18701 research outputs found
Sort by
In Vivo Mutagenic and Oxidative Stress Modulatory Effects of Fenthion in Freshwater African Catfish Clarias Garienpinus (Burchell 1882)
Get PDFIsometric Handgrip Exercise: Does Device Matter?
No full textHypertension (HTN), or high blood pressure (BP), is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease-related death and disability worldwide (1). Deemed a global epidemic by the World Health Organization (2-6), HTN is the most commonly diagnosed chronic condition in primary care (7-9). BP control is inadequate world-wide, with more than half of patients not treated to within clinical target ranges (10). Thus, there is an urgent need to implement effective therapies that adequately lower and maintain BP. Newly incorporated into the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of High Blood Pressure (11), isometric handgrip (IHG) training is one such therapy (four, 2-min sustained squeezes at 30% of maximal effort, separated by 1-min rest, performed 3X/week on a computerized handgrip dynamometer). The high costs associated with the computerized devices (upwards of ~10 CAD) device to lower BP, this study compared systolic and diastolic BP responses to an acute bout of IHG performed using the mechanical and computerized devices. Young, healthy adults (N=12; 5 women; resting BP: 114/65 mmHg) randomly performed a bout of IHG on each device, with a 30-minute resting period between protocols. BP was acquired every minute using the Dinamap ProCare 200 BP Monitor. Across all contractions, the peak systolic BP response was similar between devices (all P > 0.05). With the exception of the 2nd contraction eliciting a higher BP response in the mechanical device (P = 0.013), diastolic BP changes were also similar (all P > 0.05). These findings suggest that more affordable devices may be an acceptable, low-cost alternative to the computerized IHG device, and that groundwork has been laid for a future training study. 1. Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization. (2013). World health day: In the Americas, one in three adults has hypertension, the leading risk factor for death from cardiovascular disease. Retrieved from: http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8466&Itemid=1926⟨=en 2. World Health Organization. (2013). A global brief on hypertension: Silent killer, global public health crisis. Retrieved from: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/79059/1/WHO_DCO_WHD_2013.2_eng.pdf?ua=1 3. Joffres, M., Falaschetti, E., Gillespie, C., Robitaille, C., Loustalot, F., Poulter, N., … Campbell, N. (2013). Hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment and control in national surveys from England, the USA and Canada, and correlation with stroke and ischaemic heart disease mortality: A cross-sectional study. British Medical Journal, 3(8). doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003423. 4. Danaei, G., Ding, E., Mozaffarian, D., Taylor, B., Rehm, J., Murray, C., & Ezzati, M. (2011). The preventable causes of death in the United States: Comparative risk assessment of dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors. Public Library of Science Medicine, 8(1). doi:10.1371/annotation/0ef47acd-9dcc-4296-a897-872d182cde57. 5. Benjamin, E., Blaha, M., Chiuve, S., Cushman, M., Das, S., Deo, R., … Muntner, P. (2017). Heart disease and stroke statistics 2017 update: A report from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 135(10). doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000485. 6. Ezzati, M., Lopez, A., Rodgers, A., Vander Hoorn, S., & Murray, C. (2002). Selected major risk factors and global and regional burden of disease. The Lancet, 360(9343). doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11403-6. 7. Hemmelgarn, B., Chen, G., Walker, R., McAlister, F., Quan, H., Tu, K., … Campbell, N. (2008). Trends in antihypertensive drug prescriptions and physician visits in Canada between 1996 and 2006. The Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 24(6). 8. James, P., Oparil, S., Cushman, W., Dennison-Himmelfarb, C., Handler, J., Lackland, D., … Ortiz, E. (2014). 2014 Evidence-based guideline for the management of high blood pressure in adults: Report from the panel members appointed to the Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC 8). The Journal of the American Medical Association, 311(5). doi:10.1001/jama.2013.284427. 9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). National ambulatory medical care survey: 2013 State and national summary tables. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ahcd/namcs_summary/2013_namcs_web_tables.pdf 10. Go, A., Bauman, M., Coleman King, S., Fonarow, G., Lawrence, W., Williams, K., & Sanchez, E. (2014). An effective approach to high blood pressure control: A science advisory from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hypertension, 63. doi:org/10.1161/HYP.0000000000000003. 11. Whelton, P., Carey, R., Aronow, W., Casey, D., Collins, K., Dennison Himmelfarb, C., ¦ Wright, J. (2017). 2017 Guideline for the prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure in adults: A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association task force on clinical practice guidelines. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2017.07.745
Early nutritional stress and iridescent structural colour production in adult European Starlings, Sturnus vulgaris: does early stress aversely influence plumage colouration?
