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A scoping review of fathers with mental illness
Get PDFPurpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the evidence addressing the fathering practices of men living with mental illness.
Method: A scoping review methodology, guided by the protocol of Arksey and O’Malley (2005), was used. Literature published between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2012 was retrieved and 33 reports were extracted, aggregated and summarized.
Findings: Fathering practices were comprised of seven main topical categories: illness as impediment to fathering; non-illness impediments to fathering; father-mother relations; external informal and formal supports; availability of father to child; involvement of father with child; and, fathering for health, though rarely are fathering practices related to health outcomes.
Conclusions: The nature of the evidence reviewed illustrates the diversity of the current literature with little uniformity across the studies. Several gaps in research on fathers with mental illness continue to exist including research on paternal practices and associated health outcomes
Effects of virtual group size on conformity.
No full textConformity research in the past has relied on the use of confederates to examine conformity. Modern technology, however, has eliminated the need to involve confederates. Computers, and in particular, online social networks, can be used instead of live confederates with only the idea of other people being needed to pull off a conformity study. While the use of technology is nothing new, the use of social networking in conformity research is limited (Egebark & Ekström, 2011). The current study explores how this phenomenon can be applied to the online world. Twenty-eight Laurentian students were given informed consent and received bonus marks for participation at their Professors’ discretion. All participants completed four tasks on a specially designed computer program created by Professor Stan Koren. Once complete, participants were given a full debriefing which explained the true nature of the study and offered to have their data removed if they wished. Results indicate conformity can happen even in the absence of other people, with minimal stimuli necessary to elicit a conforming response. Results also show informational (desire to be right) conformity dominates normative (being liked) conformity. Limitations, implications and future directions are discussed.Honours essa
Induced pluripotent stem cells: where are we today?
No full textFor many years, scientists have been trying to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that convey pluripotency and self-renewal to stem cells. With this valuable knowledge, they hoped to discover relevant information in the development, growth and regeneration of cells, tissues, and organisms that allow organisms to live as long as they do. These characteristics were once thought to be present only in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), and a few adult multipotent cells such as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Recent studies have tapped into the potential of our once thought to be terminally differentiated adult cells to produce self-renewable, pluripotentiating cells, now termed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This critical review will discuss the advantages and limitations of the methods developed to generate and characterize iPSCs. Advantages and challenges of the use of iPSCs in applications such as research and therapeutics will also be discussed
Donne-moi un verbe! Donne-moi un nom!: Une étude de la variabilité intra-liste des mots perceptuels ambigües
No full textLa perception des diplômés d’une école des sciences de l’activité physique du développement de leurs compétences professionnelles en physiothérapie : une étude de cas
No full textStar-structured polyethylene nanoparticles via Pd-catalyzed living polymerization : synthesis, characterization, and catalytic applications.
No full textThe arm-first synthesis of large unimolecular star-structured polyethylene nanoparticles or SPE-NPs (MW > 1,000 kg/mol, PDI ≈ 1.1) joined by a cross-linked polynorbornadiene (PNBD) core is described in this thesis. SPE-NPs having high arm number (fn > 100) and tunable arm topologies (hyperbranched HBPE or linear-but-branched LBPE) are conveniently synthesized in a single reactor following four consecutive steps.
In step 1, living ethylene polymerization is catalyzed by 0.1 mmol of Pd-diimine catalyst 1 to grow HBPE arms (1 atm C2H4/15 °C) or LBPE arms (27 atm C2H4/5 °C) of tunable lengths (tE = 1-5 h, Mn = 11-40 kg/mol). In step 2, the norbornadiene (NBD) cross-linker is added into the ethylene reactor for several hours (tNBD = 1-4 h) yielding PE-b-PNBD block copolymers with a short PNBD segment bearing cross-linkable pendant double bonds. SPEs are then formed in step 3 during precipitation in acidified methanol (H+/MeOH) and the final SPE-NPs are formed in step 4 after several hours of drying in vacuo at 120 °C.
A thorough systematic investigation of the reaction parameters indicates that to produce increasingly larger SPE-NPs, it is essential to add a significant molar excess of NBD to 1 ([NBD]0/[1]0 > 50) and synthesize short LBPE arms but large HBPE arms. When synthesized with LBPE arms, the SPE-NPs have higher MW compared to those synthesized with HBPE arms due to the lower steric hindrance of the linear arms which enables a high number of arms to be joined at the PNBD core.
