Innovative Projects Realized

Point-dendrometers for ecosystem growth and health

Point dendrometers are indispensable for monitoring tree growth and detecting stress in forest ecosystems, offering detailed insights into cambial activity and environmental responses. The project’s goal is to harness machine learning to address data gaps and enhance the precision of trend detection in dendrometer data. This
approach will also seek to identify signals of ecosystem health and stress, such as drought or disease impact, observable in tree growth patterns. By integrating these ground-level measurements with remote sensing data, the project aims to scale localized stress indicators to wider ecosystem monitoring, thus providing a more holistic
view of forest health. The synergy between detailed dendrometer data and expansive remote sensing imagery, analyzed through advanced algorithms, will offer unprecedented capabilities in assessing the resilience and vitality of forests on a macroscopic scale.

Wet Waste Disposal Strategy

The project aims to find a sustainable solution for the kitchen waste produced by CMH, a backcountry lodge operator in eastern BC. The issue affects many businesses across different sectors and the findings could benefit them as well. CMH has eight lodges with varying occupancy sizes and waste amounts. The lodges are remote, high-altitude, and mostly busy in winter, which makes natural composting difficult and slow. CMH has explored composting, burning, landfilling, and pig-feeding in the past, but none of these methods are ideal for the environment, cost, or energy. The project will use the previous work and some assumptions to compare the impact and workload of each method for each lodge, considering the pre-pandemic guest load. The project will also consider the accessibility and proximity of the lodges, as some of them are on closed logging roads in winter. The project hopes to find the best solution for each lodge and the overall operation.

Innovations thérapeutiques ciblant le récepteur à l’apéline dans les cancers localement agressifs

La prise en charge thérapeutique des cancers localement agressifs, dont font partie les cancers de l’ovaire (OvCa) et les glioblastomes (GBM), est aujourd’hui encore un enjeu majeur, avec une survie à 5 ans de 30% et 4% respectivement. La communauté scientifique se penche sur l’identification de nouvelles stratégies thérapeutiques afin de pouvoir proposer des traitements ciblés et personnalisés et ainsi augmenter les chances de succès. Dans cet objectif, le récepteur à l’apéline (APJ) a été identifié comme cible pertinente dans les OvCa et le GBM. Il s’agit d’une protéine à sept domaines transmembranaires faisant partie de la grande famille des récepteurs couplés aux protéines G (RCPG). APJ est surexprimé dans environ 25% des OvCa et 30% des GBM et a été corrélé avec un pronostic sombre dans ces cancers. Ainsi, le projet scientifique portera sur l’investigation du récepteur à l’apeline (APJ) comme cible dans ces cancers localement agressifs.

Mediated Public Space in China: The Shift Towards Privacy fromWeibo to Weixin

This research project will focus on two popular online communication platforms in China, Weibo, a public microblogging service, and Weixin, a multi-functional, private
Instant Messaging application. The two platforms will be compared in the way that they operate as public or private spaces, the influence of interpersonal goals on the interaction in these spaces, and how the shift towards private communications suggest that a new concept of a “mediated private sphere” might be more useful in understanding the politics of digital communications in China.

Le renouvellement du droit des personnes sous l’influence du numérique

Le nombre d’utilisateurs d’Internet et d’objets connectés dans le monde est exponentiel. Chacun utilise aujourd’hui téléphone, ordinateur, montre connectée, souvent plusieurs heures par jour. Si cela semble à certains égards faciliter le quotidien, un tel comportement conduit également à des atteintes à la personne non négligeables.

La personne est entendue dans son intégralité, tant à l’égard de son corps que de son esprit. Or le numérique porte atteinte à ces deux composantes. Il est nécessaire de protéger la personne en la préservant des risques et des dérives que comporte le numérique, en garantissant la protection de ses intérêts. Toutes les personnes sont susceptibles d’être concernées, les personnes physiques, c’est-à-dire les êtres humains, mais aussi les personnes morales comme les entreprises, les associations et même l’État.

L’objectif de la recherche est de proposer des solutions qui relèvent du droit civil, afin d’améliorer la protection de la personne vulnérabilisée par le numérique.

Cell free extract of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LAA 40 role in seed germination and early transcript changes with salt stress in tomato seedlings

The use of plant growth promotion microbial extracts containing various metabolites is a promising technique to improve crop growth and combat various stress conditions. Very little is known about the effect of bacterial cell-free extracts on plant growth promotion and salt stress mitigation. The project aims to: (i) Optimization of growth media and parameters to maximize metabolite production in cell free extract of B. amyloliquefaciens strain LAA40. (ii) Evaluate the best mode of application cell free extract of B. amyloliquefaciens strain LAA40 to mitigate salt stress in tomato seedlings. (iii) Determine changes in transcriptomic profile in seedlings under salt stress treated with cell free extract of B. amyloliquefaciens strain LAA40 by analyzing the RNASeq data.

