Innovative Projects Realized

Investigation of changing of peroxisome and Mitochondria in metabolic change

Metabolic disorders are growing into a large health crisis worldwide. One common fact shown in these diseases is impaired function of mitochondria. Several treatments for metabolic diseases therefore aim to normalize or even boost up the activity mitochondria. The role of peroxisomes, on the other hand, is relatively neglected, despite its close connection with mitochondria. This project will be one of a kind, investigating the changes in peroxisomes in metabolic diseases and discovering a novel anti-metabolic disease pathway via peroxisomal activity. The cooperating functions between mitochondria and peroxisomes will give us a hint for deal with the major health threat of metabolic disorders. The world class peroxisome research lab led by professor Peter K. Kim has both the ability and eagerness to launch this project. My specialty as a brown adipocyte metabolism researcher can also support his work, as his past work has solely focused on the roles of peroxisomes.

Methods for efficient and effective multi-document reading comprehension in the legal domain

ROSS enables legal professionals by providing tools that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to make the research process more efficient. Advances within machine learning and natural language computing enable systems to achieve close to human performance. Many state-of-the-art methods have not been applied to the legal domain, leaving opportunity to enable development for the legal field and bring improvement to the efficiency and effectiveness of legal research. This project evaluates multiple approaches to multi-document comprehension and their performance in legal domain.

Modelisation de la thermodynamique et de la cinetique de formation etde stabilisation de I’austenite de reversion dans un acier inoxydable martensitique parI’approche CaiPhaD.

Les proprietes des materiaux sont intimement Hees a leur organisation interne ou

microstructure. Pour les aciers constituant les ailes de turbines de centrales

hydrauliques, on pense que la microstructure ideale pour augmenter leur duree de vie,

consiste dans Ie melange de deux phases: martensite et austenite. Cependant,

I’austenite n’existe pas dans Ie materiau de depart et doit etre formee par un traitement

thermique dont on souhaite connaitre les caracteristiques afin d’aboutir a la quantite

et a la repartition souhaitee d’austenite. En s’appuyant sur les resultats

experimentaux, nous voulons realiser sur ordinateur, en utilisant les logiciels de calcul

thermodynamiques Thermo-Calc et DlCTRA, un modele physique de cet acier, ainsi

que d’autres aciers de la meme famille qui permettra de predire la formation de

I’austenite afin de mieux connaitre Ie processus et d’optimiser les traitements

thermiques et les performances des aciers.

Metabolic Engineering of Retinoid and Phytoene Synthesis Pathway in E. coli.

Phytoene is a colorless carotenoid that absorbs light in UVA(286nm). It has powerful antioxidant and UV blocking effect and is used as a useful cosmetic material that can cope with the urban aging of skin in modern people. The purpose of this study is to construct and optimize phytoene biosynthetic pathway using E. coli. To make a microbial cell factory which is capable of mass production of phytoene in E. coli, redesign and optimze the core metabolic pathways that efficiently support it.

Développement d’outils de valorisation de données pour l’amélioration des performances logistiques

À partir de l’analyse de plusieurs années de données d’historiques de vente, le projet proposé vise à développer des outils d’aide à la décision pour l’amélioration des performances logistiques d’un partenaire industriel. Différents aspects sont concernés. Tout d’abord, le projet vise à (1) améliorer le système actuel de prédictions des ventes, afin de minimiser les stocks en prenant en compte l’historique comportemental de chaque client. Aussi, le projet cherchera à (2) améliorer la logistique d’expédition, notamment la cueillette dans l’entrepôt, par le placement optimal des produits en fonction des corrélations dans les achats observés. Finalement, il s’agira de (3) développer un outil de prédiction des retours de produits. Les retours sont couteux d’un point de vue logistique, il s’agira d’en diminuer la fréquence en signalant au client, lorsque possible, qu’il existe éventuellement une meilleure option de produit qui pourrait le satisfaire, avec une plus faible probabilité de retour.

