Innovative Projects Realized

Internationalisation de l’éducation: étude multicas (cas Brésil)

Depuis une décennie, l’internationalisation des systèmes d’éducation s’intensifie et se caractérise par de nombreuses réformes. Celles-ci favorisent le développement de compétences du 21e siècle, l’intégration de l’éducation interculturelle dans les curriculums et une augmentation des programmes d’échanges et de stages internationaux. Certains milieux de formation initiale des enseignants, interpellés par ces nouveaux besoin de formation, offrent à leurs étudiants la possibilité de faire un stage pratique à l’étranger intégré à leur programme. Toutefois ces pratiques émergentes demeurent peu étudiées. Cette recherche apporte un regard nouveau sur l’internationalisation de la formation des enseignants. Elle caractérise trois dispositifs de formation initiale (Québec, France et Brésil) qui témoignent d’une institutionnalisation forte des stages pratiques à l’étranger. En s’appuyant sur l’observation de trois pratiques contrastées, l’objectif de cette étude est de proposer de nouvelles balises afin de favoriser l’intégration des stages internationaux dans la formation des futurs enseignants.

Closing the evidence-practice gap for non-pharmacologic and non-surgical osteoarthritis care with an e-health knowledge translation strategy

Osteoarthritis is an extremely common, extremely costly disease that will become more prevalent as the population ages. Treatment delivered in primary care settings does not always reflect ‘best practice’ care for the disease. In particular, non-surgical and non-drug interventions such as exercise, weight loss and education regarding self management are underutilized. One reason that clinicians do not always implement these important, effective interventions is that they are not sufficiently trained or knowledgeable in all aspects of evidence informed treatment of the disease. The present study is the first in a four stage international research project, ultimately aimed at developing a web-based training resource that will substantially increase the number of clinicians and students who are knowledgeable and skilled in optimal osteoarthritis treatment. The present project will use qualitative analysis to understand baseline practitioner and student perspective regarding their confidence, knowledge and learning needs in implementing recommended non-surgical and non-drug treatments for osteoarthritis in primary care settings.

Investigating Itineraries of a Himalayan Pilgrimage: Infrastructural impacts on socio-natural experience

As part of my Honours thesis, I will conduct literature review and field research on changing practices of pilgrimage in the Indian Himalayas. Pilgrimage has historically been an important aspect of Indian religions, and has exploded in popularity with increased accessibility due to a growing middle class and improved communication and transportation infrastructures. Because much of the sacred power of Himalayan pilgrimage sites is borne out of high mountain remoteness where major rivers are sourced, I ask how modern methods of travel affect pilgrims’ social and religious experiences of pilgrimage. This research entails travelling alongside pilgrims as they ride, drive, and trek to one of Uttarakhand state’s Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage sites, one of the most popular and auspicious of emerging ‘pilgrimage circuits’ in India. I will learn about how different methods of travel, as vectors for social interaction and experiences of the environment, affect religious experience and identity.

Optogenetic Modulation of Heart Rate

The heart beats 3-4 billion times in a person’s lifetime, making it the only part of the body that continues to work – without a break – for one’s entire existence! It is a specialized region within the heart (the sinoatrial node) that initiates each heartbeat. However, in some people the sinoatrial node malfunctions, requiring implantation of an artificial pacemaker that electrically stimulates the heart. Although they are commonly used, electrical pacemakers have a great disadvantage: they are only able to INCREASE (not decrease) heart rate. In this Mitacs project, my goal is to evaluate the potential of using light for pacing the heart to overcome this limitation. The research team at the Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine in Germany have a genetically-modified mouse that has a light-activated ion channel present in its heart tissue. Using focused light timed with the hearts own electrical activity, we aim to determine if we can selectively increase or decrease heart rate in these mice. This is a crucial first step for understanding the future therapeutic potential of using light to pace the heart in patients requiring artificial pacemakers.

An Innovative Green Technology for Treating Municipal and Industrial Wastewater entering Rivers and Streams

In many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, untreated or partially-treated municipal and industrial wastewater is directly discharged into natural water bodies and streams. The wastewater may contain many organic as well as inorganic contaminants which may be then introduced to rural communities downstream. The contaminated water may be used for washing, drinking and for farming. The contaminants can eventually enter humans and cause variety of health problems. Remediation techniques such as use of natural and constructed wetlands are cost-effective as well as efficient, but require large areas of land. Efforts have been made to mimic the workings of wetlands by employing water treatment systems within water bodies. In our current IC-Impacts project, we determined that biochar generated from agricultural waste, was effective in removing heavy metals and organic pollutants in wastewater, and not releasing it back into the water readily. The proposed demonstration project would involve implementation of a anchored biochar water treatment (ABWT) concept where a mixture of bagged biochar, anchored in a watercourse, would serve to remove both organic and inorganic pollutants. Sorption isotherms having been determined for various types of biochar, their respective sorption capacities for different pollutants have been determined […]

Action spectra characteristic for typical challenge organism used in polychromatic UV reactor validation

In the last decade, ultraviolet disinfection has emerged as a “green” technology with no harmful

chemicals used for treatment and no significant disinfection byproducts left in the effluent. Validation

of reactor performance based on bioassay process is often required for UV disinfection applications.