Simulation, fabrication et caractérisation de réseaux de dimères de nanostructures d’or pour le couplage fort lumière-matière au sein d’un dispositif quantique

Le projet s’intéresse à la création et la manipulation de couplage optique fort entre un film métallique et des nanostructures d’or. L’idée est d’exploiter les phénomènes résonants afin de contrôler et améliorer les performances d’émission des boites quantiques utilisés dans des dispositifs quantiques.
Plusieurs étapes de fabrication et de caractérisation sont nécessaires afin d’obtenir les bonnes propriétés. Ces tâches seront confiés au stagiaire au sein du 3IT/LN2 de l’université de Sherbrooke. La réussite de ce projet permettra de fournir un dispositif combinant de l’optique et de la quantique plus performants et contrôlables. Ce sera également une 1ere preuve expérimentale de la possibilité d’utiliser des réseaux de nanostructures d’or (et des effets optiques associés) comme intermédiaire de contrôle.

Evaluation of viral potentiator-mediated enhancement of AAV transduction and impact on therapy induced immune responses

Gene therapy has the potential to cure a wide range of debilitating genetic diseases. One of the best ways to correct a genetic defect is to use a viral vector to deliver a functional copy of the gene to cells in the body so that they can express a functional protein and reverse the disease phenotype. Currently, adeno-associated virus
(AAV) vectors are the leading gene delivery platforms as they can infect almost any cell type in the body and can elicit sustained expression of a function protein. While highly effective, some genetic diseases, like spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), require very high doses of AAV to be administered to the patients to reach all the
necessary target cells. High doses of AAV, as well as pre-existing immunity to AAV, have been associated with toxicities. The objective of this proposal is to evaluate whether vector potentiators (VEPOs) identified by Virano Therapeutics can be administered at the time of AAV delivery to improve the efficiency of AAV transduction and
minimize vector induced immune responses, thereby permitting the administration of lower doses of AAV to achieve the same therapeutic efficacy, and potentially allowing for repeat administration of the AAV gene therapy if necessary.

Teaching literacy through Imaginative Education in Mexican context

Literacy is one of the essential elements of curriculum in any country. Mexico has been struggling with diminishing results in international and national assessments. By the age of 15, most students have poor reading comprehension skills, and the consequences are that they don’t advance as they should in their learning process. The Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG) has developed the Imaginative Literacy Program (ILP) based on the Imaginative Education innovative approach. This pilot research program attempts to explore the potential effectiveness of this educational program in Mexican schools. Education graduate students from the Mexican university will be taught how to implement this program in their classrooms. They will follow a five step guide developed by the IERG, guided by Prof. Kieran Egan and the SFU IERG Research Assistant. Teachers’ skills of using this program’s principles to teach literacy will be tested, and students’ literacy skills will be tested at the end of the project as well. We expect to find significant progress in both, teachers and students, by using this program. Additionally, to find valuable data that contributes to the programs’ development and process of implementation.

A low cost, reconfigurable, and power efficient FPGA based all-digital transmitter for low earth satellite applications

This research project investigates the design of an all-digital transmitter that is suitable for low earth orbit satellite (LEO) networks. Important requirements for the satellite application include a transmit system that has a software reconfigurable hardware platform that is power efficient and can generate modulated output signals at the carrier frequency. The architecture also needs to be scalable such that digital beamforming can be implemented with an array of power amplifiers and antennas. The outcomes of the research project are expected to enhance the technology that can be deployed on spaceborne assets that are essential to LEO satellite networks that provide global access to high data rate communication services.

The Effects of Adaptive Music Intervention on Psychosocial and Cognitive Functions of Older Adults: A Pilot and Validation Study – Part 2

Music interventions have been seen to be effective in promoting social, emotional, and cognitive wellbeing, and may be specifically favoured by older adults. However, little is known on the effectiveness of a music intervention that is adapted to the mood and preferences of individual older adults. To fill this gap, the proposed project will assess the added benefits of Pi Electronics’ adaptive music program (AM) compared to a traditional music program (TM), in which 75 healthy older adults will be evenly randomized into the AM, TM, or a control group. The AM and TM will receive a personalized playlist containing preferred music during the intervention, with the AM having their music adapted with frequencies that have been associated with each participant’s positive mood. The CG will listen to an audiobook during the intervention period. All groups will complete assessments at pretest, posttest, and a 3-month follow-up session.

Development of High-Performance Carbon Fibre from Asphaltene

The goal of this project is to develop effective strategies to improve the quality of CarboMat’s asphaltene-derived carbon fibers for various multifunctional composite applications. Through this project, the partner organization, CarboMat Inc., would be able to leverage their funding because of the grant from Mitacs Elevate to work towards further development of their existing asphaltene-derived carbon fiber production technology while utilizing a wide variety of expertise and resources from the University of Calgary.