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Frederick de Wit and the First Concise Reference Atlas
No full textA review of Frederick de Wit and the First Concise Reference Atlas by George Carhart
The meaning of home for aging women living alone in North Eastern Ontario
Get PDFThe experience and meaning of home for older, community dwelling women, was investigated.
In the world of gerontology there is a paucity of knowledge about those in their eighth and ninth
decade, and this becomes more pronounced among older women. With the older demographic
expanding and resources being directed at keeping seniors in their home- a solid knowledge base
is required. This study built on the knowledge that exists around home, aging at home, formal
care, and the vulnerabilities of aging in two ways. First, the literature around home was
synthesized with an evolutionary concept analysis which served to focus further research.
Secondly, an interpretive description study added to the knowledge of home by bringing to light
the precariousness of formal and informal care and the effect this precariousness has on the
meaning of home. The knowledge built in this study has the ability to inform policy,
organizations, education, and individual providers as well as highlighting areas for further
research
Dextromethorphan and its matabolites in rat bone tissues by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis following differential microclimate decomposition
No full textThe effect of microclimate on dextromethorphan (DXM) and dextrorphan (DXT) responses in skeletonized rat remains was examined. Animals (n=10) received dextromethorphan at 75 mg/kg by i.p. injection for comparison against drug-free controls (n=4), and across different decomposition sites. Rats were divided equally into two groups and placed at different sites for decomposition immediately following euthanasia (30 minutes post dose). Rats at Site A decomposed in a shaded forest microenvironment on a grass-covered soil substrate. Site B animals rested on rock and gravel substrate exposed to open air and direct sunlight. Site A and Site B are approximately 600 m apart. Ambient temperature and relative humidity measurements recorded by data loggers mounted 3 cm above rats at each site established microclimate differences. Bone elements (vertebrae, ribs, pelvic girdles, femora, tibiae, humeri and scapulae) were harvested, cleaned and pulverized for Microwave Assisted Extraction in methanol. Drug and metabolite extractions were isolated by solid phase extraction prior to GC/MS analyses. Mass normalized DXM and DXT levels and metabolite/drug ratios were compared across different bone elements (within and between animals) and microclimate sites. Concentrations calculated from drug responses and standard curve plots gave estimated concentrations of 399 to 10,474 ng/g for DXM and 132 to 3,668 ng/g for DXT. Max/min values across animals and bone elements examined response variation. No significant differences in DXT levels or metabolite/parent ratios were observed between sites or across different bone elements. The only significant difference for DXM levels were found in femurs compared across microclimate sites. Microclimate showed no significant influence on observed DXM or DXT values, indicating bone as a drug reservoir may behave uniformly for certain drugs across different environments of decomposition. The results of this study show limited agreement with previous work from our laboratory on drug recoveries from decomposed bone tissues
Viral and bacterial sepsis: identification and characterization of cytokine profiles and cell death pathways
Get PDFSepsis and septic shock are the leading causes of death in intensive care units in North America.
Approximately 800,000 cases of sepsis are reported every year in the USA and 215,000 will
succumb to the disease despite aggressive antibiotic and supportive care [1-7]. The incidence of
sepsis is increasing at a rate of 9% per year even with advances in the understanding of the
pathophysiology of the disease [1]. Sepsis is commonly induced by bacterial and viral infections.
Influenza A is the virus that causes the flu. The most recent pandemic caused by Influenza A
(H1N1) demonstrated the potential of this virus to cause severe complications (viral induced
sepsis characterized by pneumonia, acute respiratory distress and acute lung injury). This study
investigated the inflammatory mediators of sepsis in H1N1 infected adults and from adults with
bacterial induced sepsis. For H1N1 infections lung tissue and sera samples were characterized.
Lung tissue showed hemorrhage, and interstitial congestion. Cytokine staining of these tissues revealed the presence of TNF-α, IFN-γ and IL-1β primarily from the recruited leukocytes. In
addition TUNEL assay revealed apoptosis occurring in these same cell populations. ELISA
quantification of sera from H1N1 infected adults also demonstrated high levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ
and IL-1β at 113 pg/mL, 49 pg/mL and 26 pg/mL respectively. The sera also were able to induce
apoptosis in cultured fibroblasts that was mediated through STAT1 signalling. The sera from
bacterial induced sepsis were characterized for the presence of other cytokines and chemokines.
