citizens’ personal lives. However, visual print media provided sources from which both government and civilian organizations could develop effective platforms for publicity and propaganda. In this project, I would visit Japan and China to retrieve war period visual media products such as Japanese Manga, Kamishibai, as well as Chinese Manhua produced by Manhua resistance artists during the war of resistance against Japanese aggression. By accessing such materials, I would reveal war period China and Japan’s contrasting ideologies, their functions and the dichotomy of their audiences’ responses to wartime Manhua, Manga and Kamishibai. During the process of gathering war time visual media products, I have become aware of the significance of connecting the “past” and “present” to acquire a clearer cognizance of the bilateral relationship between China and Japan. Hence, I would follow my passion through research in Japan and utilize my language and research abilities to share my findings with those who also have an enduring interest in the Sino-Japanese relationship.

An International City of News: Shanghai as a Site of Competing Spheres of Foreign Influence

This project will explore the history of how British, French, American, German, and Soviet news suppliers competed to supply international news to Shanghai in the 1930s and during World War II. While researchers have explored Western provision of news, they have yet to understand these processes from the Chinese perspective. This project will examine newspapers in Chinese from Shanghai to understand how Chinese editors and journalists selected news and how Shanghai functioned as an international city of news. It will also try to find records about how editors and journalists chose to select and present certain types of international news. By putting the city of Shanghai at the centre of the research, this project pushes back against Western-centric notions of news. It creates connections between the research of the two supervisors: Professor Tworek has written about international news, while Professor Tang has focused on Chinese media. Finally, the project provides important methodologies for how researchers might explore contemporary media by looking at particular cities as sites of competition for international news.

Properties and behaviours of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in response to lung microenvironment in human Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening condition with a high mortality. Currently, there are no proven pharmacological therapies available for the management of ARDS patients. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have been shown to be interesting candidates for treating ARDS. But their therapeutic effects as demonstrated in animal models and clinical trials have been inconsistent. The observations that MSC treatment may result in unwanted effects under certain conditions suggest a need for identifying biomarkers in ARDS patients to guide MSC therapy. This project seeks to investigate whether the lung microenvironment plays an important role in determining MSC function in ARDS. Plasma will be collected from ARDS patients and divided into 2 groups. TO BE CONT’D

Implantation d’un système expérimental de réfrigération naturelle (freecooling)

Ayant l’intention de promouvoir un nouveau modèle économique centré sur la coopération, l’innovation

continue et la protection de l’environnement, je propose à l’industrie brassicole de former des partenariats de

recherches dans le but de réaliser des projets de R&D en efficacité énergétique. C’est dans cette optique que

j’ai rencontré M. Pierre-Paul Carpentier, cofondateur de la coopérative brassicole de travailleur À LA FÛT

(Saint-Tite) ainsi que M. Bruno Blais, cofondateur de la coopérative brassicole de travailleur La Barberie

(Québec). Ayant accepté d’établir une alliance stratégique pour un projet de recherche & développement, j’ai

proposé un projet d’intervention qui permettrait d’utiliser les basses températures de l’air extérieur, c’est-àdire

le froid, afin de refroidir un liquide de réfrigération tel le glycol pour maintenir la température d’une

chambre froide en hiver. La technologie du « free cooling » permettra de réduire les coûts élevés de l’énergie

qui sont dus en grande partie aux compresseurs de réfrigérations conventionnels qui sont très énergivores.

Downstream purification of RNA therapeutics

Gene therapy is an expanding field that shows promise in the long term treatment of many genetic disorders. CRISPR-Cas9 technology is one way of editing the existing genome when trying to treat genetic disorder, or engineering genetic therapeutics. One area of interest is RNA therapeutics based on this technology. The Zydney and Salis lab groups at Penn State have been producing Cas9 protein using the CSL Behring Fermentation Facility. These proteins are then coupled to guide RNA for the specific gene therapy application. One of the challenges is that there is often residual guide RNA that needs to be removed after the coupling reaction. This project will explore the potential for using ultrafiltration systems for the separation of the protein-RNA complex from the free RNA. This work will focus on determining the effect that factors such as filtrate flux, pore size, product size, and surface chemistry have on RNA transmission.

Selection and Characterization of DNA aptamers for macrolide ring closure reactions

A class of compounds the work will be done are tetrahydrofuran-incorporating polyketide macrolides. This class of compounds are natural products found in diverse marine and terrestrial environments, and it has been found to show potentially useful activity in a variety of biological assays. In order to explore and expand this family of macrolides, it is required to vary the chemical space around the core structure of these compounds. The synthetic pathway involves a ring closing olefin metathesis reaction.
The primary objective is to select for DNA aptamers that bound one or the other isomer of the macrolide shown in the proposal specifically. And, then to see if the ring closure experiment was carried out in the presence of the aptamer, (1) one isomer would be preferentially formed, and (2) the rate of formation of that isomer may be accelerated. TO BE CONT’D