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Developing a memory representation: Do we visualize or do we "verbalize" objects as we explore them?
Get PDFParticipants typically perform better when testing conditions match learning conditions, a phenomenon labeled encoding specificity. Interestingly, recent findings in visuo-haptic object identification violate this principle: participants who learn to recognize objects haptically perform just as well when asked to identify objects by sight as by touch. One possible explanation is that participants who explore objects haptically visualize the objects they explore, creating a multisensory memory trace equally accessible to vision and touch. I evaluated this possibility by asking healthy undergraduate participants to learn to recognize novel objects either by sight or by touch. Participants completed sequences of learning trials where they explore each object, and test trials where they recall the name of each object. During learning trials, some participants were presented with a visual distractor (half of participants viewed letters and the other half viewed nonverbal characters) they had to recognize later, while other participants completed a distractor-less control condition. Consistent with past findings, my results violated encoding specificity for participants who learned to recognize objects haptically. Interestingly however, only the verbal distractors interfered with learning. These results suggest that the creation of memory representation for novel objects is mediated by a verbal code rather than through visualization
Assessing zinc from a nail clipping using mono-energetic portable X-ray fluorescence
Get PDFA mono-energetic X-ray beam from a portable X-ray fluorescence device was used to excite characteristic X-rays from zinc in a series of nail clipping phantoms. Twenty nail clipping phantoms having equal zinc concentrations of ~40 µg/g, but with different physical characteristics, were measured individually for 300 s using a small diameter (~1 mm) X-ray beam. Energy spectra obtained from the measurements were analyzed using PyMca software. Zinc signal size varied widely between the different clippings, with a relative standard deviation of 41% observed in the combined signal from zinc Kα and Kβ characteristic X-rays. Three different normalization approaches were introduced to account for variation in the amounts of sample interrogated by the X-ray beam. All three approaches produced similar results, and successfully reduced the relative standard deviation to between 12% and 13%. A clear trend was still observed, however, between the normalized zinc signal and the thickness of clipping measured. To account for this effect, normalized signals were adjusted to calculate “thickness-corrected” values. The relative standard deviation of these thickness-corrected values was 6.2%. Reproducibility of measurement from individual clippings was excellent, with relative standard deviations on the order of 1%, with or without normalization. Overall, this new method of measuring zinc in nail shows promise for the assessment of zinc status in humans using a portable device. The method is sensitive, rapid, and requires only a single nail clipping
Endocannabinoids and nitric oxide effect on high-fat food consumption in young rats
Get PDFChildhood obesity has become an increasingly prevalent disease worldwide, predisposing children and adolescents to physiological and psychological health complications, extending into adult years. Generally, weight gain is a result of a prolonged imbalance of food intake and energy expenditure. Further investigation of pathways affecting appetite regulation is required to develop safer, effective treatments for obesity. Two signals of interest are endocannabinoids (eCBs) and nitric oxide (NO), which have been shown to regulate food intake in adult animals. Research in young animals is limited, but it has been suggested that these neurotransmitters have different age-dependent effects on appetite in rats fed a standard diet. The current investigation was undertaken in fasted and non-fasted rats fed a high-fat diet, to gain insight into the effect of inhibiting or exciting eCB and NO pathways on palatable food consumption. In the first condition, young Sprague-Dawley rats were fasted for 24 hours, assigned randomly to a drug treatment or control group, and were refed for a 2-hour period, after which they were sacrificed and perfused. Food consumption data and accompanying body weight data were collected from each trial. In fasted animals, inhibiting the production of nitric oxide was shown to significantly reduce food intake and body weight, and blocking cannabinoid receptors also resulted in a significant decrease in food consumption compared to a control group receiving saline injections. In subsequent trials in non-fasted animals, blocking cannabinoid receptors resulted in a significant decrease in body weight compared to
control animals. Results demonstrated that the manipulation of eCB and NO pathways in young rats fed a high-fat diet differed in their effects when compared to standard diet fed animals. These results confirm that further investigation is needed in non-fasted animals, as well as animals chronically exposed to a high-fat diet, to understand the physiological response of these pathways to drug interference
Good spellers make good readers but not vice versa: Reading speed and spelling ability
