30921 research outputs found
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Intrathecal interleukin-6 levels are associated with progressive disease and clinical severity in multiple sclerosis
Get PDFAbstract Background MS is characterized by persistent central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. Investigating the CNS-compartmentalized inflammation associated with progressive MS could uncover new biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) interleukin-6 (IL-6) can be markedly elevated in neuroinflammatory conditions, such as neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease. This study investigated the association between CSF IL-6 levels, progressive disease, and disease severity in MS. Methods Advanced technologies, including single-molecule arrays and microfluidics, were used to analyse CSF samples from individuals with MS at the time of diagnosis for IL-6. IL-6 levels were then correlated with clinical course, disease severity, and other known biomarkers associated with inflammation and disease severity. Results Elevated IL-6 levels in the CSF were found in individuals with progressive MS, and CSF IL-6 showed positive correlations with the Expanded Disability Status Scale, the Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score, and CSF glial fibrillary acidic protein levels. Conclusions IL-6 in CSF indicates ongoing CNS inflammation and may contribute to the compartmentalized inflammation associated with disease progression and overall disease severity
Optimizing soilless substrates and germination pods with Typha fiber
Get PDFThis report presents the development of a peat-free seed germination pod utilizing Typha-based soilless media. In collaboration with Typha Co., the project builds on prior research done by the 2024 Typha capstone team on optimizing Typha-based growing media. The objective of this project is to provide a sustainable alternative to peat-based seed germinations pods within the commercial floriculture industry.
The project focused on improving the Typha-based media by incorporating soil amendments including perlite, pine fibre, and biochar. A six-week growth trial of petunia seedlings was conducted in a hydroponic wall system to assess the impact of these amendments on plant growth. Twelve different compositions of amended Typha-based media were tested against conventional growth substrates. Additionally, 11 technical specifications were identified to evaluate how the chemical and physical properties of amended Typha-based media compare to those of peat. Primary technical specifications include water holding capacity, nitrogen immobilization, and pH. The research also investigated the feasibility of forming Typha-based media into seed germination pods by application of a binding agent. Agar, yucca powder, molasses, and flaxseed mucilage were tested as binding agents during seed pod design. Binder performance was evaluated by structural integrity, impact resistance, and rehydration properties of the seed pod to ensure durability during transportation and usability in greenhouse settings.
Growth trials showed that [REDACTED]. Further testing for the manufacturing process is recommended.
By leveraging Typha’s nutrient retention and release properties, this project provides a sustainable media alternative for floriculture consumers, while also contributing to the ecological restoration of Lake Winnipeg. The development of a cost-effective solution has the potential for wide-scale adoption, reducing reliance on peat and its environmental impact. This approach aligns with the growing demand for sustainable agricultural practices, offering both environmental and economic benefits
“All human beings are born free and equal”: a Black studies critique of human rights
Get PDFThis study provides a critical race analysis of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) through the lens of Black experiences. It investigates the historical codification of human rights in the UDHR, the assumptions that underpin the widespread institutional and academic celebration of the UDHR, and the critiques of human rights present in specific Black Studies discourses. The study poses two key questions: What insights can we gain from the critiques of human rights articulated in Black Studies? What perspectives does Black Studies bring into awareness about human rights and the work of human rights in the contemporary world order? Ultimately, the study concludes that the rejection of the human rights framework in certain traditions of Black Studies—especially the challenge to accepted notions of universality—exposes the limitations and contradictions of the universal claims made in the UDHR.May 202
Critical embodiments and peacebuilding: Disability experiences in Northern Ireland
