MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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The Effects of Urbanization and Aboriginal Entrepreneur
No full textNo abstract available
Discipline: Computer Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Leo Won
An Exploration of “Ancestors & Elders”
No full textThe digital story is an exploration of Ancestors & Elders (the upcoming Shumka performance) which according to Shumka is: “a project borne from a desire to connect the Ukrainian settler experience to that of the indigenous people of Treaty 6 territory...our goal is to share a story of the first Ukrainian newcomers to Canada, exploring the shared values -- as well as respected differences--- between Ukrainian and First Nations people.” We recognize that these stories have often been silenced by the master narrative; through this exploration of a contemporary performance piece, we hope to bring attention to the alternative narratives that connect these two groups\u27 experiences.
 
A Journey of Understanding: Interactive Learning Tool
No full textA tool I created for myself and others to learn more about the Indigenous past. I\u27ve transformed a board game into a journey that is based on understanding the history of residential schools and other pieces of history and current issues that are thought provoking. You’ll learn first-hand knowledge from a number of survivors who have been brave enough to share their story through the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. There are deeper questions that will keep you thinking even after you\u27ve finished playing, in hopes that you will want to learn more. It\u27s a game based on Cultural Humility and lifelong learning.
 
Inclusive or Exclusive: Body Positive Communication in Imagery and Clothing in Athens, Greece
No full textIt is expected that 40% of adults in Greece will be obese by 2030, and more and more individuals in the country are inactive. There are many reasons for obesity and inactivity; however, factors such as societal influences and appearance-focused communication are known to have an effect. Negative body communication—in other words, size-discrimination or shaming—may cause a person to consume unhealthy or large amounts of food and avoid exercise. Likewise, a system of social marking divides one group, the “ideal” group, from another group, the “lesser” group, thereby creating a perception of abnormality towards the “lesser” group and strengthening a social divide. Moreover, labelling theory states that individuals tend to behave based on the label assigned to them. In contrast, body positive communication seeks to challenge beauty standards and encourage a healthy mindset that in turn inspires healthy consumption and activity. This study analyzes communication towards females in Athens, Greece, through imagery, by examining front-of-store signage and mannequins, and clothing, by reviewing the size range available for purchase in stores. Major findings reveal that images do not show diversified sizing and the most common sizes are medium and small. This paper shows that negative communication could potentially exacerbate the overweight and obesity rate and that Athens, Greece has inadequate body positive communication practices
Custom FPGA Data Acquisition for Experimental Astrophysics
No full textField-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology is becoming more advanced and commercially accessible with many off-the-shelf options available for a variety of applications ranging from the casual hobbyist to leading edge hardware development research requiring precision real-time operation. FPGAs allow for task-configurable, customizable designs, which can be highly optimized for specific applications. FPGAs are also very easily reconfigurable for other appications via software modification, and are thus very useful for use in an experimental physics laboratory. The Digilent Cmod A7 available for ~$90 USD was selected as an ideal solution for an application requiring 43 digital I/O pins, sub-microsecond level timing accuracy, and a state-machine cycle rates in excess of 100 kHz. This work presents the use of the CmodA7 FPGA module as part of a custom electronic data acquisition system for a laboratory-based interferometry testbed supporting the development of instrument concepts and techniques for experimental astrophysics. Using serial communication over a custom Universal Asynchronous Receiver- Transmitter (UART) designed in the Verilog hardware descriptive language, we demonstrated non-standard serial baud rates up to 4 Mbps, allowing for serial transmission rates over 2 Mbps. This work presents the validation of this data acquisition (DAQ) system, and identification of the barriers to higher data rates through the UART interface. We also present preliminary results from other FPGA interface options using USB and ethernet communication which all significantly higher data rates, at the cost of increased complexity in FPGA design and the associated development and validation cycle(s).
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Effectiveness of Contact Lens Cleaning Solutions on the Disruption of Biofilms Formed by Different Microorganisms
No full textMy objective is to examine biofilm formation of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans on contact lenses and to test the effectiveness of different contact lens cleaning solutions to remove or disinfect the biofilms. These particular microorganisms are commonly found as pathogens in ocular tissue. Given the tendency for biofilms to form on contact lenses especially after the lenses are removed from the eye and are saturated with nutrient-rich lipoproteins that “feed” contaminating microorganisms, it is important to undertake simple hygienic measures to ensure biofilm formation is prevented. After biofilms were experimentally formed on daily contact lenses, the lenses were subjected to four different treatment solutions that included a Biotrue™ multipurpose cleaner, an Opti-free™ multipurpose cleaner, a Clear Care™ hydrogen peroxide-based solution or tap water. A second experiment was conducted where the same treatments were tested on rigid gas permeable lenses (RGPs), monthly and extended wear contact lenses. These different solutions were chosen because they have different active ingredients. I anticipate these experiments will provide important information to help inform contact lens users how to best maintain their contact lens cleaning regimens and protect their eyes from infections
Metabolomic Profiling of Biomarkers Indicative of Ancestral and Lifetime Adversity in a Two-Hit Stress Model
No full textIntroduction: Chronic prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) can have adverse effects on the developing fetus and lifetime health. The effects depend on the number of stressors individuals are exposed to. Over-activation of the mother’s stress response also potentially triggers epigenetic marks that can be transmitted to several generations of offspring. To date, very little research has focused on how exposure to ancestral PNMS affects an individual’s response to both chronic and acute stress throughout their lifetime. The purpose of this study was to investigate if exposure to ancestral PNMS puts an individual at an evolutionary advantage or disadvantage with respect to their altered stress response. This study utilized a rat model of ancestral PNMS to explore the response of the metabolome to both acute and chronic stress.