Get PDFReading and spelling are two fundamental skills that are clearly linked, but that are also distinct; many individuals can read words that they cannot spell. Recent research has found that reading speed tends to be higher when one knows how to spell the word, but the precise explanation for this observation is not clear. To address this, 51 undergraduate students were tested on their reading speed and spelling accuracy to confirm the association between these abilities and to examine the effect of the location of spelling errors within a word on reading speed as an explanation for this relationship. At present, it is uncertain how error location may affect reading, as different theories lead to different predictions in this respect: some theories suggest that errors in the middle of a word may be more detrimental to reading speed than errors at the beginning, and others propose the reverse. Participants were tested on 25 words, each presented three times. Reading speed was measured using SuperLab 5.0 and spelling accuracy was measured using handwritten spelling tests. A within participant analysis confirmed that words that were spelled correctly all three times were read faster than words that were never spelled correctly. Analysis of spelling error location failed to find any significant effect of error location on reading speed. The connection between spelling accuracy and reading speed is in line with previous research on the lexical quality hypothesis, yet further research is required to explain the impact of specific spelling errors on reading
Harnessing innovation through work and organizational structure: A study of the forest fire fighting sector in New Brunswick, Canada
Get PDFThis thesis conceptualises the conditions that facilitate innovative and extra-role responsive work behaviour in the context of organizational structure and job design. It explores the idea that innovative work behaviour is largely a result of the facilitation of responsiveness and adaptation to internal and external influences acting on the organization and institutional actors. This study examines the intersection and overlap of proceduralism and innovation and investigates the dichotomy of structure and adaptability.
This research considers innovation as the intentional creation, introduction and application of new ideas for the purpose of problem solving and increasing the efficiency of means to ends decision making. The study comprises an in-depth investigation into New Brunswick forest fire management to better understand opportunities to harness innovation. Ten semi-structured interviews of experts and stakeholders were conducted throughout New Brunswick’s forest fire management network to determine the extent that organizational arrangements support innovative work behaviour amongst the responders. These interviews targeted publicly employed managers and Forest Rangers, volunteer fire fighters and private forestry industry partners.
This research argues that facilitating adaptation through flexibility, open communication and joint initiatives, can increase the likelihood of responders deciding to exhibit discretionary effort and extra role innovative behaviours. Through practices like inter-organizational training initiatives and joint after action reviews, innovation can be promoted at an individual level for the benefit of the entire organization and the forest fire fighting network.
Conceptually, this research contributes to an under-researched region of Canadian forest fire management, and provides a conceptual base for future comparative projects amongst Canadian provinces to better understand network working within and between provinces
Taxes: Fiscal policy changes and its effect on the stock market
Get PDFFiscal policy changes are methods employed by the federal government to control the growth of the economy. An expansionary fiscal policy such as a tax cut would boost the economy during recessions and drive up corporate profits. As corporate stock valuation is not only reflective of the corporation’s income, but more importantly a reflection of investors’ opinion on the corporation, a perceived boost in profit would have an impact on share value as well. This honours thesis focuses on the effects that a major tax cut would have on the stock valuation of American, and Canadian firms. It aims at exploring the stock market related consequences of a fiscal policy change by examining abnormal returns and abnormal volatility using an event study. Preliminary results show that abnormal returns rose for US corporations but fell for Canadian corporations on the day prior to the announcement of the tax cut, whereas abnormal volatility rose for both markets, with Canadian firms exhibiting much higher volatility compared to the US corporations
Potential physiological correlates of prejudice against consensual non-monogamy
