Innovative Projects Realized

Electrochemical promotion of Ni-based catalyst for hydrogen production via ethanol and glycerol steam reforming

The proposed research will result in better understanding of the mechanism of ethanol and glycerol steam reforming while using Ni-based electrocatalysts. The main goal is hydrogen production from glycerol waste and ethanol. It will foster research in one of the promising process of hydrogen rich gas production. The results will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals, international and regional events such as conferences and workshops. This will allow us to interact with the research community, diffuse the scientific results and anticipate the future research behind the proposed work. All in all, this project will lay the foundation of Canadian leadership in the next generation of electrochemical clean energy technologies.

Building a National Ocean Literacy Strategy

This collaborative, pan-Canadian and consultation-based research project will develop an ocean literacy strategy for Canada with the aim of elevating Canadians understanding of the importance of ocean health and their capacity to participate in ways that promote a sustainable ocean ecosystem and economy. The interns will respectively coordinate the overall national consultation process (pdf#1), facilitate regional consultations (pdf #2; pdf #3; pdf #4; intern #5) and synthesize regional reports into a draft national strategy (pdf #1; intern #6). Partner organizations will benefit from strengthened network relations – both existing and new – as well as from the extended reach of this project across five regions of Canada. Reciprocally, the Canadian community will benefit from the collaborative partnerships in this project on account of each partner’s vested interest in strengthened public engagement in ocean conservation, citizen science, behaviour change-oriented education, industry innovation and policy efforts.

La “communauté” entre le cynisme et le stoïcisme

Le cynisme est un courant philosophique qui a vu le jour au IVe s. av. J.-C. et qui demeure méconnu en raison de la rareté des sources historiques. Mon projet de recherche aborde la question des liens entre le cynisme et le stoïcisme, une école philosophique avec laquelle le cynisme entretiendrait une relation de “communauté”. C’est du moins ce que rapporte Diogène Laërce, un historien de la philosophie du IIIe s. ap. J.-C., dans une formule énigmatique. Mes recherches feront la lumière sur la nature de la relation particulière qui unit les deux courants philosophiques et ouvrira une perspective nouvelle sur le cynisme et les modalités de ses contacts avec les écoles philosophiques de son temps. Grâce à mon séjour en France, j’aurai la chance de travailler sous la supervision d’un spécialiste du stoïcisme et de côtoyer de nombreux spécialistes de mon domaine. Leur expertise m’apportera une aide cruciale dans l’avancement de mes recherches.

Indigenous Art & Culture in Public Space

There is a gap in the research pertaining to Indigenous populations and the inclusion of their art and culture in public space. I became aware of this while serving as a volunteer on the Public Art Advisory Committee for the City of Saskatoon. The literature and policy development falls short in cities across Canada.

The opportunity to learn about the Sami (the Indigenous who reside in the northern regions of Sweden, Norway and Finland) and the mechanisms that are in place to activate their engagement in the community, will be of value to Canadian cities. I will present my research analysis to the relevant departments at the City of Saskatoon. I will also present to the University of Saskatchewan’s Art and Art History Department, Regional and Urban Planning Department and the Indigenous Studies Department. I will also seek opportunities to disseminate my research beyond to neighbouring provinces.

The Generation of Market and Ethical Values in a Canadian Wild Food Network

This research focuses on a product of growing popular interest: “wild foods” like morel mushrooms,

wild blueberries and fiddleheads. Why do the people who produce, trade and consume these foods

value them? How can this value, whether economic, social or ecological, be increased? Because the

attraction of these foods comes from their being “wild,” and thus depends on facts about production

and trade not cultivated; non-industrial; traditional-I interview the suppliers of a Canadian wild

foods distributor and retailer to determine how their products are actually produced and traded. I also

work as a participating ohserver at office, market and harvest sites, producing naturalistic data about

how people work with, talk about and value these foods as they gather, trade and taste them. This

provides the details about production and trade required to fuel processes of value enhancement, while

identifying which sorts of information, within which marketing methods, best generate value- and

why.

A Comparative Analysis of Self-employment Work Disability Policy in Ontario (Canada) and Australia

Currently, self-employment is one of the non-standard and precarious work relationships internationally. Unlike regular employees in Canada, self-employed workers can expect little from the state in terms of social securities. While some self-employers may feel financially secure without supports from the state, this reality does not reflect the experiences of all self-employed workers. Despite the internationally growing gig/self-employment economy, little is known about how the existing legislation and policies support self-employed workers, including when they are ill or injured and unable to work. Under these circumstances, this comparative policy analysis will shed light on how Ontario and Australian work disability policies support self-employed workers. This policy study will contribute knowledge to identify the gaps in existing work disability policies in Ontario and Australia. Overall, using this base-line study, researchers may conduct empirical studies focused on understanding how self-employed workers experience their lives navigating their ill health, injury, and disability.

Evaluating Adolescent Rickets in the Netherlands in the 19th Century

The proposed research aims to use non-destructive MicroCT analysis to investigate the levels of adolescent rickets and potential gender differences in the occurrence of the condition in two 19th century communities, Beemster and Hattem, in the Netherlands. In paleopathology, patterns of rachitic changes are well recognized in individuals that died during infancy and early childhood, however, they have not been properly assessed in adolescents. This research will be the first to observe and evaluate the changes occurring in adolescence, thus creating a framework by which rickets can be evaluated in adolescents of other populations. The Mitacs Globalink grant will give me the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands to work in a European university with an extensive skeletal collection and access to a MicroCT centre. This research will be instrumental in strengthening my skills in the analysis of metabolic bone diseases in archaeological human remains.

