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Improving parental support through education for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)
Get PDFMy Master’s of Social Work (MSW) advanced practicum took place at Health Sciences
North (HSN) in Sudbury Ontario, in the in the neonatal intensive care unit, pediatrics, and
birthing centre at HSN. Although limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred part way
through my field work. My main role at HSN for my advanced practicum project was directed at
implementing supports and education to families of babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome
(NAS). I chose to examine addiction, problematic substance use/abuse and parenting, and the
stigma that surrounds mothers who use substances problematically or have addictions. Through
examining different theories, I began with the goal of being able to address the gap in support
and education for mothers experiencing the process of having a baby with NAS from birth to
after discharge from the hospital. From this goal, I was able to create a support system through
conversations with mothers and reviewing research that could be followed through any
professional work as a part of the families’ care teams while I was still placed in the hospital. As
the pandemic changed regulations and my work, I was unable to continue this work in the
hospital setting and I shifted focus to work with Michelle Buckner and created a training package
on peer support in the NICU.
Through my placement at HSN, I set out to help educate families through an
antioppressive practice lens by identifying their child’s needs through the NAS process and what
they should expect. Anti-oppressive practice lenses was used when creating and implementing
the NAS information package along with when working with mothers and discussing cases with
other professionals involved in particular cases. However, it became apparent that there was also
a need to educate medical professionals and care team members on stigma and how their own
personal biases were, and are, having a direct effect on the educational shortcomings and support
deficits for these families. I, along with my supervisor were able to begin to help bring awareness
to the problem of stigma with medical professionals and social workers by sharing the NAS
information package with them and the importance of education on this subject. The learning
goals I had going into this work were to gain an understanding of NAS support, benefits to
family centered approaches, attachment and anti-oppressive practice theory within the hospital
setting and working with interdisciplinary teams in order to address problems within this system
and begin to create change for social work practice with NAS care. I was able to begin to meet
these goals by providing an information guide to better help support mothers and create a
nonoppressive, and the importance of establishing a judgmental relationship between
practitioners and mothers who have addictions or use substances problematically
Metallogeny of the Cornwallis Zn-Pb district, Arctic Canada
No full textThe Cornwallis Zn-Pb district in the Canadian Arctic archipelago contains numerous carbonatehosted mineralised showings, including the past-producing Polaris Zn-Pb mine on Little
Cornwallis Island. The showings’ mineralogy is primarily Zn-Pb, with anomalous Cu showings.
The volume and geographic/stratigraphic positions of mineralisation are variable, with the
majority being hosted by Middle Ordovician Thumb Mountain Formation limestone/dolostone
adjacent to extensional faults. Multiple in situ micro-analytical techniques were used on samples
from throughout the district to determine the origin, character, flow path, and age of the
mineralizing fluid(s) responsible for the showings in the district, and to re-evaluate models of the
Polaris deposit.
Geochemical (fluid inclusion microthermometry, trace and rare earth elements, oxygen isotopes)
results indicate that a single, regional fluid was involved in mineralisation at all of the showings.
Sulphur isotopes indicate that pre-mineralisation sulphur accumulations at individual showings
affected early mineralisation δ34S values until thermochemical sulphate reduction (TSR) of the
regional fluid became the dominant sulphur supply, and that varying degrees of TSR completion
resulted in showing-specific δ34S values, rather than a uniform regional value. The main control
on the volume of mineralisation was the amount of fluid flux that could be accommodated by the
showing, with Polaris being much larger than the rest because of its tectonic location, which
allowed for copious amounts of mineralising fluid to interact with host rocks. The Storm copper showing on Somerset Island indicates that Cu showings in the Zn-Pb district
are related to the regional fluids of the Zn-Pb showings, but local strata affected the mineralogy.
The geochemical signatures of the paragenetic stages indicate that pre-ore fluids were related to
the regional Zn-Pb fluid, whereas the main-ore fluid is related to a fluid that displaced the
regional Zn-Pb-mineralising fluid during ongoing orogenesis. An underlying Proterozoic redbed
contains a record of diagenetic sequences and fluids that is similar to those responsible for the
Storm copper showing, indicating that the geographically limited redbed was probably
responsible for the anomalous Cu-rich showing in the district
Recovery and repurposing of low-grade thermal resources in the mining and mineral processing industry
No full textA substantial quantity of energy is currently lost as waste heat to the atmosphere in the mining
and mineral processing industry. The recovery and application of this waste heat to on-site
processes is an opportunity to reduce primary fuel usage, operational cost and environmental
impacts. To investigate this, research has been conducted within a nickel smelter’s sulphuric acid
plant, where operational data was collected on a process water cooling loop that incorporates
cooling tower systems. The cooling towers discharge in excess of 50 MW of heat without any
recovery. Collected data was then used to develop a model to quantify the potential for low-grade
heat recovery and repurposing within the sulphuric acid manufacturing process. Heat pumps
were examined as a method to repurpose this waste heat, and use it to replace electric heaters
currently used in the mist precipitators and weak acid stripper.
