Innovative Projects Realized

L’effet de l’orniérage sur la productivité forestière

L’importance de la foresterie dans l’économie nécessite de réaliser des études

permettant de comprendre et résoudre les impacts que cela produit, pouvant affecter

la durabilité des zones productrices. L’orniérage est l’un de ces impacts qui sont

connus mais pas toujours contrôlés. Certaines zones connaissent des disparités

importantes pouvant conduire à une modification du milieu à courts et longs termes. A

l’aide de photos satellites et de mesure locales, nous allons travailler à différentes

échelles et étudier la dynamique de résilience des sols et végétaux suivant les

conditions du milieu. Dans le cas des zones déjà modifiées nous isolerons les seuils à

partir desquels le milieu a basculé vers un autre état d’équilibre.

L’engagement comme baromètre organisationnel : mieux comprendre les modèles d’engagement à la disposition des organisations et les mesures y étant associées

II a precedemment ete demontre qu’un employe desengage a des consequences nefastes pour les organisations, notamment en raison d’une baisse de productivite. Cette constatation a amene un interet grandissant pour !’engagement des employes et pour ce que les organisations peuvent faire pour les engager. Toutefois, afin d’evaluer l’efficacite des interventions mises en place par les organisations, celles -ci doivent pouvoir connaltre le
nivea d’engagement de leurs employes. Ainsi, de nombreuses mesures d’engagement ont ete developpees, toutefois, sans que ce soit toujours clair si ces mesures evaluent reellement l’engagernent des employes. II devient
ainsi difficile pour les organisations canadiennes, telles que I’Aeroport de Montreal, de se retrouver face a cette profusion de mesures et de prendre une decision eclairee sur Ia plus adaptee au contexte organisationnel. Cette
recherche a done pour objectif premier de faire l’inventaire des mesures d’engagement jusqu’a present developpees et clarifier ce a quoi chacune de ces mesures refere.

Swishwash Island Tidal Marsh Restoration

This project focuses on physical and biological elements of small tidally influenced marsh channels on Swishwash Island in the central arm of the Lower Fraser River Estuary. In addition to fish data; marine invertebrate, vegetation, sediment, and toporgraphic data will also be collected and analyzed. This will provide insight into the practise of monitoring tide channels pre and post restoration and provide a basis for future monitoring and restoration efforts. Further more it will support future study that should seek to illuminate how these characteristics inform how they function as fish habitat. Increasing this knowledge will ensure better design and maintenance of these rare and important habitats for fish and wildlife. This research will add to the data set of a larger juvenile salmon monitoring project as well as help to inform Raincoast with its future endeavors in marsh habitat restoration in the Lower Fraser River Estuary.

(Co-)Habiter dans les quartiers historiques : dynamiques de cohabitations des usagers et processus de négociation des usages dans le Vieux-Montréal et ses anciens faubourgs

Depuis la désignation patrimoniale du Vieux-Montréal en 1964, les stratégies de revitalisation et de relance du quartier ont stimulé le développement d’un quartier mixte, animé et habité. Divers usagers et diverses activités doivent ainsi cohabiter sur un territoire relativement restreint, ce qui n’est pas sans générer des nuisances, des tensions, voire des conflits d’usage. Ce projet pilote vise à expérimenter une démarche de recherche-action avec la SDC Vieux-Montréal et d’autres acteurs du milieu, pour co-construire des connaissances sur les dynamiques de cohabitations des usagers et processus de négociation des usages initiés par les acteurs du développement, menant à des approches renouvelées de planification et de gouvernance locale. TO BE CONT’D

Developing chromosomal integration methods for functional screening and metabolic engineering

The goal of this project is to further develop the JGI technology CRAGE, which enables the insertion of large DNA fragments into the chromosome of a host organism. Over the course of the 3 months, the CRAGE system will be adapted for the E. coli EPI300 strain that is host to the Hallam Lab functional screening platform. By establishing the CRAGE system in EPI300, this project will allow us to increase the sensitivity and efficacy of functional screening, allowing us to more effectively discover enzyme with novel biocatalytic functions. The advancements will also increase our capacity to engineer metabolic flux within these organisms and to optimize them for downstream industrial applications. TO BE CONT’D

Use of XR to address coordination challenges in construction projects

Building design is a complex and iterative process that requires collaboration between designers from numerous disciplines. Quality of design has a direct impact on the project success and poor-quality designs are the leading cause of project delays, reworks, and cost overruns. This research aims to improve the quality of design by focussing on two themes: addressing the design coordination issues faced and getting design inputs related to constructability and maintainability from relevant end-users. For this aim, the use of modern technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) which are together denoted as Extended Reality (XR), with their potentials for providing stronger spatial understanding, will be explored. The research investigates the impact of using VR and AR tools to improve the design quality and measures its potential benefits. TO BE CONT’D