Get PDFConsensual non-monogamy (CNM) is a relationship style that is often a target of stigma and prejudice. The present study sought to determine whether anti-CNM prejudice is associated with the same patterns of physiological and emotional responding that have been recorded in other forms of sexual prejudice. Study 1 was a pilot study of 39 participants to determine whether a first person or third person vignette would evoke stronger reactions in participants. Participants listened to a series of audio vignettes describing monogamous, non-monogamous, and neutral relationships while their electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate (HR), and emotional affective states were measured. Another vignette that asked participants to imagine being asked to engage in CNM by a partner was also included. There were no differences by vignette type, but the most distinctive response was to the Imagine vignette. Study 2 involved participants first completing an online survey of their attitudes towards CNM, their level of disgust sensitivity, narcissism, and religiosity. From those who completed the survey, a subset of 16 participants with came into the lab for the same protocol as Study 1. There were no differences in the physiological results across the relationship vignettes, but the Imagine vignette resulted in significantly lower mean EDA and significantly higher HR and negative affect. Unexpectedly, positive attitudes towards CNM were found to be positively correlated with EDA and heart rate during different vignettes. No correlations between physiological responding, individual levels of religiosity, and narcissistic personality traits were observed. The implications of these results for existing accounts of sexual prejudice and anti-CNM attitudes are discussed
Synthesis and characterization of dimethylbismuth and -indium phenoxy-imine complexes as potential catalysts for the ring opening polymerization of cyclic esters
Get PDFTraditional plastics and polymers, that began to be mass produced in the 1940’s, are petrochemically derived and lack renewability, biodegradability and sustainability. Further, their use and production does not satisfy the principles of “Green Chemistry”. The consequences surrounding the use of plastics can be avoided through the development of biodegradable plastics, or bioplastics. The most extensively studied and industrially available bioplastic is poly(lactic acid), which can be synthesized through the ring opening
polymerization (ROP) of cyclic esters. This reaction requires a catalyst, where metal alkoxide species have been found to been effective. However, there are issues of toxicity and high cost related to the species currently being used, which poses an opportunity for new catalyst development. A more environmentally friendly option is using bismuth and indium as metal centres in these catalysts as they are both relatively non-toxic, inexpensive and reactive. Therefore, this research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of novel dimethylbismuth and -indium phenoxy-imine complexes for the ROP of cyclic esters. It was determined that the three target phenoxy-imine supported bismuth complexes can be
generated in situ, however, their hydrolytic instability disallows recrystallization of these complexes. Contrastingly, the three target phenoxy-imine indium complexes were all successfully synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C{1H} NMR, FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy. Indium complexes 5 and 6 have been analyzed by X-ray crystallography
Re-imagining motor imagery: Optimizing attentional focus to improve basketball free throw shooting performance
Get PDFThere is interest in developing efficacious imagery interventions to improve sport performance. However, the current literature has not examined how attentional focus may be manipulated within imagery. Previous research has found that an external attentional focus is more beneficial to motor performance outcomes than an internal attentional focus. The present study integrated mindfulness and flow into a modified imagery script to promote an external attentional focus during a free throw shooting task. This approach was termed attention-driven imagery and was compared to a technique comparison condition with an internal attentional focus. Twenty-six male and female university basketball players completed both conditions in a counterbalanced within-subject design. Free throw shooting performance was hypothesized to be better in the imagery condition than the technique condition. Repeated measures ANOVA results indicated that the attention-driven imagery condition resulted in greater performance across trials than the technique condition. Despite promising results for attention-driven imagery, precise underlying mechanisms remain ambiguous. Future research is needed to better understand attentional processes during imagery to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of motor imagery interventions
Synthesis and characterization of novel biologically active boron-containing analogues of capsaicin
Get PDFThe anti-microbial and anti-cancer activities of the natural product capsaicin and related amides are of growing interest to medicinal chemists. Similarly, boron-containing compounds have been shown to have potent biological properties, with four boron-containing pharmaceuticals currently available on the market. As such, a number of boron-containing capsaicin analogues were generated for future biological testing and are discussed herein. Imines were generated from the facile reactions of 3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde with Bpin-functionalized aniline derivatives. These imines were subsequently reduced to the corresponding amines using HBcat as a reducing
agent. Finally, the amines were reacted with aliphatic acyl chlorides, readily affording the desired amides in moderate yields. All amides were characterized using 1H NMR, 13C{1H} NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy, as well as 11B NMR spectroscopy where applicable