No full textWithin avian taxa, plumage ornamentation traits have been widely used to study sexual selection, as many of these traits have been shown to honestly reveal individual health and influence mate choice. The majority of previous studies have focused on carotenoid-based pigments. Recently, there has been an increasing shift towards understanding the role of structural colours, which produce green, blue, violet, and iridescent colours from the nanostructural arrangement of feather barbules rather than pigments. Our study explores how early nutritional stress affects iridescent structural colour production in European Starlings, Sturnus vulgaris. We hypothesize that nestlings living in stressful environments will display a reduction in plumage brightness in later adulthood compared to those that have unlimited access to resources, as iridescent colouration appears to be a condition-dependent trait in this and other species. We analyzed the breast, throat, back, and tail feathers of European Starlings that were hand raised at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) at Western University, Ontario. Nestlings in the experimental group were raised on a restricted diet for the first 18 days, followed by random access to food for 18-100 days, while control birds had access to ad libitum throughout the study. After 100 days, a few feathers from each body region were collected and analyzed using reflectance spectrometry to determine whether there is a significant association between plumage colouration and nutritional condition. If our data reveal an association between early nutritional stress and adult plumage colouration, our results will support the condition-dependence of structural colours as well as the long-lasting consequences of early nutritional stress. Moreover, with continued habitat destruction and climate change, researchers need to understand how animals will respond to an increasing frequency of stressful events. Structural colours may become important non-invasive bioindicators of environmental stress
Emergency Department Nurses’ Perspectives on Completing Sepsis Care
No full textBackground: Sepsis is a life-threatening emergency and a common presentation in the emergency department (ED). ED nurses are uniquely positioned to identify sepsis at its earliest possible point. However, there is a lack of research investigating the issues nurses face when completing care for patients with sepsis. Purpose: To investigate the perceived barriers and facilitators that influence ED nurses when completing sepsis care. Sample and setting: Registered nurses (n = 102) with at least one year of ED experience working in five ED campuses across a health system in Michigan. Methodology: An online survey was distributed for quantitative data collection. The survey questions were designed to explore identified facilitators and barriers experienced by nurses in sepsis care implementation. Results: The results indicate that most nurses perceive sepsis protocols, huddles, and alerts as beneficial. Almost all nurses felt confident in delivering sepsis care. However, staffing levels, time constraints, and overcrowding were all identified as barriers to timely treatment. Nurses who cared for septic patients more frequently held more positive views towards the sepsis protocols than other nurses. Conclusion: This research demonstrates that sepsis protocols, huddles, and alerts are vital for timely care but barriers that hinder their effectiveness must be addressed. Ongoing education, flexible protocols, and strong interdisciplinary collaboration can empower nurses to initiate treatment confidently. Future research should explore optimizing nurse-to-patient ratios, the role of sepsis champions, and strategies to improve workflow efficiency in sepsis care
Are Ontario Educators Prepared for the Diverse Classrooms of Today?
Get PDFABSTRACT The purpose of this major paper is to understand how Ontario educators are being prepared for the diverse classrooms of today. Educators today have increasing barriers that are preventing them from reaching all their students in an effective way. This paper will explore and highlight the different barriers that educators in Ontario are facing including: increasing needs in the classroom, decreases in funding, lack of staff and support levels, fluctuating class sizes, behaviour issues, lack of resources and training opportunities from pre-service to in service educators, and the overall mental health impact of teaching today. This paper is crucial to understand how diverse needs of students in classrooms impact educators. The conclusions may also be used to inform school boards about difficulties and barriers their educators are facing to inform next steps and possible changes that could be made. Key Words: special education in Ontario; inclusion; inclusive practices exceptionalities, issues in education; barriers to educators, support level
Shakespeare Adaptation in Film: Exploring Universality and Authorship
No full textUnderstanding BordersShakespeare adaptation into film is an area where many artists take liberties in order to mould the story to their vision and the point they are trying to make. Scholars are divided on the universality of Shakespeare's work:whether it can be taken out of context and still remain effective or if the conditions of racism, sexism and colonialism under which his plays were written undermine any attempt at modern day storytelling. In her short film Richard III: A Kingdom Unto Perpetual Night, Mona Zaidi uses text from Shakespeare's Richard III with her own images to make a statement about the current refugee crisis. Can Shakespeare's work only be truly effective within the context of its creation or is his work expansive enough that it can transcend borders of time and space? If an artist changes the original material to make it fit contemporary understandings of the world, can it even be considered Shakespeare's work anymore? Drawing on current critical theory on Shakespeare and adaptation and an interview I conducted with Zaidi, I analyze this film and its exploration of migration through Shakespearean text. In the eyes of Zaidi, Shakespeare's stories can be broken down to their core human values and can therefore transcend the context in which they were written. This means that regardless of the views of Shakespeare as a product of his time, his ability to capture truly human emotions and journeys makes his work accessible across countries and centuries. However, we need to be careful not to assume his work is 'universally applicable' simply because of his excellent writing abilities, and artists adapting his texts should be conscientious of the original context and the contemporary context in which they are performed. Within this, decisions made surrounding altering of the text may be made with all the information available. The resulting work might then be seen as a collaboration or conversation between the adapter and Shakespeare, not as Shakespeare's work alone