Furthermore, the Pd-diimine catalyst used in the synthesis of the SPE-NPs was encapsulated within the cross-linked PNBD core. These encapsulated Pd(II) species were tested for their activity in hydrogenation reactions of terminal alkenes and alkynes (1-octene, 1-hexene, and 1-hexyne) and Heck coupling reactions of iodobenzene and n-butyl acrylate. Preliminary data suggests that these SPE-NPs may be used as models for the design of more advanced recyclable nanovessel for Pd(II) catalysts
Characterization of microbial communities associated with the rhizosphere of wetland plants from the Sudbury Region
No full textThe role of microbial communities within the plant rhizosphere is a rapidly developing area of research. Specificity of microbial community structure to plant species and environmental drivers of this relationship are not yet well understood in natural communities, particularly in wetlands. In the present thesis, species-specific differences in those communities as well as environmental influences on those differences were examined separately. In an experiment, six different wetland species taken from field sites around Sudbury, Ontario were grown in mesocosms in a wetland garden for two growing seasons. The species included two species from two genera of the family Cyperaceae each, one species of Poaceae and one species of Ericaceae. Mesocosms were inoculated with a mixture of field rhizosphere soils from all the collected plants. A field study was simultaneously conducted on the rhizospheres of two of those species from wetlands along an industrial disturbance gradient. The microbial community structures of the rhizospheres of the selected wetland plants were determined using next generation 454-pyrosequencing techniques. Microbial community structure in the garden experiment showed specificity to plant taxa which was related to the phylogeny of the host plant, the differences increasing with decreasing taxonomic relatedness of the plants. Differences in the microbial community structure between the investigated plant species were also found in the field, but were secondary to site-specific effects. I conclude that the microbial community structure of the rhizosphere does differ between plant species and that environmental conditions were stronger than plant-microbe interactions in the scale of influence over microbial community structure
Promoting a decolonized model of type II diabetes care for Aboriginal peoples living along the North Shore of Lake Huron
No full textThis thesis aims to identify and contextualize issues faced by Aboriginal peoples in the seven North Shore Tribal Council (NSTC) communities who live with type II diabetes. A constructivist grounded theory methodology, guided by a decolonizing approach to conducting research with Aboriginal peoples, was utilised in this study. Twenty two individuals living with type II diabetes participated in this qualitative study. The main research question explored the impact of colonization on the lived experience and perceptions about developing type II diabetes for Aboriginal peoples. Through the use of semi structured interviews the three main categories that emerged were changing ways of eating, developing diabetes, and choosing your medicine. I have developed a substantive theory that suggests that Aboriginal peoples, living with type II diabetes, often live with the perception that there is ‘no going back’ to the way things once were prior to European contact. As a result they have had to adapt the way they live with diabetes which can, at times, be at odds with Aboriginal world views. An adaptation that considers a complementary approach including both Traditional and Western ways may provide a framework for a decolonized model of type II diabetes care for Aboriginal peoples
Rehabilitation of cognitive dysfunction in survivors of breast cancer: a pilot study involving survivor-partner dyads
No full textPurpose: Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) has been associated with
fatigue, emotional distress, reduced quality of life, and caregiver strain. A potential
treatment option for those with CRCI is cognitive rehabilitation, a behavioural
approach to improve cognitive skills and quality of life. There have been some
studies that involve caregivers in aspects of rehabilitation. There are no studies in the
literature however, that include direct retraining of survivors on lost functions and
concurrent participation by their caregivers across all sessions. To fill this gap, a
comprehensive 10-week cognitive rehabilitation program (CRP) was created, with
aims to generalize improvement to everyday life in survivors of breast cancer.
Methods: A manualized CRP was developed and piloted with breast cancer survivors
(BCSs) and their training partners. The program focused on psychoeducation and
direct training on communication strategies, breathing/relaxation techniques, simple
and complex attention, and higher-order thinking. Outcome measures included
feasibility (retention and attendance rates), acceptability (homework compliance,
session and program satisfaction), and measures of cognitive functioning and quality
of life. BCSs and their individual partner underwent assessments at baseline,
immediately after completing the program, and approximately 10 weeks later in order
to investigate maintenance effects.
Results: Six BCSs (ages 44-59; ≥1 year post-chemotherapy) and their training
partners enrolled and completed this study with a (100% retention rate). Rates of
attendance were high for both BCSs and their training partners (94% and 92.5%
respectively) with all participants indicating high levels of satisfaction with the
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program. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) did not reveal a
significant main effect for time on measures of sustained attention, processing speed,
executive function, fluency (semantic and phonemic), verbal and visuospatial
learning, recall and recognition. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant
main effect for time on measures of attentional capacity, focused attention, motor
dexterity with the non-dominant hand, confrontation naming, and overall quality of
life. Additionally, analyses using adjusted reliable change indices (RCI) were
conducted on individual cases. RCIs yielded no change on most measures across
time