Blockchain-based Consent Management for Personalized Medicine

This multidisciplinary project will investigate the social, data, and technical issues surrounding design and implementation of a blockchain-based solution for the management of consent for the use of individuals’ “omics” data in medical research. Blockchains are distributed ledgers in which confirmed and validated blocks are organized in an append-only chain using cryptographic links. This project will study how blockchain technology can be used to provide users with greater control of, and reward for, the use of personal omics data, including genomics, proteomics, exposomics, phenomics, microbiomics and metabolomics, in medical research studies. It will also explore how the technical design of blockchain solutions may support privacy-preserving analysis of “omics” data with machine-learning. To achieve these research objectives, project team members will identify legal, regulatory and other requirements for the management of omics data and then use heuristic techniques and agile software development to implement a proof-of-concept blockchain solution that meets identified requirements for user consent of their omics data in studies to be run by the industry partner, Molecular You, as well as those to be run by its partners. “TO BE CONT’D”

Nanotechnology Solving Environmental Protection and Cyber-Physical Security: Smart Power-Grid Application

The ACPS will offer high-reliability and real-time monitoring of the smart-grid infrastructure and the secure CPS will provide secure communication and authentication of the smart-grid devices and components. This results in secure and improved power transmission that can reduce infrastructure maintenance cost for the utility companies and also reduced power-theft attacks from malicious sources. Successful outcome of this project will also reduce cost of power for the end user and benefit the society with secured higher quality of life. Additionally, environmental benefits are also achieved by reducing waste of the infrastructure material and generated power.
Mobility Systems demand new improved methods to authenticate data captured from devices and sensors, to validate user’s identities, and to secure and authorize access to services and information. The protection of privacy and data integrity as well as integration with the Internet through machine-readable features are essential for all potential users. TO BE CONT”D

Remote and local effect of vertical warming structure in the polar region

Recently, the near-surface temperature in the Arctic region has been increasing at a faster rate than the global average. Also, many studies show the distinct vertical profile of Arctic warming is determined by various driving mechanisms. Here, we will show how polar warming of different vertical structure affects the climate responses locally as well as remotely. Understanding the influence of vertical warming profiles in the polar region on the mid latitude and tropical climate will not only improve our confidence in regional climate projection and contribute to reduce financial loss resulting from extreme weather events caused by polar warming. Therefore, the proposed research will provide new perspectives on remote interactions in the climate system, which are essential to understanding and mitigating regional effects in response to global warming.

Application d’une analyse de sélection au comportement de jeu des joueurs de jeu vidéo

Notre but est d’améliorer la capacité des compagnies à concevoir et entretenir des jeux vidéo multijoueur en utilisant les théories développées par les écologistes pour comprendre le comportement des animaux (par exemple pour comprendre pourquoi les lions préfèrent chasser en groupe plutôt que seul). Nous analyserons les tactiques de jeu utilisées par les joueurs dans le jeu dead by daylight pour comprendre comment et pourquoi ces tactiques varient d’un joueur à l’autre et évoluent au fur et à mesure que les joueurs gagnent de l’expérience de jeu. Ce projet devrait permettre de concevoir des jeux vidéo de manière plus efficace dans le futur.

Transitioning from Print to Interactive Digital Publishing

PUBLIC is an innovative print periodical with a 25 year history exploring the intersection between art, design, technology and contemporary culture. This Mitacs fellowship will develop the journal’s open access interactive web platform, PUBLIC:PORTAL, using information visualization and design to showcase the journal’s cutting-edge collaborative and cross-disciplinary work. This project designs and tests graphical user interfaces and information visualization strategies in order to investigate the ways that abstract and complex information can be conveyed through intuitive design. PUBLIC:PORTAL will capitalize on the unique potential of the digital platform to construct a responsive, flexible and adaptive digital infrastructure to facilitate collaborations and experiments between researchers and artists/designers.

Development of Highly Efficient Colloidal Quantum Dot-Polymer Hybrid Tandem Solar Cells

PbS CQDs solar cells have limitations of improving the efficiency due to low open-circuit voltage (Voc) and low absorbance between 600 nm and 900 nm. To solve these problems, PbS CQDs-polymer hybrid tandem solar cell was developed by introducing a low band-gap polymeric photo-active layer, exhibiting high absorbance in the region of 600 nm to 900 nm, which is capable of complementary absorption. Furthermore, PbS CQDs and polymer of the photo-active layers are connected in series so as to maximize the efficiency for increasing the Voc value. When the world’s highest efficiency of PbS CQDs solar cell is achieved by the newly proposed research method, I expect to lead the world industrial market and academia of PbS CQDs solar cells.

Characterization of host regulatory components associated with plant disease resistance

The main goal of this research project is to identify key genes which act as transcription factors (TFs) in downstream of R gene. Since the pathway after the interaction of R gene and its effector is almost unknown, after locating the candidate gene by using the protein-protein interaction, the final step is figuring out the function of those particular gene as a TF in the pathway. In addition, RNA-Seq-based transcriptome analysis will be performed to identify host genes required for CMV replication.