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Implications of Tumour Microenvironment on Aggressiveness, Invasiveness, and Therapy Response in Glioblastoma Multiforme
No full textViable, Healthy and Safe CommunitiesThe effect of microenvironmental mechanical stress as well as extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness and their role in cancer progression and therapy resistance has been a focus of multiple studies over the past decade. Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), which is the most common and most aggressive type of brain cancer, is characterized by significant changes in mechanical stress and distinct composition of the ECM. The role of specific stress-inducing factors has not been fully explored in detail due to the lack of reliable and efficient diagnostic tools in the clinical setting. In collaboration with Henry Ford Hospital System, we developed a project to validate the use of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) that can create a description of mechanical and fluid stress properties of a tumour. By studying the expression of stress response markers such as Hyaluronic Acid (HA), we established mechanosensor signatures/maps that correlate with DCE-MRI readings. Additionally, we know that ECM stiffness and HA signalling are mediated by the receptor proteins, CD44 and Rhamm. To determine if these interactions are essential for supporting GBM characteristics, we are developing a 3D in vitro model implementing patient-derived brain tumour organoid (BTO) cultures to replicate and manipulate tumour progression in a dynamic, stress-controlled setting, which can be mathematically modeled. We will knockdown CD44 and Rhamm receptors in patient GBM cells utilizing shRNA lentiviral vectors and study the impact of depletion of these receptors on stress characteristics in BTOs. Moreover, we will perform cytotoxicity assays with clinical drugs to determine the impact of Rhamm -/- CD44 on therapy response. Our preliminary results suggest that varying ECM stiffness contributes to quantifiable changes in aggressiveness and treatment response. These results will evolve our understanding of the factors driving GBM progression, information that may assist in designing more effective therapies for patients with this aggressive disease
Toward an agile pedagogical strategy for the COVID-19 era: A case study of teaching sustainability topics
Full text linkStudents' engagements and creating an effective learning experience in the classroom are essential in active educational strategies. Flexibility and adoption of new learning technologies play a critical role during the pandemic. Different active pedagogical strategies enhance students' learning experiences on the online platforms. The lecturers should be dynamic and flexible, in terms of using hybrid strategies, to optimize this experience. Teaching sustainability courses require innovative teaching styles for encouraging students for active engagement, as well as collaboration, and participation of different stakeholders. This study presents the different teaching approaches for a graduate course in an engineering school during the pandemic. It shows how the combination of case studies, simulation, class guests, and Q&A on a virtual whiteboard could improve students' engagement in a sustainable production course. Kolb's learning model is used to show the advantages of the proposed approach. As the teaching approaches are evolving, as the result of digital transformation, the future perspectives in the post-pandemic period are also discussed
Genealogy of a Parish: The 19th Century Records of St. John's Anglican Church
No full textWe used the St. John's Anglican Church records housed in Leddy Library's Rare Books and Special Collections to research Sandwich, Ontario's church community as a microcosm of the greater Detroit River region. We examined the church's Marriage, Baptismal, Confirmation, and Death records from 1828 to 1915 in order to study both unique individual lives and changing demographic trends within the border region. In addition to the records, we examined census materials, local publications, and archival material from the church itself. As a result, our presentation of our research was unique. Through the Centre for Digital Scholarship we created an Omeka based website which serves two functions; first, to act as a digital archive where sections of the record books have been digitally preserved using Dublin Core standards, made searchable for both academic and public use; and second, to showcase our interpretive research and utilize all of the functions of Omeka, including: timelines, geolocation maps through Google, and Neatline maps to help create interactive exhibits featuring the church records. Several of these exhibits illustrate not only how individuals within the church were connected to each other, but also how the church community itself was made up of parishioners throughout the greater Detroit River region. As St. John's was the only Anglican church in the area for roughly a century, it served members from Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, and even Great Britain as the church was an important incentive for immigrants in choosing to settle in the Windsor/Detroit border region. Our research provides an important contribution to local history in understanding the role that St. John's played in serving and connecting different communities within the Detroit River Region
Student time usage during Fall Reading Week
No full textConscious of high student stress levels and problems with adequate time management, we tracked student time usage and stress for three weeks: Before, during, and after the Fall Reading Week in October 2015. Participating students (predominantly female) from different university programs were recruited through a mass email sent out by registrar's office, and they completed a demographic and personality/coping questionnaire to measure general personality traits and coping styles. The 420 undergraduates received three random smartphone notifications through an application, Metric Wire. At each invitation, up to 420 students completed a 20-second survey, outlining what they were doing moments before. They were asked to rate their levels of stress and recreation, and their university workload on a sliding scale. We evaluated whether students who chose to vacation during Fall Reading Week were more or less stressed following the break than those students who chose to dedicate their time to their studies. A multiple regression analysis, trying to predict student stress in the week following Fall Reading Week, accounted for 49% of the variance, and it supported that post-break stress was higher when stress was high before and during Fall Reading Week, when university workload was higher following (but low prior to) Fall Reading Week, and when recreation was higher during Fall Reading Week. The last part of the study, which is currently in progress, will provide insight into student coping behaviours and report on student self-reflection in regards to time usage before, during, and after Fall Reading Week, and after completion of the semester (January 2016). These perceptions were assessed with the help of self-report questionnaires with both closed- and open-ended questions (sliding scales, text responses). Important implications for student advising in regards to time management and coping with stress are discussed
Reconceptualizing city branding to account for talent attraction: Cities as a place to work and live