Get PDFThis study explores the lived experiences of disabled people in Northern Ireland as they relate to peace and peacebuilding. Northern Ireland has undergone 27 years of peacebuilding since the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in 1998 which followed 30 years of violent conflict known as the Troubles. Disability is intrinsically tied to violence through the production of impairment and debility, further disabled people face disproportionate harm during violent conflict. However, disabled people are marginalized from peace processes and peacebuilding, as well as within the study of violent conflict and peacebuilding in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS). This restricts their experiences of peace in society and exacerbates ableism and disablism as well as their manifestations into barriers in the everyday lives of disabled people. This study’s findings elicit that despite the development of a negative peace in Northern Ireland, disabled people have experienced few tangible benefits in their everyday lives from the last 27 years of peacebuilding. It argues that first, disabled people are a resource for peace and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland with particularly adept ways of addressing social divides while working towards increasing disability and social justice. Second, it argues that the lived experiences of disabled people in Northern Ireland emerge as critical disabled embodiments that produce particular epistemological and ontological knowledge and ways of being that illuminate and challenge social inequalities in society. Both as a resource for peacebuilding and through critical embodiments, disabled people and disability activism facilitate the development of peace materially and deeply, at the structural and cultural roots of inequality that materialize into violence.October 202
Deep learning techniques for transmissive metasurface design
No full textElectromagnetic (EM) metasurfaces are considered as two-dimensional artificial structures since they are thin with respect to the wavelength of operation. These thin devices are designed to tailor the incoming EM waves into the desired outgoing ones. This transformation is achieved through lattices of engineered subwavelength scattering particles, known as meta-atoms or unit cells. The properties of these unit cells provide the mechanism to control the amplitude, phase, and polarization of the incoming EM waves. It is through this control that the EM radiation pattern of the metasurface can be shaped in terms of different far-field (FF) criteria such as main beam directions and sidelobe levels. However, the current metasurface design process has been complex and iterative, often requiring extensive computational resources.
In light of this challenge, this thesis investigates and presents an end-to-end systematic approach for transmissive metasurface design, aims at shorten the design cycle. To achieve this, it develops deep learning (DL) frameworks and integrates them into the two key stages of metasurface design: macroscopic and microscopic. At the macroscopic design stage, the primary goal is to infer the necessary metasurface properties from the desired FF specifications while ensuring that the metasurface remains lossless, passive, and reciprocal. This thesis explores how these requirements can be met through DL techniques, either by addressing them in separate steps or simultaneously in a single step, with the benefits and drawbacks of each approach examined.
Subsequently, the microscopic design stage aims to yield physical designs that realize the properties obtained in the macroscopic stage. To achieve this, this thesis develops a DL framework to synthesize metallic traces on three-layered unit cells, which can be fabricated using the printed circuit board (PCB) technology. Finally, this thesis integrates the macroscopic and microscopic DL frameworks to create an end-to-end design pipeline. The performance of this pipeline is verified through full-wave EM simulations and experimental evaluation.Mitacs Accelerate EntrepreneurFebruary 202
B-cell metabolic reprogramming through Hexokinase-II
No full textB-cell activation occurs via antigen binding to its membrane immunoglobulin along with T-cell help to initiate intracellular signaling cascades. B cell activation enhances glucose uptake, the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, and glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation in a balanced manner relative to resting B-cells. The enzyme Hexokinase (HK) is central to B cell activation as it catalyzes the first step of glucose metabolism by phosphorylating glucose to become glucose-6-phosphate, which then serves as an entry point for several metabolic pathways. Hexokinase-II (HKII) is one of four HK isoforms and is particularly interesting as the only isoform that can translocate between the cytoplasm and mitochondria. It is unknown if HKII, in comparison to the other isoforms, preferentially guides glucose-6-P down a particular metabolic pathway which may depend on the B-cell’s activation status and HKII’s cellular localization. B-cell activation through the T-cell dependent signals and the PI3K pathway reprograms resting B-cell metabolism by the modification of HKII expression and subcellular localization to meet the B-cell’s new activated metabolic program. B-cells with unusual HKII expression or subcellular localization may be a feature of B-cell metabolic dysregulation, such as that observed in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).
A novel intracellular staining and flow cytometry assay was developed to measure HKII expression levels across B-cell subsets throughout the body and a fluorescence microscopy based assay quantified HKII mitochondrial localization. A biological mechanism is presented herein, where B-cell activation dependent on the PI3K pathway significantly increased HKII expression and along with the presence of glucose enhanced HKII mitochondrial localization. CLL B-cells failed to increase HKII expression following in vitro B-cell activation and expressed significantly less HKII, which decreased with advanced clinical Rai stage, compared to control B-cells; suggesting CLL B-cells may decrease HKII expression beyond normal levels as an anergic metabolic response to limit chronic B-cell activation.
