Innovative Projects Realized

Non Linear optical studies of diamine based hybrid perovskites

Developing energy efficient materials for new age technology is an area of extreme interest in academics as well industries. Hybrid perovskites are have proved to be rapidly growing to be promising materials in the field of solar cells with efficiencies reaching 23%. The versatile nature, simple synthesis route, tunability, dimensionality effects and other interesting features entice these materials in synthetic manipulation of robust materials. Applications in variety of fields such as solar energy harvesting, energy storage devices such as batteries, optoelectronic devices such as solid state lighting (LEDs), field effect transistors (FETs) and many others have been explored in bulk as well as nanoparticles. Non-linear optical (NLO) properties are important in terms of optical devices such as LASERS and optical information processing and storage. The use of hybrid perovskites in NLO based optical memory storage are yet to explored in depth. This project is based on exploring the NLO properties of diamine based non-centrosymmetric hybrid perovskite single crystals. Diamine based cations would be used to control the non-linearity in hybrid perovskite single crystals which has not been in literature thus far. TO BE CONT’D

Realisation d’un vaccin sous-unitaire contre les infections a Salmonella et a Streptococcussuis chez Ie porco

Le stagiaire participera a la mise au point d’un vaccin sous-unitaire, a administration orale,

contre deux pathogimes d’importance pour la filiere porcine canadienne, a savoir Salmonella

el Streptococcus suis. II s’agit d’un vaecin utilisant des p rol!~ ines recombinantes

immunogenes encapsulees dans des microspheres polymeriques, permeltant un relargage

progressif des protE~ in es au niveau mucosal.

Le stagiaire participera a la production et a la purification de proteines recombinantes, qui

seronl ensuile encapsulees dans un polymere (de Iype PLGA). Les diverses formulalions

(proleine(s)/polymere) seronl ensuile leslees dans leur capacite a acliver des ceilules

dendriliques porcines – cel1ules cle de la reponse immunitaire – dans un modele in vitro.

Le potentiel immunoprotecteur du vaccin Ie plus prometteur sera ensuite evalue en

experimentation animale au niveau de la reduction du taux d’animaux porteurs de

Salmonella, et au niveau de la protection contre les infections a S. suis, reduisant par Ie fait

merne les risques zoonotiques associes…………………

Studying mispronunciations in accented speech

This project will investigate the impact of foreign accent on native listener’s semantic processing in Spanish. As such, participants will listen to Spanish words that are produced by native Spanish speakers or native Chinese speakers. Stimuli will include commonly mispronounced words in Spanish (e.g. pelo, ‘hair’) and words that are non-commonly mispronounced in Spanish (e.g. pena, ‘pity’). The commonly mispronounced words will involve mispronunciations on the alveolar sounds /r/ and /l/, phonemes that are restricted in Mandarin Chinese. While participants listen to the stimuli, their neural reactions will be measured via the EventRelated Potentials technique, a temporally reliable brain imaging technique. We anticipate that all mispronunciations will lead to an increased difficulty with semantic integration (indexed by an increased negativity in the neural activity, 400ms post-stimulus) when they are produced by a native Spanish speaker. In contrast, for stimuli produced by a native Chinese speaker, we anticipate that only non-commonly mispronounced words will lead to this same effect.

A comprehensive kinetic model for diffusion-controlled diacrylate photocuring

In this internship, mathematics will be used to predict chemical changes in materials that are deposited on paper during high-speed printing. These changes result from light-induced photocuring of acrylate and diacrylate monomers, converting liquid monomers deposited on the paper into a solid polymer matrix. In previous mathematical models, unrealistic simplifying assumptions were made concerning the photocuring chemistry, which neglected the influence reactions involving oxygen from the surrounding air. In the proposed modeling work, additional chemical reactions (including reactions with oxygen) will be considered so that model predictions will be more reliable. At the end of this internship, we will be able to predict the properties of the polymer materials more precisely, resulting in a better understanding of the final polymer film. The proposed mathematical model will be used to simulate new types of printer operation that may lead to improvements in high-speed, high-quality printer operation.

Determination of quality changes in freeze-dried pet food products during atmospheric cold plasma treatment

Champion Pet Foods is a prominent pet food manufacturer in Canada. They manufacture high-end high quality dry pet food products. They are interested to use new processing technologies to eliminate the harmful bacteria from their products without damaging their quality. At University of Alberta, we are testing the effectiveness of new technologies such as atmospheric cold plasma to eliminate harmful bacteria from food products. As consumers do not like low quality foods, it is important to understand the quality changes in foods during processing of foods using new technologies. This project aims to study the effect on quality of dry pet food products when processed with atmospheric cold plasma, which is an advanced food processing technology. As part of the quality analysis, we will monitor the fat oxidation, color and hardness of dry meat based pet food products after atmospheric cold plasma treatment.

