Innovative Projects Realized

Development of skin-humanized mouse model for psoriasis

The objective of my research is to generate self-assembled artificial skin and humanized mouse model for study of various skin diseases. The artificial skin is made using human derived skin cells, which are then grafted to mice. This humanized mouse model is most similar to the environment in the human body, and the self-assembled artificial skin implantation can give benefit to overcome the differences between human and mice. For that reason it is useful for researching various skin diseases greatly.
My project generating artificial skin and humanized mouse model for skin disease is considered to have significant academic values, because so far, there is no humanized mouse model representing psoriasis, one of the skin immune diseases. Moreover, there is no case in Korea for self-assembled artificial skin production. TO BE CONT’D

Estimating the benefit of green infrastructure to urban ecosystems: A synthesis and case-study

Globally cities are expanding and this has a negative impact on natural systems. Green infrastructure (GI), such as green roofs, retention ponds, or urban tree canopies, is used to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather and provide resources for people in the city. However, GI can also provide a benefit for native species and wildlife by providing a habitat for them to live. Although this is commonly suggested, to our knowledge, no one has attempted to quantify the effects of GI on natural systems. Within this project, we will conduct a literature review and use available data to quantify the response of natural systems to different levels of GI implementation for the City of Toronto and region. Implications from this research will reduce the human impact on ecosystems and contribute to sustainability in the world.

Motif dynamics on a growing network model for various open evolving systems

In this research, we construct an open evolving network model and study growing conditions of the model. We construct a simple network model that changes the structure and evolves according to time, and we examine the causes of macroscopic phenomena (e.g. earthquake and meteorological phenomenon, brain activity, etc.) through the characteristics of motif dynamics constituting the system. We measure the number of motifs in the model and investigate how the size of the system varies with the number of motifs. The motif is a subgraph of the network. We calculate Z score, which measures the number of motifs measured in the model, as compared to the null model. A motif with a large Z score means that it is abnormally large compared to the null model. We expect that the increase/decrease of certain motifs will help the growth of the network.

Recolouring Locally Injective Homomorphisms and k-Frugal Colourings

I am working on graph Recolouring in reflexive digraphs and the host supervisor is working on Locally Injective Homomorphisms and k-Frugal Coloring. I and the host supervisor will work on graph graph Recolouring in Locally Injective Homomorphisms and k-Frugal colourings so our objectives is calculating complexity of graph recolouring in Locally Injective Homomorphisms and k-Frugal colourings.

The Sherbrooke Personalized Cancer Avatar Model Initiative: A Feasibility Study of Treatment Guided by the Combination of DNA Profiling and Next-Generation Medical Avatars in Patients with Advanced Kidney Cancer

We recently developed a rapid and cost-effective pre-clinical technology that is well suited for precision medicine –the ex ovo chicken embryo ChorioAllantoic Membrane (CAM) assay. Our goal is to perform a pilot study that combines tumor genotyping data and the use of personalized CAMavatars, to predict drug sensitivity in renal cancer patients and to test newly developed cancer therapies. We also propose technical advances to the CAM technology and the development of a humanized CAMavatar model that can be used for testing immunotherapy. We expect to establish this next-generation Avatar model as state-of–the-art screening facility for personalized cancer drug development and in patients’ treatment options. For IBio, the development of an improved CAMavatar technology proposed herein will increase the number and scope of new partnerships in the field of therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies, resulting in at least one to two jobs created per new agreement. TO BE CONT’D

The Minds in Motion Initiative: An Evaluation

Homes for Mental Health, Inc. This initiative has three main goals: to assist mental health

consumers in the recovery process by providing access to physical health activities, to raise

awareness in the community at large about mental health issues, and to provide a unique

walking race experience for athletes and amateurs alike. The study will evaluate the

effectiveness of this project in reaching these three goals through the collection and analysis

of both numerical and narrative data from key participants in MIMI. The project will be guided

by a steering committee composed of mental health consumers, their family members, staff

members of Waterloo Regional Homes, and members of the community at large. This

research aims to contribute both to the development of MIMI and to the literature regarding

community-based mental health.