However, validation for medium pressure UV reactors is much more complex than traditional low

pressure UV reactors because the complexity of the relative action spectra of the surrogate

microorganism and target pathogen under the broader wavelengths. As a result, important issues

such as kinetics of organism inactivation under different wavelength and how does the action spectra

impact the bioassay results have not been addressed to date. This study will investigate the action

spectra characteristic of the surrogate microorganism MS2 and construct a proper method for the

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action spectra measurement as well as propose a model in order to assess the impact of action

spectra on disinfection efficiency and RED determination for both….

Desiccation-induced cracking of expansive soils: highlighting volume change behavior

Desiccation-induced cracking is a complicated phenomenon associated with strongly coupled hydro-mechanical behavior of cohesive soils. The soil-shrinkage characteristic curve (SSCC) for intact soils is well established to describe the relationship between void ratio and water content. However, it is questionable to employ the SSCC to predict the volume change based on the reduction in water content during the desiccation cracking. In this project, SSCCs with and without desiccation cracks for two soils (including one expansive soil) will be measured. The state-of-art devices and an electronic balance are utilized to measure the volume change (including the geometry of crack networks) and moisture change during desiccation cracking, respectively. The relationship between crack volume and void ratio of soil matrix and moisture content during desiccation cracking could improve our understanding of the mechanism of desiccation-induced cracking and pave the way to modeling the flow through cracked soils.

Non-invasive quantification of myocardial stiffness using a portable ultrasound device

Heart failure currently affects 14 million people in Europe. Early diagnosis of heart failure is essential in order to successfully address the underlying causes. However, initial diagnosis is difficult meaning that heart failure is only correctly diagnosed in about half of affected patients. Diastolic heart failure, which accounts for more than 50% of all heart failure patients, is due to abnormal ventricular stiffness that remains very difficult to diagnose. Non-invasive evaluation of myocardial stiffness remains a challenge and there is currently no technique that can assess myocardial stiffness in clinical practice. In the proposed project, a novel portable ultrasound device will be developed for non-invasive quantification of myocardial stiffness that will allow an accurate, quick and non-invasive assessment of the diastolic function. TO BE CONT’D

An Alternative Account of Recognition Memory

This project will be focused on implementation of an algorithmic model to help us better understand the underlying processes of recognition memory. Specifically, our computational model is comprised of two memory modules – one representing the hippocampus and the other representing the perirhinal cortex of the brain. According to the dual-process model of recognition memory, recollection is supported by the hippocampus, while familiarity mainly relies on the perirhinal cortex (Yonelinas 1997, Eichenbaum 2007). By contrast, single-process models suggest that the representations in the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex differ in memory strength instead of underlying processing (Squire et al. 2007). Our model will allow us to asses the properties of input and processing through these two regions of the brain, allowing us to analyze their affects on recognition performance.
The internship comprises a significant hands-on experience in computational modelling. TO BE CONT’D

Portable Medical Grade EEG Headset Functional Improvement

Epilepsy affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide. These people can experience unexpected seizures that make it dangerous for them to engage in everyday activities like driving and walking. A portable wireless neuro-monitoring headset prototype that is worn on the head has been developed by Avertus Inc. to address this issue. The headset is designed to read brain waves, and, through a wireless connection to a cell phone, warn the wearer when the device identifies brain activity that is characteristic with an oncoming seizure. Improvements to the functionality of the headset are required to help improve its accuracy of seizure prediction. Contact impedance detection will be implemented to detect when the headset is not properly fitted; which will prevent the software from mistaking a weak connection with a potential seizure. Faster hardware and software will be implemented to increase the rate of information collection.TO BE CONT’D

Implementation and advancement of image analysis for multiplexed microarrays

Microarray testing allows high-volume analysis. This work will compare open-source software to in-house analysis methods within SQI Diagnostics. The goal is to enhance the performance of current assay designs and to inform and guide the next-generation of assay designs (ie 384 well plates) which will support SQI’s technology leadership position. After implementing a print run and analysis using the current quality control protocols, data will be compared with existing SQI results. As well, ArrayNinja will be modified to provide reports in the same format as current reports and expand current assay options to 384 well plates.

The Geography of Capacity–An Analysis of Individual, Organizational and Community Needs and Resources in Three Communities in Canada – Year two

This research presents a conceptual model of the geography of capacity and explores, through a small-scale study, the experiences of capacity across the nonprofit sector at the individual, organizational and community level in three different locales in Canada. By identifying the varied nonprofit capacity needs in different socio-economic and geographic locations, and by examining how organizations and communities understand these needs and strategize to identify resources, this research contributes to the discourse on the geography of nonprofits, infrastructure organizations and service provision. It challenges the dominant assumption that all agents within the nonprofit sector have equal access to resources, knowledge and ultimately the power needed to achieve outcomes. This study problematizes the capacity needs of the sector and corresponding infrastructure supports provided through the lens of socio-economic and geographic difference. TO BE CONT’D