TNF-α was consistently detected in all septic samples. Chemokine expression was more variable
across the septic samples. The identification of different mediators of inflammation during sepsis
will not only increase the basic knowledge about the progression of sepsis but would allow for
the development of biomarkers that could better predict the progression of sepsis to more severe
or fatal forms and allow for earlier intervention and treatment of these cases
The impact of perceptual fluency manipulations on processing speed and ratings of relatedness for gender role schemas using the IAT
Get PDFThe purpose of the current study was to combine research on schema violations and perceptual fluency to determine the impact of perceptual fluency manipulations on ratings of relatedness for gender role schemas through the use of an Implicit Association Test (IAT). The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of the cognitive impact of processing manipulations. It was hypothesized that congruent blocks would have faster response times than incongruent blocks in the IAT. It was also hypothesized that perceptual fluency could be strategically manipulated to counteract the slowdown effect associated with schema-incongruent information. In addition, it was predicted that ratings of relatedness would be correlated with response times in that perceptually fluent blocks would be rated as more related than perceptually disfluent blocks. The results showed a main effect of congruency on response times and ratings of relatedness. It was found that the slowdown effect could successfully be eliminated through the use of perceptual fluency manipulations. However, perceptual fluency manipulations did not have a significant impact on ratings of relatedness. Future studies should utilize other methods to manipulate perceptual fluency, as well as investigate how changes in response times can influence different types of attribute ratings
Reframing indigeneity: community participation to inform the development of an indigenous identity measure
Get PDFMuch of the research done on, rather than with, Indigenous peoples has led to the
misinterpretation of Indigenous identity by mainstream society and academic researchers. Imagemakers
of early Canadian history put forth misinformation about the “Imaginary Indian,” which
set the basis for how many Canadians and those in academia still view Canada’s national history
(Cronin, 2003; Francis, 1992).
This research sought to understand how Indigenous peoples on the Laurentian University
campus in Sudbury, Ontario defined their own Indigeneity. It is hoped that the results of this
thesis will inform the development of an Indigenous Identity Measure (IIM) as well as reframe
conceptions of Indigenous identities from the viewpoint of Indigenous participants. I employed
Sharing Circles as a community participatory method, with an integrated approach to data
analysis (Bradley, Curry & Devers, 2007; Nabigon, Hagey, Webster & MacKay, 1999). The
purpose of choosing relevant Indigenous methods was to privilege the Indigenous perspective. The Sharing Circles effectively demonstrated the diversity and complexity of how the
participants understood and expressed their Indigenous identity. Culture, Colonization and Selfdetermining
identity, were vital themes to help understanding Indigeneity.
Lastly, by asserting self-determined Indigenous identities and by supporting decolonizing
methodologies, this research can serve as a template to reframe conceptions of Indigenous
identity in the hope that this information might be useful for Indigenous persons, administrators,
researchers and professors on a university campus
Addressing the needs of individuals with learning challenges in group CBT
No full textThis practicum essay is based on a 450 hour placement that was done within the Mood
and Anxiety Program via Health Sciences North in Sudbury, Ontario. Here, I gained some
clinical experience and a better understanding of the applications of group Cognitive-Behavioral
Therapy approaches (CBT) for adults (16 years and older) who suffer from mood disorders. My
objectives consisted of first, acquiring clinical skills and proficiency in the delivery of group
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Second: to develop an understanding of approaches to social
work assessment and individual therapy within MAP. Third, to adapt group CBT material to
address the needs for people with learning challenges, this final objective represents my main
challenge and represents the bulk of this essay. This project outlines some of the specific learning
challenges found in populations with cognitive impairments focusing on those with Asperger’s,
mild intellectual disabilities and learning disabilities. Basic adaptations and teaching strategies
are discussed in hopes of increasing accessibility and creativity with the CBT approach. The
need for individual services is also recognized. I am proud to say that this experience has