Études des vésicules extracellulaires de plaquettes contenant des organelles dans un contexte de transfusion

Au cours de l’inflammation, de nombreuses cellules peuvent s’activer. Dans ce contexte, les plaquettes sont reconnues pour générer des vésicules extracellulaires appelées microparticules, qui sont de petits fragments membranaires pouvant contenir des organelles comme la mitochondrie ou le protéasome. Nous avons récemment observé la présence de protéasome fonctionnel, essentiel pour la présentation antigénique, dans ces microparticules que nous avons nommé protéoMPs. Nous avons démontré la présence de protéoMPs dans différents liquides biologiques tels que le sang, le liquide synovial et les lavages bronco-alvéolaires. La présence de protéasome suggère que ces populations de microparticules puissent jouer de nouvelles fonctions jamais anticipées, potentiellement dans des contextes d’inflammation et immunité. Il a récemment été démontré que les mégacaryocytes et les plaquettes contiennent aussi du protéasome, expriment le complexe majeur d’histocompatibilité de classe I et peuvent effectuer la présentation antigénique et exercer un rôle dans la réponse immunitaire. Notre objectif est donc de vérifier si cette caractéristique est transmise aux vésicules de plaquettes contenant le protéasome.

Effects of feeding management on endocrine responses of dairy calves

It is essential that calves are provided proper nutrition early on in life as they are the future of the milking herd. In addition to milk, many producers opt to provide solid feed, such as grain and forage, to young calves to foster gastrointestinal tract development. Solid feed can be provided as: 1) grain and forage as separate components, or 2) grain and forage mixed together. Previous research has investigated how feed presentation influences calf feed and nutrient intake, and average daily gain. However, there is a knowledge gap as little research has looked at the impact of feed presentation on gut peptides. Gut peptides such as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), insulin, and glucagon-like peptides (GLP-1 and GLP-2) each play a role in calf development and health. Therefore, the present study will investigate how feed presentation affects the plasma concentration of gut peptides. We aim to improve the understanding of calf development relating to gut peptides, and how feed presentation influences this process. Furthermore, the knowledge obtained from this study can be applied to improving feeding practices in the dairy industry to better calf development and health.

Effects of intervention with elongation factor 1A1 inhibitor on intestinal lipid metabolism and fatty liver disease in obese mice

Fatty liver disease occurs in the setting of obesity and a high-fat diet, and involves a build-up of excess fat in the liver. Excess fat can cause injury to the liver, which can lead to scarring, and in some cases liver cirrhosis and cancer. As obesity rates increase, it is important to investigate possible ways to treat this disease. We are studying a compound called didemnin B (DB), and found that, in obese mice, treatment with DB reduced the amount of fat in both the liver and bloodstream. To understand how this happened, we plan to look at the intestines from these mice to see if some of this fat was redistributed to the intestine. To visualize the fat, we will use a fluorescent dye, and take pictures of the intestines with a microscope. We expect that obese mice treated with DB will have more fat present in the intestines than untreated mice, and that this may contribute to the decreased fat we observed in liver and blood.

The physics of Boltzmann machines

Artificial Neural Networks are powerful tools used in the field of artificial intelligence. Inspired by the human brain, they have shown very good results in certain tasks, such as image classification and even in the generation of new images. The problem with neural networks is that we do not understand why they are working so well. To improve the understanding of neural networks we will study a very simple form of them, a so-called restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM). This kind of architecture of neural networks was inspired by statistical physics and therefore we will focus on the understanding of the learning process as a physical process. We will use the language of statistical physics to describe the learning, which is in our understanding nothing else than a process of physical equilibration. After formalizing this process we will focus on the generalization of RBMs to use them for more complex inputs such as for example continuous variables instead of only binary inputs.

Étude de l’écosystème de Sherbrooke

Alors que les contours de l’écosystème entrepreneurial de Sherbrooke commencent à se dessiner, les acteurs du milieu sont à la recherche de matière pour alimenter leurs réflexions et d’un guide pour aligner leurs actions. Afin d’accompagner la création et le maintien d’un écosystème dynamique, un plan de match est envisagé. Les étapes principales consistent à cartographier l’état de l’écosystème actuel, à identifier les différents parcours entrepreneuriaux, à documenter les initiatives émergentes sur le terrain, à explorer les bonnes pratiques éprouvées au sein d’autres écosystèmes ainsi qu’à envisager d’autres pistes d’actions pour l’avenir.

La recherche-action a été choisie comme stratégie de recherche. Elle permet une intervention rapide et agile, une implication directe sur le terrain, des rétroactions régulières et des ajustements au plan d’action. Il s’agit d’une méthode in situ dont le principe est de réaliser une recherche en cocréation avec les acteurs du milieu.

Les contributions anticipées de ce projet sont prolifiques. La recherche permettra de représenter la singularité du cas sherbrookois de manière à inspirer et guider d’autres initiatives entreprises dans un contexte apparenté. Elle servira à canaliser l’intelligence collective de la région de manière à améliorer durablement la situation entrepreneuriale. De ce fait, le passage à l’action et (…)