Microplastics in the Rhizosphere: Consequences on Root Exudation and Microbial Communities
Get PDFIntroduction: Important agricultural crops can establish symbiotic relationships with microbial communities in the soil, forming mutually beneficial exchanges of nutrients. These root-soil-microbial interactions rely on naturally occurring soil properties which can be altered by microplastics. Plastic particles from biosolids added to soil as a nutrient source are potentially ecotoxic and may interfere with normal root functioning. The effects of biosolid microplastics on root-soil-microbial interactions is investigated on agricultural crops grown in soils amended with artificial microplastics that reflect reported biosolids microplastic properties. Methods: Agricultural crops (soybean, wheat, and alfalfa) were grown in soil amended with artificially created microplastics that reflect reported biosolid microplastic properties. Harvested rhizosphere soil samples were adjusted to 30% water holding capacity and incubated at 25C for MicroRESP analysis, or frozen to preserve root exudates. Root exudate samples were collected by centrifuge extraction method. Incubated soil for MicroRESP was added to deepwell plates, additionally 15 carbon substrates were added, and indicator plates stacked overtop with a seal for standard incubation. After incubation the change in the indicator plates at 572nm was recorded using Biotek Epoch 2 plate reader. Results: Preliminary analysis of the exudates revealed the ratio of sugars in exudates was 2.9:1.7:1 sucrose, glucose, fructose. Organic acids are still under analysis. Preliminary analysis of the MicroRESP samples has demonstrated a strong microbial respiration response to all added carbon substrates, with respiration rates up to 3x those of the control soil. Conclusion: Given the stage of the data analysis, no conclusions can be drawn at this time
Making Democracy Accessible: Making Canadian Political Processes More Inclusive
No full textCanadians with disabilities continue to face barriers to exercise their democratic rights. Specifically, Canadians with disabilities face barriers to being able to vote. Barriers to accessibility prevent individuals with disabilities from voting. Furthermore, individuals with disabilities are ignored by politicians and candidates. Currently, individuals with disabilities remain a marginalized group in society and by not being able to vote or influence public-policy, individuals with disabilities cannot make changes to improve their lives. This leads to individuals with disabilities being unable to make necessary changes in public policy. A democratic deficit exists amongst Canadians with disabilities. The lack of participation of individuals with disabilities presents itself as a systemic barrier. Thus, my research aims to address this democratic deficit and offer recommendations for solving this issue. This deficit is evidenced by the deficiency of accessibility within Canadian elections, the lack of recognition by politicians at the federal and provincial levels, and barriers to participating in the electoral process and policy-making. The key recommendations that will be addressed in this research include: enacting universal legislation throughout Canada that promotes inclusivity in political processes, implementing electronic voting, and increasing the use of mail-in voting. The overall goal of this research is to raise attention to the democratic deficit that individuals with disabilities are facing. By raising attention to this issue, various systemic barriers to political participation can be addressed and democracy can become accessible for all Canadians. In all, my research aims to make Canadian society more accessible
Helping Students Build Learning Communities
Get PDFBuilding learning communities and providing ways of engagement in a fully online course is important to keep students motivated and help them with their learning. However, finding effective ways to build learning communities in fully online courses can be challenging due to the flexible nature of the courses and the diversity of student cohorts. In 2021, a term-long group project was introduced into a large, fully online, general education course to help provide students with peer-learning opportunities and teach them how to effectively work in a group. Dynamic ongoing projects, such as these, give insights into how students understand concepts and when is the perfect time to add interventions and scaffolding when they are struggling. Moving away from individual assessments to a group project also adds value, as the students are naturally more inclined to become competent at a task as mastery occurs together
Determination of NKR-P1B Receptor Expression and Its Function in Liver-Resident NK Cells
Get PDFBackground: The liver harbours a large population of immune cells, which is selectively enriched in natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells represent a lymphoid population with a potent cytolytic activity, which play critical roles in immune defense against invading pathogens. Two distinct NK cell subsets, liver-resident NK (lrNK) cells and conventional NK (cNK) cells, are present in the liver. NK cell functions are regulated by an array of activating and inhibitory receptors. NKR-P1B is one of the earliest expressed NK cell receptors that inhibits NK cell functions upon binding to its cognate C-type related ligand, Clr-b. Purpose: Determine expression of NKR-P1B receptor in liver NK cells, and its role in the development and function of liver-resident NK cells. Experimental Design: We used a multiparametric flow cytometry technique to analyze the phenotype, distribution, and homeostatic differences between lrNK cells and cNK cells in the livers from wild-type (WT) and knockout NKR-P1B (KO) mice. Results: Preliminary results suggest that, WT lrNK cells exhibit a more mature phenotype compared to NKR-P1B KO lrNK cells. There were no significant differences in the distribution of NK cells in the livers from WT and NKR-P1B KO mice. As compared to cNK cells, lrNK cells displayed higher expression of granzyme B, an enzyme required for cytotoxic activity of NK cells. Conclusion: The findings from this work will provide new insights about the expression and function of NKR-P1B receptor in lrNK cells and a better understanding of the distinguishing behavior of lrNK cells compared to cNK cells