allowed me to grow as a competent professional in the social work field.Field Placement Practicum Essay, MS
Improving classification performance of microarray analysis by feature selection and feature extraction methods
Get PDFIn this study, we compared two feature extraction methods (PCA, PLS) and seven feature
selection methods (mRMR and its variations, MaxRel, QPFS) on four different classifiers (SVM,
RF, KNN, NN). We use ratio comparison validation for PCA method and 10-folds cross
validation method for both the feature extraction and feature selection methods. We use
Leukemia data set and Colon data set to apply the combinations and measured accuracy as well
as area under ROC. The results illustrated that feature selection and extraction methods can both
somehow improve the performance of classification tasks on microarray data sets. Some
combinations of classifier and feature preprocessing method can greatly improve the accuracy as
well as the AUC value are given in this study
Navigating the thermal landscape: thermo-spatial ecology of wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) in the north
No full textThermal ecology studies of ectotherms, like turtles, have typically focused on a species' thermal preferences and tolerances, or on thermoregulation site selections; only recently have landscape-scale thermal ecology studies been performed. I examined the spatial and nesting ecology of wood turtles in Sudbury District of Ontario, Canada, in a thermal context. I also measured the thermal impacts of natural resource extraction on wood turtle habitat. Wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) cover a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic habitats during their annual cycle, making them ideal for thermo-spatial studies. I tracked movements and thermal use of 15 radio-tagged adult turtles during the active season, comparing their selections to temperature monitoring stations spread in an array across the study area, to determine if the turtles are navigating a thermal landscape. Temperature had minimal influence on home range-scale movements, but possibly influenced movements at a smaller spatial scale. I compared the thermal landscape (using thermal imagery), soil moisture, and grain size distribution of 3 nesting beaches to determine the strongest predictor of nest-searching behaviour. Temperature range appeared to be an important cue, but females were apparently using a suite of cues to select their nest sites. I mapped the thermal landscapes of six sites: two relatively undisturbed wood turtle habitat sites, two recently-harvested forestry sites, and two active gravel pits, to find the effects of resource harvesting on wood turtle habitat. The undisturbed sites were cooler and less variable than the disturbed sites, and provided higher-quality thermal habitat. My results support the findings of previous studies: that temperature is a stronger driver of turtle behaviour at the micro-habitat scale than the home range scale, and that soil temperature co-varies with soil structural variables at the micro-habitat scale. The data from the habitat mapping provide useful information for conservation efforts when mitigating or rehabilitating wood turtle habitat
Studies on metal exchange and inhibition in anthrax lethal factor
No full textAnthrax lethal factor (LF) is a zinc-dependent endopeptidase, and a component of the
anthrax toxin secreted by Bacillus anthracis. LF demonstrates two interesting contradictory
features: a propensity to readily exchange the active site metal ion with extraneous metal ions
in solution, while having at the same time a very high affinity (femto- to picomolar) for
metals in its active site. The hypothesis of this thesis was that metal exchange in LF occurs
via an associative mechanism involving the formation of a di-metal species through the
occupation of an inhibitory metal-binding site (by the incoming metal) located adjacent to the
active site. We demonstrate here that the spontaneous demetallation of LF is slow, especially
for the release of zinc (t1/2 ~3 h). In contrast, metal exchange (with 70Zn2+, Co2+ and Cu2+)
was found to occur with t1/2 values between 5 s and 180 s, hence supporting an associative
mechanism of exchange. In addition, the mode of inhibition exerted by Zn2+ on zinc-containing
LF (ZnLF) was observed to be non-competitive with an inhibition
(pseudo)constant of ~30 μM, a feature in agreement with turnover studies using stopped-flow
UV-Vis spectroscopy. Finally, present studies using Tb3+ suggest that the lanthanide ion
competes with other metal ions (Zn2+, Cu2+) for binding to the inhibitory metal site in LF,
hence decreasing the rate of metal exchange. This observation provides further support for
the intimate link between a putative inhibitory binding site and metal exchange. The results
of this study provide insight into how cellular metal pools may remain dynamic in vivo, and
have implications not only for LF, but for many other zinc-dependent enzymes where metal
substitution is used for spectroscopic studies