From the Griffin to the Axolotl: The Resurgence and Reimagining of the Medieval Bestiary in Contemporary Hispanic Literature

The bestiary, derived from the Latin bestiarium, was a medieval genre comprised of animal catalogues, each providing descriptions, anecdotes, and illustrations of real and imaginary beasts. Often plotless, targeting women and children, decorated with lavish imagery, and laden with Catholic allegory, medieval bestiaries exploited animals’ appeal and rhetorical plasticity to educate and enforce conformity in medieval societies. Centuries later, Latin American authors took up the bestiary during the literary avant-garde and Boom periods and remolded it by embracing beasts beyond the European imagination, replacing religious doctrine with diverse ideologies, at times revelling in the nonsensical. Juan José Arreola, Jorge Luis Borges, Augusto Monterroso, and Pablo Neruda adapted the medieval bestiary, each writer infusing his work with his philosophies and idiosyncrasies. These four authors’ works serve as an origin point from which dozens of other authors take inspiration, culminating in a revival of the bestiary in contemporary Hispanic literature. Because the genre is new and can prove elusive, I will use the MITACS Global Link travel grant to hunt bestiaries through Mexico City in the hopes of expanding my current corpus.

Tracing the Historical Plays of Power in Alberta’s Recreation System

When we research the knowledge of the past, we also research the conditions of possibility for different futures (Foucault, 2003; Peers, 2015). Therefore, the purpose of this research project is to use the traces of the past to question the practices that have come to be naturalized within Alberta’s recreation system (e.g., providing pay-per-use recreation opportunities in big box facilities). Using an intensive archival research process, as well as a series of ongoing community conversations, we hope to uncover what is problematic and dangerous in recreation’s practices and discourses. In doing so, we hope to learn how recreation professionals specifically, and society more broadly, might think about and practice recreation differently.

Green collateral damage: Social impacts of offsetting deforestation in India

For my MA thesis, I am studying the social implications of forest landscape restoration in India. India’s compensatory afforestation policy requires mining and infrastructure projects to offset deforestation by planting ‘compensatory’ trees. The scale of this initiative is huge: over $7 billion USD of offset payments have accumulated with the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Fund, which local forest departments will use to acquire thousands of hectares of ‘wasteland’ and ‘degraded land’ for tree plantation. Civil society actors have questioned whether industrial plantations can compensate for forests, and point out that rampant deforestation continues unchecked. Moreover, allocating land used as commons for plantations can have negative social impacts. In the era of climate change, forest restoration is a genuine concern, so my research will also explore alternative, community-rooted efforts to green India as counterpoints to state-led efforts. This award will support fieldwork in Odisha, India starting in September, 2018.

Automatic Delineation of Seismocardiogram and Gyrocardiogram Signals

The project aims at accomplishing the real-time delineation of both Seismocardiogram and Gyrocardiogram signals (which are associated with different stages of the cardiovascular cycle) and effectively extracting cardiac performance metrics (fiducial points) for use in a non-invasive portable diagnostic tool as the deviations of the either timing or amplitude can be indicative of abnormality in heart performance. In other words, the focus is to find an effective technique for the diagnosis and prognosis of different cardiac diseases to screen at-risk individuals who have cardiac conditions and provide them an early treatment.

Study of multiphase flow in a bearing cavity of an aeroengine

Aeroengines operate at very high speed and high temperatures. Therefore, the transmission system of an aeroengine becomes a critical design process because of its proximity to the combustion chamber. As a result, engineers must understand very well the fluid mechanics phenomena involved in the lubrication and cooling of the transmission components such as the bearing cavities. Such cavities isolate the oil and air mixture used to lubricate and cool a bearing from the rest of the air system. Their design and performance are currently limited by the analytical tools that can be used for production applications. The goal of this project is to validate the effectiveness of a new analytical tool based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to study bearing cavities. At the University of Nottingham, the student will assist experimental engineers and professors on a bearing cavity rig financed by Pratt & Whitney Canada. The student has already prepared experimental test conditions and a methodology that will allow validation of the analytical tool with minimal risk and minimal costs. “TO BE CONT’D”

Paleoclimatic records based on stable isotope analyses of speleothems

Recently, speleothems from various Korean limestone caves have received special attention as an invaluable paleoclimatic archive for both regional and global aspects. Although recent investigations show distinctive relationships between their stable isotope compositions and surface environmental conditions, the quantitative understanding on the relationship is needed for more accurate and precise reconstructions of past climatic factors (e.g., temperature and precipitation). In particular, stable isotope data with speleothem’s crystal morphology and fluid inclusion studies are necessary to achieve this goal. In this project, I would like to learn about analytical techniques on stable isotopes geochemistry especially for carbon and oxygen isotopes of Korean speleothems. If this project is successfully, I would be able to provide the quantitative data from the Korean peninsula as a typical temperate climate region to the paleoclimatic community.