Methods: Forty-eight male rats from the third filial generation were derived from three different lineages: (1) a transgenerational PNMS lineage where only the F0 mother was exposed to stress; (2) a multigenerational PNMS lineage where the mother from each generation was exposed to stress; and (3) a control lineage where there was no experimental stress exposure. Each of these groups were split in two; an acute stress group and a chronic stress group. Plasma was collected from each animal, processed to extract the water-soluble metabolites, added to NMR buffer, and pipetted into NMR tubes. NMR spectra were acquired and the
data underwent a data reduction step (binning), normalization, scaling, and both univariate and multivariate statistical testing. These tests identified spectral peaks from metabolites that had been significantly altered across comparison groups. Chemometric software was utilized to determine the identity of altered metabolites and pathway topology analysis was performed.
Results: Multivariate and univariate statistical tests indicated that exposure to chronic stress in ancestrally stressed rats creates significant alteration in the metabolomic profile when compared to control animals. No differences were observed in the case of acute stress.
Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that ancestral and lifetime stress cumulatively affect the metabolome. A subset of metabolites can potentially act as biomarkers of stress during pregnancy. This procedure may aid in the development of new predictive and diagnostic strategies in precision medicine approaches.
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Development and Characterization of Calcium Sensors for In vivo Neuronal Activity Imaging
No full textGenetically-Encoded Fluorescent Calcium Indicators for Optical Imaging (GECOs), that modulate their fluorescence intensity in response to changes in calcium ion concentration, are powerful tools for the investigation of cell biology. These fluorescent indicators are vital when it comes to cellular imaging because they allow the non-invasive study of cells, tissues, and sub-cellular structures at a detail that was previously not possible. The focus of this project is engineering a new GECO that exhibits favourable characteristics, such as increased brightness and a higher fold change. To develop this new GECO, we started from mNeonGreen, the brightest monomeric fluorescent protein currently available. An initial prototype construct was made using rational design, following the precedent of the GCaMP series of indicators. This construct was further improved using directed protein evolution with colony-based screening of libraries of randomly generated variants. We observe the brightness of promising new variants and perform tests to see how new mutations have affected the brightness and the fold change of the variant. After many rounds of screening, our latest variant of mNeonGreen-GECO exhibits a Ca2+-dependent change of eight. When compared to the original construct, this indicator appears significantly brighter with higher contrast between Ca2+-bound and Ca2+-free states. Directed evolution is ongoing and we expect to produce a fluorescent indicator that will be used for in vivo imaging of intracellular Ca2+ dynamics. We will further image its calcium dynamics directly in Zebrafish and compare our variants with mNeonGreen fluorescent protein and the GCaMP series. Using mNeonGreen, we hope to create a calcium indicator that researchers can use to investigate the physiological activity of organs, understand the signaling patterns within tissues, and use to study the various disease states which may lead to the development of new therapies
Single-dose UV-C irradiation induces the formation of gamma-H2AX foci in the human cell line (MCF7) that are not resolved after 2 and 24 hours of recovery as determined by immunofluorescence microscopy
No full text The integrity of the genome is of utmost importance for proper functioning existence of all living systems. Genotoxic insults, such as UV-C radiation, may exert adverse effects on genomic integrity. Cells have developed a number of highly conserved repair mechanism to counteract the variety of mutagenic and cytotoxic DNA lesions induced by genotoxic agents. Phosphorylation of gamma-histone H2AX is a known DNA-repair signaling response to double- stranded breaks (DSBs); however, the formation of DSB by UV-C radiation is reported to be rare. We sought to determine whether a single dose of UV-C radiation (0.31 J/cm2, 254nm) can induce the formation of gamma-H2AX foci in the human cell line (MCF7) and determine the amount of DNA damage present after a recovery period of two and 24 hours by immunofluorescence microscopy. We also exposed cells to 50 nM of camptothecin (CPT), a DNA damaging agent, as a positive control. We found that similar to CPT, human cells exposed to UV-C radiation (0.31 J/cm2) showed upregulated gamma-H2AX foci at both 2 h and 24 h after the genotoxic insult. Cells exposed to this single dose showed significantly higher gamma-H2AX from non- treated cells and the extent of DNA damage remained the same between 2 and 24 h. Our results indicate that UV-C radiation is capable of inducing the formation of the DSB signaling foci gamma-H2AX and that cells are unable to repair the genotoxic insult within 24 h of recovery. This further indicates that human cell line (MCF7) may require longer than 24 hours to noticeably repair the extent of DNA damage induced by (0.31 J/cm2) of UV-C light
Light Pollution: An Aerial Perspective
No full textArtificial Sky glow is a growing obstacle for both the public to enjoy the night sky, and Astronomers to make accurate measurements of the universe around us. Given Calgary’s expanding urban geography and population, light pollution and resulting sky glow has continued make the stars less accessible. In this first aerial light pollution observation in Canada, this study will give quantifiable resolution to which areas of the SW quadrant of Calgary and area surrounding the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory create Sky Glow. Measuring Sky glow from above and below the plane using a sky quality meter, giving results in magnitudes per square arcseconds, and further instruments on the bottom giving photon counts from ground sources via digital CCD and a wide lens optics. Resulting in measurements of Sky Glow from above and tying them with sources from below to see if there is a correlation. Further using this data, we will explore the impact of urban development on our night sky.
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