The model allows for an economic and environmental impact comparison between various
recovery and application scenarios. Results obtained from the model indicated that the
implementation of a heat pump system would provide a reduction in annual operating costs that
allows a payback period of 3 years. Furthermore, there would be from less primary energy
consumption a reduction in CO2 emissions of about 42% from heat pump operation compared to
electric heaters for the system. To further quantify environmental benefits from implementing the
proposed recovery strategy, a comparative life-cycle assessment (LCA) model was also
constructed and applied to the sulphuric acid plant. The LCA showed a 20% reduction in
emissions in the cooling tower and heating system would be achieved from the impact categories
of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, and human toxicity potentials. This includes
emissions from cooling tower fans and water pumps, as well as the mist precipitator air heating.
The concepts and models can be applied to a wide range of energy intensive industrial sectors, to
help identify and quantify reductions in consumption and improvements in long-term
sustainability performance
Modelling the airborne electromagnetic response of a sphere underlying a uniform conductive overburden
No full textElectromagnetic geophysical methods are used in mineral exploration to detect conductors at
depth. In igneous and metamorphic settings, the background half-space is often largely resistive.
In such cases, it is important to consider the interaction between the target conductor and any
thin, conductive overburden that might exist above the half-space. The overburden is often
comprised of glacial tills and clays or the weathering of basement rocks to more conductive
material. This situation can be approximated using a discrete conductor model consisting of a
“dipping sphere” in a resistive half-space underlying a uniform conductive overburden. A semianalytical solution that considers the first-order interaction of the sphere and overburden has been derived to calculate the electromagnetic response. The simplicity and efficiency of this solution makes it well suited to be implemented when computation time and immediacy of results are desirable. To this end, we have developed a graphical user interface (GUI) based program to model the electromagnetic response of this model. The program allows users to change the parameters of the survey and target body and quickly view the resulting changes in
the shape and decay of the electromagnetic response. The program was tested on airborne
electromagnetic data from the Forrestania test range in western Australia. The sphereoverburden model as implemented in the program was able to fit the anomalous data with a spherical body buried 156 m deep and having a dip of 35 degrees to the north
The effects of YAP activity on retinoic acid signaling in the embryonic epicardium
No full textRetinoic acid (RA), a metabolite of vitamin A, is primarily produced by epicardial cells
and is required for the proper differentiation of epicardial cells into cardiac fibroblasts and VSMCs
during heart development. Recent literature has suggested that both mechanotransduction, which
is mechanical stimuli eliciting chemical responses within the cell, and the Hippo signaling pathway
could potentially regulate RA-signaling. The transcriptional co-activator YAP is regulated by the
Hippo-pathway and mechanotransduction and elicits changes in gene transcription through the
TEAD transcription factor. Recently it was found that there were TEAD motifs in the Dhrs3 gene
and YAP showed specific binding to the Dhrs3 enhancer via chromatin immunoprecipitation
combined with qPCR (ChIP-PCR) in the mouse epicardial cell line MEC1. However, beyond its
effects on the expression of Dhrs3 it is not clear if YAP actually affects RA-signaling. We
hypothesized that YAP regulates retinoic acid signaling in embryonic epicardial cells. The first
aim was to assess if YAP regulates the transcription of enzymes and receptors involved in RA
metabolism or signaling in MEC1 cells. Using RT-qPCR we investigated the effect of
constitutively active YAP, or conversely suppressed YAP activity on Dhrs3, Raldh2, RAR,
Cyp26A1, and Cyp26B1 expression. To suppress YAP activity, a YAP small interfering RNA
(siRNA), or the YAP-TEAD chemical inhibitor, Verteporfin, were utilized but these manipulations
did not show significant effects on YAP targets, or retinoid receptors and enzymes in MEC1 cells.
To overexpress YAP, a constitutively active form of YAP, YAP25SA, was transfected into MEC1
cells. We were able to confirm a direct relationship between Cyp26a1 expression and YAP activity
as YAP25SA increased Cyp26a1 mRNA expression by 37.8-fold within 6 hours of transfection.