Enzymatic approaches to add value to underutilized marine

Using simplified language understandable to a layperson, provide a general, one-paragraph description of the proposed research project to be undertaken by the student(s) as well as the expected outcomes. (Approx. 150 words) Seaweeds have been used traditionally as food, medicines, fodder and fertilizers since time immemorial. Dulse (Palmaria palmata), an edible red alga is widely distributed in cold waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is harvested and historically consumed in the costal areas of Canada (east coast). The chemical composition and nutrition value of dulse has been studied, from which it has been suggested that dulse has great potential to be further processed into value-added products. Although dulse contains various nutritious and bioactive components, the high degree of structural complexity and rigidity of its cell walls prevents the release of those intracellular constituents during digestion in the human gastrointestinal tract. Enzymatic processing can degrade cell walls and break down polysaccharides and proteins into oligosaccharides and peptides with bioactivity. This project will study on the effects of enzymatic treatments on the bioavailability of other bioactive compounds of dulse; besides, a comprehensive in vitro study on bioactivity, and ability to remove heavy metals will be investigated

Quick Draw History – the NRA, the Politics of Memory and the Great Gun Debate

My project will join a nascent research perspective on the NRA, that looks at the organization as a key player in the social construction of gun culture in the United States. The NRA does this using tools like its youth educational outreach, online television network, museums and its firearms training programs (which instruct over 750,000 Americans annually). My dissertation will examine how the NRA uses these tools to influence the perceptions of the American public not just towards their present, but their past. It will argue that the NRA both draws upon and shapes historical meta-narratives regarding the role of firearms in America’s past because controlling a people’s understanding of their past is a powerful tool for determining the conditions of possibility for the present. These narratives are intended to forward the perspective that firearms have played an integral part in American history and that the US has a cultural tradition of firearms ownership. In order to understand the NRA’s influence, I must first understand how the NRA mobilizes narratives about the past to serve a political purpose. To be continued…

Next Generation User Product Documentation

Product documentation is an important information tool connecting any business to its end-users and customers. Comprehensive product documentation will likely result in positive evaluation of the products by the customers and may influence their future purchasing decisions. Many studies show product documentation remains an essential element of any new product even for modern electronic devices used for information and communication technologies. Paradoxically, comprehensiveness of product documentation may increase its complexity, rendering it unusable for the customers partly due to information overload. Survey results showed the major challenges in developing valuable product documentation to be: customer demands for concise customized information, product complexity requiring large volume of information, shortened documentation lifecycle due to technological advancements, and reduced budgets to produce sophisticated documentation. This project will examine existing documentation, explore alternative means of delivering product information to the end-users in order to deliver an exceptional user experience and improve ease of use.

Recovery of nickel from awaruite: froth flotation and atmospheric acid leaching behavior of the natural nickel-iron alloy

The Decar Nickel District is located in British Columbia. With more than 2 million tonnes of Ni, the district represents a significant resource. The nickel occurs in an uncommon mineral awaruite which is an alloy of nickel and iron. Due to its strong ferro-magnetic properties and high density (SG 8.0) it should be easily recoverable using magnetic separation followed by gravity concentration. However, the presence of significant amounts of magnetite which as similar physical properties makes it difficult to separate the awaruite from the magnetite. After preliminary investigations it was found that awaruite can be floated and leached with sulfuric acid. The proposed investigation is to understand why flotation and leaching are working for awaruite and to evaluate which would be the best solution to concentrate and extract nickel from the Decar Nickel District.

Sélection d’un ensemble d’amorçage pour l’apprentissage actif appliqué à la prédiction structurée

L’apprentissage automatique est une tâche d’intelligence artificielle où un algorithme apprend une certaine tâche à partir d’exemples. Ce projet a pour objectif de réduire autant que possible la quantité de tels exemples qui doivent être vus par un algorithme pour atteindre des niveaux de performance acceptables. La raison étant que ces exemples sont souvent produits par des humains, et que le coût de cette production en termes de travail manuel est important. La réalisation de ce projet aura pour conséquence de faciliter l’adoption de techniques d’apprentissage automatique dans de nouveaux domaines, résultant dans des gains d’efficacité.

Conception and optimization of hybrid energy systems for sustainablecommunities

In a society aiming at achieving high sustainability objectives, new urban developments

represent an interesting opportunity to implement innovative hybrid energy systems. That is

the case of the Petite Riviere project, a future sustainable community of approximately 1,500

housing and commercial units located in the city of Montreal, Quebec. The community will

rely on a hybrid district energy system for building heating and cooling purposes, as well as

for the production of domestic hot water.

The proposed centralized hybrid energy systems are complex and require detailed energy

simulation in order to choose the most suitable energy-supply options. Optimization of hybrid

systems, both in terms of energy-efficiency and carbon intensity is also required in a highsustainability

perspective.

The partner organization, BuildGreen Solutions, is a sustainable development services

company in charge of building and community-scale projects such as Petite Riviere. The

results of the project will enrich BuildGreen’s exptertise and will be valuable both for Petite

Riviere and future projects.

Synthesis of transition-state inhibitors of galactofuranosyltransferase 2

The project aims to prepare transition-state inhibitors of the enzyme galactofuranosyltransferase 2 (GlfT2), on purpose to find a potential treatment against tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is still one of the worldwide deadliest infectious disease and drug resistance cases are rising.

In humans, most tuberculosis infections are caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Gft2 enzyme is involved in the construction of the mycobacteria cell walls wich are paramount for each bacteria cell survival in his host. Futhermore, there are no efficient inhibitors for the GfT2 enzyme reported.

This project will be focused on the development of multi-step synthesis strategy on purpose to obtain the desired inhibitor and its analogues. Once the inhibitors prepared and characterized, each one of them will be tested in vitro in France, at the CNRS of Rennes.