Innovative Projects Realized

Condom Negotiation Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men

The aim of The Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) is to help combat the spread of HIV by supporting, conducting, and sharing the best research possible. This project will involve a novel analysis examining aspects of condom negotiation among gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (GBMSM). This work is needed because the HIV prevention methods that involve drug regimens are not available to all GBMSM and do not protect against the transmission of bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STIs). Despite the broader protective benefits of using condoms, this practice is becoming less and less popular, thus we propose to examine how interpersonal elements in condom negotiation, like the use of condom insistence and condom resistance tactics, may interact with psychosocial factors, like perceived relationship power, depression, condom attitude, and others, to influence actual condom use among GBMSM. TO BE CONT’D

Understanding the Impact of Legal Cannabis Access on Health: A Large, Prospective Cohort Study of Canadians Obtaining Medical Cannabis Authorization

Although legal access to medical cannabis has been available in Canada for many years, our society has yet to fully understand the important health implications surrounding the use of medical cannabis or recreational users. However, the current availability of medical cannabis in Canada means that researchers have access to a large number of individuals who are cannabis users. This is an important group of people as understanding their health outcomes can help identify future health concerns and guide the implementation of policies, programs, practices, and/or resource distribution that would be needed to address potential health arising amongst non-medical cannabis users. The urgency of obtaining this information is emphasized by the proposal to legalize cannabis in Canada and the subsequent projected increase in cannabis users to as high as 7 million by 2021. TO BE CONT’D

Dymedso FrequencerTM technology optimization

Dymedso is willing to introduce a new technology for sound-wave generation therapy that addresses some issues identified by patients and caregivers over the past years of use in clinical practice. The identified issues involve ergonomic and
performance limitations. For instance, the current version of the device is still cumbersome for patient use. Thus, for more practical and effective use, the device needs to be optimized in terms of size, weight, and overall performance. We will carefully analyze each of the modules composing The FrequencerTM including the sound-wave generator, the transducer, and the communication system to propose improvements for each of them. In addition, different types of sensors and feedback interfaces will be investigated for the new version in order to improve the effectiveness of this device.

Modelling the effects of industrial disturbance and predation risk on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) seasonal habitat selection in the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada

My master’s project in partnership with InnoTech Alberta will be assessing potential effects of industrial activity from in-situ oil and gas extraction on carnivore and white-tailed deer populations in northeastern Alberta. Deer populations have been increasing for the past fifty years and two of the leading causes are attributed to climate change and human disturbance. Our objectives are to determine which industrial activities are important for deer populations and to provide management recommendations for the population in the interest of the protection of woodland caribou, a threatened species. Current management approaches include predator control as a method of reducing predation pressure on caribou; however, deer are the primary prey for wolves in this region and are an important management consideration for future caribou recovery strategies. InnoTech Alberta is a leader in wildlife modelling and will benefit from this partnership by providing informative results and management recommendations to funding agencies and to the Government of Alberta.

Visualizing data for Fraser River salmon stocks: Developing tools to promote insight and understanding

For this project, we propose to integrate the data about Fraser River salmon populations into a multi-species, multi-population database, and develop an interactive data visualization tool that allows fisheries scientists and managers to explore this data at different spatial and temporal scales. The objective of this project is to provide fisheries scientists and managers with the tools to easily and comprehensively track annual trends in salmon data, and explore these trends for their possible drivers. The development of the data visualizations will be guided by methodology from design studies and psychology to quantifies the visualizations’ ability to promote insight and understanding of this complex dataset. This understanding of variation in Fraser River salmon abundances will in turn lead to more effectively managed fisheries.

The effect of increased levels of converter based power generation on the voltage stability of a power system

As a result of the advancement of renewable energy and power electronic (PE) converter technologies, renewable energy sources are increasingly interfaced to the grid through PE based interconnections such as Voltage Sourced Converters (VSC) and Modular Multi-level Converters (MMC). It is essential to model and predict the behavior and effects of these components in the power system for safe and reliable operation. This proposed research project will focus on how renewable sources connected to the grid through PE converters, affect the stability power transmission system. In the first stage, Real Time Digital Simulation (RTDS) models will be developed for the case studies. Both theoretical analysis and simulations will be used to understand and demonstrate the effect of PE converters in power transmission system. In the second stage, studies will be extended to a meshed network and frequency stability of the system due to increased levels of PE converters will also be considered.