As well, we were able to determine that YAP25SA affected Cyp26a1 expression through a TEAD
mechanism; as co-transfection of YAP25SA with YTIP-GFP, a plasmid expressing a peptide that interferes with YAP-TEAD interaction significantly diminished the effects of YAP25SA on
Cyp26a1 expression. The second aim investigated if YAP regulates the metabolism of retinol into
RA by utilizing the two-hybrid Gal4-RAR;UAS-tk-Gaussia luciferase reporter system that
estimate the amount of RA produced by monitoring the activation of the Gal4RAR reporter.
Transfection of MEC1 cells with YAP25SA allowed more retinol to be converted to RA and for a
longer period of time when compared to the control. Since the activity of YAP influences the
expression of Cyp26a1 and metabolism of retinol, it was concluded that YAP activity plays a role
in RA-signaling
Integrated seismic interpretation of the Larder Lake area, Southern Abitibi greenstone belt, Ontario, Canada
No full textThe southern Abitibi greenstone belt is characterized by a series of complex metavolcanic and
metasedimentary rocks intruded by granitic plutons and batholiths, which makes the area a
hardrock environment. In the Larder Lake area, these stratigraphic units are truncated by two
major breaks, the Lincoln Nipissing shear zone (LNSZ) and Cadillac-Larder Lake
deformation zone (CLLDZ) which trend NE-SW and E-W, respectively. This thesis is focused
on the quantitative interpretation of a ∼44 km long seismic transect acquired as part of the
Metal Earth project in the Larder Lake area. Seismic imaging and interpretation in a hardrock
environment are challenging due to the lack of continuity of reflections and smaller acoustic
impedance contrasts between different stratigraphic units. Hence, structural interpretation of
the seismic data is favoured rather than stratigraphic interpretation. The application of curvelet
transforms and seismic attribute analysis significantly increased the signal to noise ratio
(SNR) of the seismic data. Seismic data have pitfalls in imaging the subsurface geology in a
hardrock environment due to a strong degree of structural heterogeneity and complex
geometry of targets. These pitfalls are overcome by the integration of seismic data with
complementary geophysical methods. This study aims to determine the structural architecture
of the area using seismic data and other depth resolving geophysical methods using an
integrated modelling approach. The integrated modelling is achieved by extracting anomalies
from the geophysical inversion models. The study uses the empirical relationship between
physical properties derived from all the datasets and integrates these in a spatial domain.
Physical properties from the individual models are differentiated by applying unsupervised
learning algorithms for characterization. The recovered physical properties show correlations
with the seismic data along deformation zones
Embracing Detroit's urban ruins
No full textThe current urban landscape of Detroit reflects the fallout from the city’s tumultuous
history of racial turmoil and social and spatial segregation. Since the “white flight”
to the suburbs of residents and the institutions they controlled, Detroit has become
an “urban prairie” characterized by the abandonment of factories and homes and
the accelerated decay and demolition of significant portions of the urban fabric. As a
counter-position to the city’s culturally and environmentally unsustainable “tear down”
culture, this thesis project proposes a ground-up approach to the adaptive reuse of
existing buildings by tapping into the poetic potential of the fragment, abandonment,
and material ruination as productive catalysts for urban revitalization, instead of as
evidence used to justify more demolition of the ‘unsightly.’ Drawing inspiration from
the 18th-century aesthetic valoration of the ruin, this thesis reimagines the Picturesque
for the 21st century in order to cultivate a new way of seeing and responding to
decrepit parts of the natural and built environment. Aligning itself with the surrounding
grassroots initiatives focused on urban agriculture, inclusive arts practices and public
green space to inform the proposed intervention’s hybrid program, this thesis aspires
to shifting perspectives of what is possible and desirable by offering a positive,
community-oriented response to a former industrial site that aims to contribute to
Detroit’s rebirth
Microalgae growing in stressed environments and their antioxidant potential from production of secondary metabolites
Get PDFMicroalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms found in aquatic environments around the world.
There is interest in using microalgae to capture carbon (CO2) from industrial off-gas, but sulphur
dioxide often present in these gasses increases growing media acidity making it essential to find
microalgal strains able to survive in pH 3.0-4.0. High metal concentration, acidity, solar irradiance,
and nutrient limitations can instigate the production of protective secondary metabolites with
antioxidant potential. Therefore, the antioxidant potential of novel microalgal isolates
bioprospected from acidic mine-impacted water systems, identified as Coccomyxa sp. and
Chlamydomonas sp., and a culture collection strain Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were tested using
three antioxidant assays. Results showed that low pH conditions (pH 3.0) increased biomass
production of Coccomyxa sp. but induced the death of C. reinhardtii. Under both pH 3.0 and
uncontrolled pH conditions, the bioprospected strains had higher antioxidant potential than
C. reinhardtii, with Coccomyxa sp. having the highest potential