Improving the durability of superhydrophobic surfaces is of significant interest in the surface engineering community. We have recently developed a novel superhydrophobic coating with a hard nanocrystalline nickel matrix and embedded hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) particles. To further improve the mechanical robustness of the non-wetting coating, the soft polymeric PTFE particles were replaced with hard, hydrophobic […]

Circadian rhythms are processes which allows animals to regulate their physiology based on time of day. These rhythms are controlled by the circadian clock, a group of transcription factors that form a feedback loop. Over 40% of the genome is transcribed rhythmically, implicating the clock in many physiological processes. The cell cycle is another process […]

Recent natural disasters, such as the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, have increased focus on the resilient design of coastal communities to these devastating large-scale hydraulic events. The loads from these events can be separated into hydraulic and debris loads. Debris loads, in particular, are difficult to evaluate in the field and […]

Parallel mechanisms/robots have been developed for numerous applications. At Ryerson University, it has been implemented in morphing wing mechanism design. However, an ideal morphing skin is required to create a functional morphing wing. In addition to morphing wings, other applications may require parallel robots to be covered due to environment requirements, for example, medical, industrial, […]

Over the last few years, the data revolution occurred with the emergence of “Big data”. In medical field, the term big data refers to large databases in terms of patients and/or information from varied sources. Nevertheless, heterogeneity is encountered in this kind of data. Indeed, data arise from different medical centers. Furthermore, we can’t perform […]

Current UV technology used to disinfect drinking water and wastewater is energy intensive, hazardous, and bulky; and the advent of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that emit in the ultraviolet (UV) range provides a unique opportunity to rethink how we design and implement disinfection technology. The overall objective of this project is to investigate the how […]

With the rising concern regarding environmental pollution and greenhouse gases, the demand for clean and renewable energy sources has never been greater. Recent developments in fuel cell technology have been promising; however, these fuel cells may be unsuited for mass production due to the prohibitive cost of the platinum-group metal nanoparticles which are required as […]

Modern distributed applications are becoming increasing large and complex. They often bring together independently developed sub-systems (e.g., for storage, batch processing, streaming, application logic, logging, caching) into large, geo-distributed and heterogeneous architectures. Combining, configuring, and deploying these architectures is a difficult and multifaceted task: individual services have their own requirements, configuration spaces, programming models, distribution […]

A previous mathematical model of an offshore wind turbine was established and then, a positional controller was designed and simulated for a single Wind Turbine in order to provide movement around an area using the force of air that acts on the wind turbine. The goal of my research project is to validate this Position […]

In able-bodied individuals, increases in core temperature during exercise are controlled by the nervous system as a sweating response. However, individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI) may have altered sweating responses due to autonomic dysfunction, leading to increased risk of heat stress during exercise. Currently, standard tests do not fully describe how temperature regulation is […]

Erythropoietin is a protein with attached sugars that stimulates the production of red blood cells. As such, it can be used by athletes to enhance their competitive performance, an act that is called doping. Erythropoietin that us used for doping is typically produced in animal cells, which functionalize the protein with sugars that differ from […]

Sensorineural hearing loss involves damage to hair cells, the sensory transducers of the auditory system, and/or the auditory neurons that transmit this information to the brain. Once these cells are lost the body does not naturally regenerate them. Elsewhere it has been shown that cells of one type may be converted into another cell type. […]