Understanding Transportation Behaviour at Trent University

The proposed research project will seek to highlight the factors that influence transportation

behaviour, as well as the specific barriers that exist for particular modalities on Trent

University’s Symons campus. This, then, will provide a more intimate understanding of how

future efforts to bring about more sustainable transportation systems might serve to address

the specific needs of the Trent community. Secondly, it will help to elucidate specific

strategies and frameworks for addressing pressing transportation issues on the Symons

campus, and in the Peterborough community more broadly. Lastly, the knowledge gained

through this research study will contribute the overall effectiveness of transportation planning

and programming, which can then contribute to a net reduction of vehicular traffic as well as a

reduction in the social and environmental impacts associated with our current transportation

systems. This City of Peterborough, the internship partner organization, will use the research

generated within the context of this project to inform its infrastructure planning, service

provision, and Transportation Demand Management….

Characterizing Technology Use in Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting 1 in 68 children. Approaches that use technology can potentially decrease cost of ASD interventions and treatments and contribute to improving their effectiveness. There is currently not enough evidence to inform how these technology-based interventions should be designed. The goal of this study is to fill this gap. We will do this by conducting a national survey to better understand technology use patterns in children with and without ASD. The survey will look at how, what, and where technology is used, how technology use is affected by gender, age, and autism symptoms, and how technology impacts the children and families health and quality of life. Overall, this study will inform the development of evidence-based technology-based interventions that can improve outcomes for individuals with ASD.

Stratégies pour le contrôle des contaminants microbiens dans un procédé de fabrication de panneaux à partir de fibres de bois

Une usine de fabrication et de transformation de panneaux de fibre de bois à partir d’un procédé papetier requiert l’aide de stagiaires pour évaluer les sources de contamination microbienne. Au fil des ans, ses intrants et ses circuits ont été modifiés. L’usine constate depuis quelques années des problématiques qui dépassent son niveau de contrôle traditionnel. Des analyses plus poussées, que l’usine ne peut faire elle-même, sont nécessaires pour comprendre les interactions qui se produisent actuellement et pour trouver des solutions aux nouvelles problématiques rencontrées. Des solutions seront testées afin que l’usine puisse mesurer, contrôler ces nouveaux paramètres et en contrer les effets indésirables.

Characterizing lytic bacteriophages against pathogenic E. coli: killing spectrum, efficacy in vivo, and genomic analysis

Bacterial pathogens of importance to animal health and food safety have major and global impacts on agriculture and food industries. There has been an increase in bacterial resistance to antimicrobials, and antibiotic use in livestock and poultry has been questioned due to likelihood of increased antimicrobial resistance. Alternative strategies to contend with bacterial pathogens within the food production chain are therefore needed. Lytic bacteriophages (phages) are bacteria-specific viruses that can lyse and kill their bacterial targets. One of the focuses of SyntBioLab Inc. is to develop applications to control bacterial pathogens by using phages. Escherichia coli is a major problem for food safety and animal health. In particular, in poultry (chickens and turkeys), avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) is the predominant cause of respiratory and systemic infection. TO BE CONT’D

Testing, evaluation and development of a commercial protocol to differentiate hPSC-derived pancreatic progenitors into insulin-producing ?-cells in 2D monolayers and/or 3D culture systems

The generation of functional ?-cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for cell replacement therapy and disease modeling of diabetes is a strongly investigated area. Recent scientific breakthroughs have enabled derivation of large quantities of human pancreatic ?-like cells in the laboratory, but the protocols are currently not consistent or optimized for cells of various genetic backgrounds. We aim to develop a commercial kit to differentiate hPSCs into ?-cells with reproducible efficiencies between multiple cell lines. We anticipate for such a kit to support researchers in robustly generating cells for studying human pancreatic development, dissecting molecular pathways and gene functions impaired in disease, screening cells for drug discovery studies, and investigating the regenerative potential of ?-cells for the treatment of diabetes. We also believe such a product will pave the way for the design of a product that can support clinical trials and the scale-up of biomaterials for transplantation purposes in humans.

Ultra-low power wireless sensor node design for health monitoring use cases

In this project we address the problem of power consumption for wireless sensor nodes. This is where among different components of a sensor, RF transceivers consume a significant amount of power e.g. approximately 80%. Hence the main objective is this project is to tackle the power consumption problem at the RF transmitter, where we aim to reduce the power consumption to micro-watts of power, with minimal sacrifice in achievable data rate and by keeping the connectivity range within an acceptable radius.