Innovative Projects Realized

17O Solid-state NMR Investigation of Chemotactic Factor f-MLF-OH

When a pathogen is present in one’s body, our innate immune system’s first line of defense is the release of strong agents from a type of white blood cell known as neutrophils. These cells are attracted to the site of infection via chemotactic factors. An example of a chemotactic factor is the tripeptide N-formyl-MLF-OH. Since the role of peptide structure influences the resulting biological function, it is imperative that characterization methods be identified to study these complex structures. Oxygen-17 solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an ideal method since it directly probes the oxygen nucleus. To date, 17O NMR studies are not routinely done due to the need for costly isotopic enrichment and high magnetic field strengths. Isotopically labelled N-formyl-MLF-OH will be studied using NMR, as well as method development for salvaging costly 17O-enriched water to be reused will be analyzed in this collaborative project.

Business Data Analytics: Warranties, Recommendations, and Fleet Management

Using mathematical models we draw verifiable conclusions from a rental-fleet dataset. These conclusions help rental-fleet operators increase revenue, decrease cost, or improve other aspects of their business. We not only identify what models to build, but also implement them using rental-fleet data. Some example questions that we help rental-fleet operations answer are: 1) what warranties should they offer to their customers or purchase for their equipment? 2) what actions should the rental-fleet operator take to improve its performance in self-identified areas? 3) what actions, as suggested by others in the field, should the operator take to improve operations?

Blockchain based Software Validation

For a software application to be released, it may need a number of standard certifications, which should be issued from different associations and for a wide range of software features (e.g., security, perfor-mance, scalability). We call these associations trusted third parties. The main problem with these trust-ed third parties is that they are single points of failures. For example, if one of these parties gets hacked many software source codes could be stolen. The other problem with trusted third parties is that they often do not have enough resources to verify a software therefore they become the bottleneck of the process. In this project we propose a solution for software testing that involves multiple parties that have minimum trust to each other without the need for a trusted third party.

Characterization of a glycoprotein entry complex from a novel orthomyxovirus by cryo-electron tomography

Infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) causes severe anemia in salmon and has mortality rates that approach 100%. Over the last 30 years, ISAV has caused major disease outbreaks in farmed salmon in Canada, the US, and Chile. In 2012, a confirmed outbreak in Newfoundland prompted the destruction of 450,000 farmed salmon. The virus has caused major economic losses and is a threat to the viability of Canadian salmon farming. ISAV virions have two surface glycoproteins (GPs): a 42-kDa hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) that is responsible for attachment, tropism, and receptor destruction/release and a 50-kDa fusion (F) GP that is involved in the merger of the host and viral lipid bilayers. We previously determined the crystal structures of ISAV HE (Cook et al. 2017 PNAS) and the postfusion ISAV F (Cook
et al. 2015 JBC). This work provides initial snapshots of the individual GPs involved in ISAV entry. The molecular events after initial attachment that lead to fusion and entry of the virus remain poorly defined. Using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), we will determine the interplay of ISAV HE and F. In Canada, there are very few centres capable of performing high resolution cryo-ET reconstructions.

Application of antimicrobial aereus particles with marine paints

This proposal is to accelerate the Aereus Technologies’ development of antimicrobial coatings. Antimicrobial coating has been becoming an effective solution to battle the hospital-acquired infections. Aereus Technologies is developing an antimicrobial coating consisting of marine paint and biocidal copper-alloy based microparticles. One of the key concerns for this new coating is that the microparticles are expected to oxidize when they are exposed to human palm sweat or disinfection agents in healthcare settings. In this project, we will evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy and durability of this coating using a simulated dynamic saline environment. The results will provide scientific insights on how the oxidation of the microparticles would influence the coating antimicrobial efficacy and the integrity of the particles in relation to marine paint.

Caracterisation de I’abattement de pOlluants des eaux usees municipales par degrillage etdessablage

Les eaux usees municipales sont traitees par des procedes physico-chimiques, biologiques

ou une combinaison des deux types, Le pretraitement des eaux arrivant a la station

d’epuration (STEP) est necessaire pour proteger les equipements de procede. Le degrillage

(enlevement des debris organiques grossiers de !’eau) et Ie dessablage (enlevement du

sable de I’eau) sont deux procedes typiquement utilises pour Ie pretraitement des eaux usees

municipales. Le role de la stagiaire sera de valider les protocoles de caracterisation de la

performance d’un laveur-compacteur utilise pour traiter les refus de degrillage et d’un

dessableur. Les benefices attend us pour John Meunier sont d’obtenir une evaluation precise

de ces equipements afin d’identifier les pistes d’amelioration. Les equipements seront

egalement positionnes dans Ie cadre de la maximisation du bilan de carbone des stations

d’epuration. Ce stage permettra ainsi de confirmer plus de 20 postes de concepteur et de

fabrication au siege social a Montreal.

Vibration-based Damage Diagnosis of Lifeline Bridges

B.C. is home to many of the largest bridges in North America, as well as the largest earthquakes in Canada and the world. The ongoing research efforts aim to implement an automated monitoring system that detects and localizes post-earthquake damage on bridges in real-time based on ambient vibrations. The vision is that in the event of an earthquake, the earthquake early warning system would trigger the damage assessment module, which ranks all bridges with respect to the severity of damage sustained, and facilitates both the coordination of immediate bridge closures to avoid further fatalities and subsequent repair measures.