Full text linkWith thousands of local governments implementing city branding since the late 1990s, the leading question has become how to brand in the competitive 21st century environment. The growth in the global labour pool and increased freedom of movement has led to increased competition for talent. The increased competition for talent, coupled with a global scale of inter-city competition, has pushed local governments to seek initiatives that will sustain and enhance economic development. Globalization has indeed marked a change in employment trends, wherein a competitive employment environment continues to increase due to a shortage of appropriate applicants and high turnover. City branding and employer branding then hold similar purposes: talent attraction. The under-researched area of talent attraction is of increasing importance for the recruitment of the highest calibre candidates. A literature review was conducted with the purpose of examining how city branding can adopt tenets of employer branding to account for talent attraction. The review aimed to summarize and identify the main tenets of city branding and employer branding. As research has yet to identify a connection between the two, the literatures on city branding and employer branding are examined to understand how city branding inclusive of talent attraction can be implemented as strategic policy. The results support the synergistic relationship between the city branding and employer branding literatures, with similar main themes across the literature accounting for talent attraction in the competitive 21st century environment
Authoritative Faith’s Relation to Reason in the Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas
Full text linkThere seems little reason for a philosopher to have religious faith. Beliefs derived from faith are often described as being without evidence or sacrosanct from scrutiny. This is not the belief of St. Thomas Aquinas. I begin the paper by drawing necessary distinctions to other forms of intellectual assent to make clear exactly what Aquinas means when he writes of fides. I then seek to explain how Aquinas seeks to ground the preambles in faith in his philosophical investigations of God, and how the gap between what is known by philosophy and what is known by theology allows for the necessary elements of voluntary actions that make faith virtuous while at the same time keeping it an authoritative epistemic tool. I end the paper by addressing possible objections to the Thomistic model and highlighting the social benefits of adopting a Thomistic approach to issues of religious conscience
At Death's Door: Unsuccessful Political Entreaties in Antigone and The Apology
Full text linkIn this paper, I compare the positions of two iconoclasts on the brink of death, Antigone in Sophocles’ Antigone and Socrates in Plato’s Apology, as well as their motivations for addressing the public while facing execution, examining controversial lines from both works. First, I assay Antigone’s final lament, focusing on her statement that she would not bestow the same burial honors on a husband or child as she did for her brother (lines 967–970). This is followed by an analysis of Socrates’ defense speech, focusing on his claim to be the wisest human living (23b). I study the contexts of age, honor, political astuteness, and the direct conflict between the interests of the State and those of the individual, and I inspect the type and level of impact these have on the aforementioned speeches. I speculate that the human fear of death causes both Antigone and Socrates to temporarily put aside personal motivations and assume the interests of the State in order to sway their respective audiences. Finally, I show that the unflattering portraits Antigone and Socrates create of themselves are not the result of personal flaws but rather their inexperience with public appeal and their ultimate inability, amidst fear, to move the common people
The Role of Spy1 in Glioblastoma Multiforme Initiation and Progression
No full textGlioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) represents the most common and aggressive form of brain tumour. The success of therapeutic approach has been hindered by the extreme heterogeneity observed not only between individual patients but also within a single tumour. It has been shown recently that certain cell populations within the tumour possess stem cell properties contributing to the heterogeneity, aggressive character and therapy resistance of GBM, a phenomenon known as cancer stem cell hypothesis. Deregulation of the cell cycle control network plays a critical role in maintaining proliferation and stem like characteristics of cancer cells in GBM. In addition, mutations and/or deletions of tumour suppressors p53 and pTEN are some of the most common features of stem like cell population of brain tumours. Speedy (Spy1) is a cyclin-like protein that has been shown to enhance cellular proliferation and stem cell self-renewal in several systems, including brain. Moreover, Spy1 has been shown to be up-regulated in GBM and elevated levels of Spy1 are indicative of poor prognosis of patient outcome in GBM. A mouse model, termed NTA-Spy1, was used in order to over-express Spy1 in the specific stem cell population in the brain. To date, NTA-Spy1 mice have shown no spontaneous tumour formation. When these cells or their controls are combined with knockdown of either p53 (shp53) or drug inhibition of pTEN (pTENi) alone, or in combination, NTA-Spy1 cells increase the rate of tumoursphere formation in soft agar cell cultures. It also has been shown that NTA-Spy1 cells in combination with shp53 or pTEN inhibitor increases gene expression of GBM cancer stem cell markers. This work will help explain the role of Spy1 in susceptibility to brain tumour initiation and progression and the importance of its over-expression in face of other aberrant. This research may provide insight into novel targeted therapies that could be designed against GBM
Are Women Thriving or Being Placed for Failure? Women at the Provincial Level of Ontario
Full text linkElectoral outcomes for women in the province of Ontario from the 1970s to the 1990s did encounter both successes and failures. With this being said, this paper shall be a critical analysis of political science literature. The paper shall first note the definition of successes and failures for women at the provincial level of government in Canada, with more specifically Ontario in mind. In addition, this paper will also go into depth as to how these successes and failures are altered through discussing the three main parties in Ontario. The three main political parties in Ontario would include the New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. The successes and failures of women will therefore take into the consideration of recruiting and nomination processes of these three main Ontario parties in greater depth through the type of party system it offers, the structure and motivation of the party, the level of competitiveness, and the number of seats that are available for women within each respective party. All of these factors will also take into the account of external barriers for women outside of the realm of politics itself for the province of Ontario. Throughout this critical analysis for women being elected in the provincial government of Ontario, it can be noted that women who are involved with the New Democratic Party do in fact receive far more opportunities to be elected into office whereas the Liberal Party would be second in this case and the Conservative Party being last to do so