Examining the Roles of Mouse Immune Cells in Liver Regeneration

The mammalian liver is known for its regenerative property, capable of fully restoring mass and function after injury. However, when this process is in disarray, chronic liver diseases occur, for which the current solution is liver transplantation. Transplantation remains an imperfect solution as the supply is limited and rejection can happen. Today, 25% of patients waiting for transplantation die before a liver becomes available. This study aims to describe a regenerating liver at the cellular level to explore the alternatives to liver transplantation. By removing part of the liver and observing how different cells change as the liver regrows, we will identify the key players in this process thereby offering therapeutic strategies in supplementing these cells to treat liver diseases.

An Intelligent UAV System for Power Line and Utility Condition Assessment

This research project will develop an intelligent UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) system, which is capable of autonomous navigation, for the inspection of power lines and utility. The automated inspection is based on the technologies of computer vision and artificial intelligence. The UAV flies autonomously over the infrastructure capturing the images with high-definition RGB camera and thermal camera. The acquired image data are processed with algorithms powered by artificial intelligence for the condition assessment of the infrastructure. The derived information provides a solid evidence to support the decision making in asset management and maintenance. The surveillance and monitoring with the intelligent UAV system will assure a reliable power transmission and distribution.

Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) Magnetometry for Geophysical Exploration of Canadian Lakes

This project aims to develop a prototype and workflow for the efficient and effective use of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) for magnetic data acquisition in Canadian lakes (9% of Canadian territory). Specifically, the USV will be used to tow either a floating or submerged sensor system consisting of multiple magnetometers in a gradiometer configuration. The main goal is to enable magnetic mapping of lakes at unprecedented spatial resolution with applications ranging from infrastructure localization, archaeological prospection, unexploded ordnances detection to mineral exploration. This research will expand Sumac Geomatics’ expertise in aerial mapping and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle magnetometry to address new regions of interest in Canadian lakes. It complements bathymetric mapping and surveying and advances the field of marine surveying using state-of-the-art equipment and data processing strategies.

Directing Development of Next-Generation Spectrally-Controlled Plant Growth

Plants are an essential part of our day-to-day lives. They provide us oxygen to breathe through photosynthesis, food and drugs for human health and well-being in addition to many materials and products for everyday use across Canadian society. For plants, light is a central to their growth, development and survival, rendering our understanding of how light can be harnessed to enhance plant growth and productivity for human benefit of importance. With climate change putting pressure on agricultural production, and greenhouse produce valued at $1.34 billion Canadian dollars per annum (2016), there is a pressing need for new innovations to propel horticultural produce production forward. Using an array of plant types (some having all their genes and some missing genes) this project will use the latest molecular technologies to understand how G2V Optics programmable-spectra lighting technology can be employed to help plants grow better using less energy.

Development of human recombinant GOT–polymer bioconjugates for the treatment of ischemic stroke

Glutamate, the most widespread excitatory neuromediator in the brain, plays an important role in learning and memory functions. At very high cerebral concentrations it is likely to cause pathological effects (nerve cell death), such as those encountered in ischemic stroke. To reduce the toxic concentrations of glutamate in the brain, several approaches have been developed. Unfortunately, despite the relative effectiveness of some treatments, several adverse side-effects have been reported. In this project we will develop a treatment that takes advantage of a rapid and perfectly natural physiological event that consists in causing an efflux of glutamate from the brain to the peripheral blood. To achieve this, we will administer an enzyme, naturally present in the human body, which will degrade blood glutamate and decrease its blood concentrations. This decrease should lead to the migration of cerebral glutamate to the blood and consequently the reduction of its toxic levels in the brain. To prolong the effect of the enzyme, we will graft a polymer on its surface. This will allow us to decrease the frequency of injection of our treatment (from a few hours to several weeks). To be continued…

Conducting a Pilot Study of Effective Smoking Cessation Treatment Interventions for Individuals with Severe Mental Illness Who are Homeless or Vulnerably Housed

The intern will be assisting in the implementation of a research project that is intended to assess the effectiveness of two different smoking reduction/cessation interventions within a population of people with serious mental illness who are vulnerably housed or homeless. The partner agency, the Canadian Mental Health Association Ottawa Branch, is interested in the study, due to the high proportion of the organization’s clients who smoke tobacco, demonstrate nicotine dependency, and express a desire to reduce or cease smoking. At the conclusion of the study, presentations on the findings of the research project will be made by the principle investigator to staff, managers, board of directors, and clients of the partner organization, and highlights of findings will be incorporated into the organization’s annual report. If found to be effective, the approach studied in the present project could be replicated by the partner organization, allowing them to better serve their clients.