Innovative Projects Realized

Variation du microbiome des mésanges bleues Corses, en relation avec le microbiome de leurs proies (les chenilles tordeuses du chêne) et celui des feuilles de deux espèces de chênes dont elles se nourrissent

Les études récentes ont démontré que le microbiome d’un organisme (l’ensemble des organismes vivants dans ou sur cet hôte) influence beaucoup ce dernier. Les connaissances sur le microbiome des oiseaux en milieu naturel demeurent encore minces. Un suivi à long terme des mésanges bleues en Corse a permis de déceler des adaptations morphologiques, comportementales et démographiques entre des populations selon l’environnement dans lequel elles vivent : forêt de chêne aux feuilles persistantes ou caduques. Est-ce que le microbiome de l’espèce d’arbre dominante diffère entre ces environnements? Si oui, est-ce que cette différence se répercute jusqu’aux mésanges via leur principale proie: la chenille tordeuse du chêne? Est-ce que les individus d’une même famille ont des microbiomes plus similaires? Est-ce que le comportement des individus pourrait être corrélé à la composition de leur microbiome? Le projet sur lequel je travaillerai tentera de répondre à ces questions dans le but de mieux comprendre ce qui fait varier le microbiome de populations d’oiseaux.

Advanced Data Science Research for Social Good II

Municipal governments and urban centres across Canada are being inundated with data—data that have potential to improve public service. Despite this, local governments do not have enough data expertise to extract insight from these overwhelming datasets. Simultaneously, high-quality personnel (HQP) in the domains of data science and urban analytics lack opportunities to work closely with local government to address this gap. Thus, the “Data Science for Social Good” program at the University of British Columbia seeks to mentor and train HQP to solve data intensive, high-priority urban research projects identified by local government. These projects aim to adapt and advance existing data science tools to assess the quality of existing municipal data sets, inform the design of new datasets, and extract actionable insight on topics such as transportation, education, public safety, and economic development. TO BE CONT’D

Deep Networks for Perceptual Image Quality Assessment for IRYStec Perceptual Display Platform

As most imagery is ultimately displayed to humans via physical display panels under a variety of viewing conditions, it is important to evaluate the quality of perceived imagery in addition to the quality of digital imagery alone. Conventional Image Quality Assessment (IQA) methods typically do not consider the variety of viewing conditions and make generalized assumptions about the viewer. The currently proposed research thus intends to define a method to evaluate the quality of displayed imagery, while considering various viewing conditions and the characteristics of the viewer. IRYStec’s Perceptual Display Platform (PDP) software adapts the viewing experience of displayed imagery via image processing performed in accordance with the characteristics of the surrounding environment, the image content, and the viewer. IRYStec plans to use the developed solution to evaluate the quality of imagery produced by their image processing algorithms.

Une investigation empirique des mécanismes psychologiques sous-jacents à l’efficacité des récompenses monétaires et non-monétaires au travail

Dans l’optique de répondre à un besoin criant entre le monde de la recherche et la réalité sur le marché du travail (Conroy et a., 2015; Giancola, 20112), nous proposons d’investiguer les perceptions uniques et individuelles des employés afin de mieux comprendre l’effet de l’utilisation de récompenses monétaires et non-monétaires sur leur motivation et leur performance subséquente. De plus, pour la première fois dans la littérature documentée, nous testerons empiriquement un mécanisme psychologique, soit la satisfaction des besoins psychologiques d’autonomie et de compétence selon la théorie de l’auto-détermination, expliquant l’impact de ces récompenses sur la motivation et la performance des employés. Les résultats de notre recherche permettront non seulement d’établir les fondements pour réviser et améliorer les programmes de récompenses actuellement offerts en entreprise, mais informeront également les employeurs sur les meilleures pratiques en rémunération pour avoir une main d’œuvre sainement motivée et pleinement engagée au travail.

Breathing Beyond Biology: How postcolonial theory, literary analysis, and phenomenology can be used to better understand experiences of breathlessness

While the medical-scientific basis of breathing/breathlessness are relatively well understood, the subjective experiences of and discourses surrounding breathing/breathlessness are poorly understood. Moreover, breathlessness is disproportionately experienced by people living in the “global south,” yet has never been researched through a (post)colonial framework. My project addresses these research gaps in two ways. Firstly, I will analyze representations of breath/breathlessness in postcolonial literatures. By tracing how literature shapes discourses surrounding breath/breathlessness, one can better understand the unique cultural and social significance attributed to breath/breathlessness outside the dominant Euro-American paradigm. Secondly, I will develop a postcolonial phenomenological methodology to better understand embodied experiences of breathlessness as they intersect with issues related to (post)colonialism (e.g. culture, nationality, and ethnicity). In these ways, my research will help bridge the gap between the ways patients experience, describe, and understand breathlessness and the ways medical professionals do–especially across cultural, national, and ethnic borders.

Airline crew scheduling

The crew pairing problem begins with a time table of flights and a fleet of available aircraft.