For this purpose, the Department of Civil Engineering at UBC is currently investigating the suitability of one specific method, the so-called Stochastic Subspace Damage-based Localization. However, the leap from a lab experiment to real bridges holds some overwhelming challenges, the solution to which can only be found in a joint effort between experienced civil engineers and mathematicians with a deep understanding of the statistical properties of the damage localization approach, such as the developers at Inria.

The expected outcome of the planned student exchange is to show whether Subspace-based Damage Localization can be used to achieve the vision of an automated monitoring system.

Synthèse, caractérisation et étude du vieillissement de verre antibuée produit par décharge à barrière diélectrique

Ce projet consiste à la mise au point de nouveaux procédés de fonctionnalisation par plasma du verre. À travers la synthèse d’un film mince, nous modifierons la surface du verre et étudierons les effets antibuée produits. Cette étude permettra de développer un procédé alternatif aux solutions existantes. La nature chimique du film mènera à une durabilité plus importante des propriétés ainsi qu’à une réduction de la maintenance du substrat. Premièrement, nous procéderons à l’analyse approfondie des propriétés physiques des films produits à la surface du verre ayant subi un vieillissement artificiel. Pour la synthèse, nous utiliserons une décharge à barrière diélectrique en mode plan-plan en présence de précurseurs organosiliciés. Deuxièmement, l’élaboration de ce type de traitement sera étudiée sur des substrats de plus grande échelle. Du point de vue technologique, nous désirons obtenir un excellent contrôle des propriétés antibuée de manière qu’elles restent optimales sur des surfaces de taille plus grande.

Experimental and numerical study of the effects of pressure on soot particle size in laminar co-flow diffusion flames

Soot particles are carbonaceous aggregates which are produced as the result of incomplete combustion. They are mainly added to the atmosphere from coal power plants, chemical factories and motor vehicles and they account for approximately 10 to 15% of the total atmospheric aerosol mass. These particles are known to have a detrimental effect on both human health and environment and their toxicity highly depends on particle size and number of primary particles forming a soot aggregate. In spite that most industrial devices operate at high pressures, few studies have been performed focusing on the effects of pressure on soot morphology, mainly because the difficulty related to the design and implementation of high-pressure devices for lab-scale measurements. For this reason, an experimental and numerical study is proposed to obtain more insights of soot particle size at high-pressure conditions. This study will add valuable experimental data to the research community together with an analysis based on a detailed numerical soot modeling.

Applying advanced computer methods to understand genetic disorders

The Rett syndrome is a progressive neurodevelopmental disorder and one of the most common causes of mental retardation in females. Because males have a different chromosome combination from females, most males with Rett syndrome die before birth or in early infancy. It was not until 1999 that it was discovered that the Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in the gene encoding the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2). MeCP2 belongs to a class of proteins called Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs). In contrast with globular proteins, IDPs do not have a well-defined secondary or tertiary structure and can adopt a wide range of conformations. This makes their structural characterization a challenge. We have studied MeCP2 and determined that there currently is no single method that can do it. However, combination of ABF and our metadynamics-based methods appears to offer the possibility to resolve the problem. If successful, this study would lead to a scientific breakthrough, helping us to identify the effects of reported mutations and potentially bring us one step closer to develop a treatment that may improve the lives of those diagnosed with Rett syndrome.

Interfacial Rheological Investigation of Polymer Soluition-nanoparticles/Oil

Polymer solution flooding is one of the most efficient methods of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Polymer solution/oil interfaces have viscoelastic character, which plays a major role in the EOR performance. However, it should be borne in mind that the real-world condition in an oil reservoir (high salinity and high temperature) may strongly affect the fluid-fluid interfacial viscoelasticity, resulting in a decrease in EOR performance. Incorporating nanoparticles (NPs) (e.g., fumed nanosilica, and graphene) is a promising method to improve interfacial viscoelasticity of a polymer solution/oil (NPs can be localized at solution/oil interface, and they act as a surfactant). In all the past work, the combined effect of oil reservoir condition and existence of the nanoparticles as a surfactant at the molecular structure of the fluid-fluid interface has been neglected. Hence, investigation of the effect of the reservoir condition in the presence of nanoparticles on the interfacial viscoelasticity of polymer solution/oil will be reported for the first time in this work. The results of this work will help the oil industry in Canada to improve the EOR performance by polymer flooding in a real work situation.

Investigation de sources naturelles à la recherche de métabolites antipaludiques et anticancéreux

Investigation de sources naturelles à la recherche de métabolites antipaludiques et anticancéreux. Suite à un screening préliminaire au sein du laboratoire, une plante (Euphorbia griffithii) et un champignon (Stropharia squamosa) ont révélé, respectivement, des propriétés anticancéreuses et antipaludiques intéressantes. L’objectif du stage sera de réaliser tout d’abord un criblage phytochimique sur cette plante et ce champignon de manière à y détecter les classes principales de métabolites présentes. Ensuite, en utilisant une extraction de type PSE (extraction à solvants pressurisés), des techniques chromatographiques classiques et les tests d’activité in vitro disponibles dans le laboratoire, de réaliser un fractionnement bioguidé afin d’identifier les substances responsable des activités. Selon l’avancement du travail, les échantillons disponibles et les résultats préliminaires obtenus, le travail sera réalisé sur l’une ou l’autre ou les deux plante/champignon.