The time table is created from considerations such as available slots at airports, available

aircraft, aircraft specifications, airport limitations, projected load factors and passenger

demand. After the timetable has been set and aircraft have been scheduled to that timetable,

the crew requirements are generated. This is the demand which produces the crew pairing

problem. Considerations for crew requirements include the equipment to be used and

duration of the flight. For instance different aircraft may have different flight crew

requirements (ie. 2 or 3 person flight decks) and long-haul flights may require relief crew

members to be on-board so that maximum consecutive flying time restrictions are not

violated. These requirements are the first criteria to be addressed by the crew pairing…

A stakeholder analysis of outreach opportunities to support low-carbon smart transitions for transit modernization

Transportation that uses green energy is environmentally friendly and helps to reduce greenhouse gas emission. But there is a tension between the stakeholders, policy makers and public on their economic return, policy implementation and perception on innovation in technology in transit respectively. Analysis on outreach opportunities to support transit modernization in to green technology will help acceptance of new environmental policy(ies), improve public perception and acceptance on innovation in transit and environmental integrity and lastly it will allow the transit corporation to loosen the tension between ‘go’ or ‘no go’ with regards to transforming to energy efficient technology

Social-Ecological Regime Shifts and the Governance of Community-Managed Marine Protected Areas: Implications for Ecological Conservation and Community Well-Being

The research will look at the use of community-managed marine protected areas (MPAs) to deal with abrupt and long-term environmental and social changes taking place in the Ria Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, Merida, Mexico
MPAs have long been used to protect marine species and ecosystems, but their social considerations have yet to be fully studied
Information on the local community’s opinion towards the MPA and its ability to meet environmental and community wellbeing goals will be collected through a survey and semi-structured interviews
The purpose of the research will be to determine the community’s recommendations on the methods that can be used to improve the structure of the MPA, leading to better ecological health and community wellbeing
It is hoped that the outcomes of the research project will support information that feeds possible policy recommendations with the aim of overall improving the effectiveness of MPAs in the long-run
The research objectives are as follows
To understand the abrupt, rapid environmental and social changes taking place in the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve
To understand the community’s viewpoints on the MPA and its ability to deal with environmental and social change
To determine how the MPA can be improved to better respond to environmental and social changes occurring within the region

Comparing interspecific differences in ungulate habitat use in response to coal mine reclamation

Extracting coal through surface mining can damage natural habitats because it removes and fragments forests, grasslands, and shrub lands. Coal mines near Hinton, Alberta, our study area, have been reclaimed to reduce the negative effects of mining on the environment and on wildlife as per regulations in the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. Our study area consists of bighorn sheep, elk, and mule deer populations that use the vegetation, minerals, and topographic features of the reclaimed mines for food, protection from predators, and thermal cover. The main objective of our research is to examine each species’ habitat use on the reclaimed mines to compare how each species responds to mining and reclamation. Our research will help to understand which features of mining and reclamation are most important and least important to each species so that future reclamation activities will benefit the persistence of these wildlife populations.

Climate change and water use: can increased diversity help protect forests?

Forests provide habitat to more than 65% of terrestrial biodiversity, yet are being eliminated or greatly simplified at an alarming rate under global change (GC). Current forestry practices tend to favour a handful of species, without considering resilience of resulting forests to GC. During the past two decades, studies have investigated the complex relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem service provision to humanity. Biodiversity and ecosystem function research (BEF) has prompted the establishment of forest experiments and research networks to better understand consequences of biodiversity loss. There is undoubtedly an increasing interest in Canada and internationally to evaluate the potential role of maintaining diversity in managed forests and plantations to increase productivity and resilience. TO BE CONT’D

Étude de la génomique des levures Brettanomyces pour la caractérisation et la classification des différentes souches selon leur potentiel brassicoles

L’utilisation des Brettanomyces au sein des fermentations alcooliques est en forte croissance depuis plusieurs années. Traditionnellement considérée comme un contaminant, cette levure se retrouve désormais au centre de nombreux produits fermentés, particulièrement dans l’industrie brassicole. Jusqu’à maintenant, les Brettanomyces sont utilisées principalement en fermentation secondaire, afin d’affiner les produits. Par contre, peu d’informations sont connues à ce jour sur ce type de levures en fermentation primaire, c’est-à-dire en utilisant que les Brettanomyces seules. Ce projet vise donc à caractériser et associer les gènes attribuables aux caractéristiques sensorielles des différentes souches lorsqu’elles sont utilisées en fermentation primaire.

High value-addition of forestry residuals into levulinic acid

Levulinic Acid (LA) is among the top twelve value-added platform chemicals, and is an abundant and versatile building block for numerous compounds aimed at consumer applications. LA is produced in insufficient quantities to meet market demand and by using fossil fuels which prevents LA production to meet environmental standards. We propose a novel, efficient, and green conversion of forestry residuals into LA production, while using crude glycerol, a biodiesel industry by-product, as an alternative to strong acid to minimize the by-products concentration obtained during acid treatment. We also propose to use ultra-sonication as a specific, simple and less-energy intense approach in comparison to inefficient product formation with conventional LA production approaches. The combination of semi-continuous and aqueous two-phase system will boost LA yield and recovery for commercial applications. The possible technology transfer to future industry will be defined thanks to a techno-economic evaluation. The proposed work will lead to a valuable cutting-edge technology that could benefit CRIQ and help them offer services with innovative solutions to the industry looking for value-added products from solid and liquid wastes.