A B-cell specific HKII knockout mouse model assessed the impact of HKII deletion on B-cell subset frequencies, antibody production, and metabolism. HKII deficiency significantly reduced activated B-cells, germinal centre B-cells, and plasma cell frequencies post sheep red blood cell immunization. Plasma blasts and immunization induced plasma cells had the highest HKII expression levels across B-cell subsets and HKII played a functional role during a B-cell immune response since HKII deficiency significantly reduced antibody production in vitro and in vivo. The impact that HKII expression and localization has on B-cell metabolism during resting and activated conditions is evaluated by mass spectrometry metabolite profiling, carbon tracing using 13C labelled glucose, and a seahorse assay to quantify the ATP production rate from glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. HKII acted as an energy switch guiding the transition from rest to B-cell activation by fine tuning the activation of catabolic and anabolic pathways. During rest, when glucose is scare, HKII promoted glycogen breakdown for energy but facilitated the anabolic production of nucleotides and hexosamine biosynthetic pathway metabolites. During B-cell activation, when intracellular glucose is in excess, HKII promoted glycogen synthesis for energy storage and played a catabolic role in elevating the glycolytic and total ATP production rate and citric acid cycle metabolite levels. HKII is a functionally important component of B cell metabolic reprogramming dependent on the PI3K pathway and may act as an energy sensor to guide the transition from B-cell rest to activation that coincides with a switch from glycogen breakdown to synthesis depending on glucose availability.The University of Manitoba Tri-Council Master's Supplement AwardFebruary 202
A park-based group mobility program for older adults with difficulty walking outdoors: a quantitative process evaluation of the Getting Older Adults Outdoors (GO-OUT) randomized controlled trial
No full textBackground
Process evaluations of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of community exercise programs are important to help explain the results of a trial and provide evidence of the feasibility for community implementation. The objectives of this process evaluation for a multi-centre RCT of outdoor walking interventions for older adults with difficulty walking outdoors, were to determine: 1) implementation fidelity (the extent to which elements of the intervention were delivered as specified in the original protocol) and 2) participant engagement (the receipt of intervention components by the participants) in the Getting Older Adults Outdoors (GO-OUT) trial.
Methods
GO-OUT participants attended an active 1-day workshop designed to foster safe, outdoor walking skills. After the workshop, 190 people at 4 sites were randomized to an outdoor walk group (OWG) (n = 98) which met 2x/week for 10 weeks, or the weekly reminders (WR) group (n = 92) which received a phone reminder 1x/week for 10 weeks. The OWG had 5 components – warm-up, continuous distance walk, task-oriented walking activities, 2nd continuous distance walk, and cool-down. Data on implementation fidelity and participant engagement were gathered during the study through site communications, use of standardized forms, reflective notes of the OWG leaders, and accelerometry and GPS assessment of participants during 2 weeks of the OWG.
Results
All sites implemented the workshop according to the protocol. Participants were engaged in all 8 activity stations of the workshop. WR were provided to 96% of the participants in the WR intervention group. The 5 components of the OWG sessions were implemented in over 95% of the sessions, as outlined in the protocol. Average attendance in the OWG was not high – 15% of participants did not attend any sessions and 64% of participants in the OWG attended > 50% of the sessions. Evaluations with accelerometry and GPS during week 3 and 9 OWG sessions suggest that participants who attended were engaged and active during the OWG.
Conclusions
This process evaluation helps explain the main study findings and demonstrates the flexibility required in the protocol for safe and feasible community implementation. Future research could explore the use of additional behaviour change strategies to optimize attendance for community implementation.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03292510 Date of registration: September 25, 2017
FAUM Fun Box
No full textThe study of architecture and design is a task that requires students to step out of their comfort zones. While, in no way, shape or form, is architecture the toughest of subjects to study, however, to study design and architecture, or rather to be in any creative school, is a test of mental and physical resilience, requiring strong determination and willingness to do what is necessary. However, often, that constant pressure ends up taking its toll on the students in the shape of negative emotions, anxiety, depression, and the thought of suicide in extreme cases.
The intention behind this practicum is to identify issues such as mental, physical, and creative burnout amongst the FAUM students. The constant pressure, fatigue, creative need leads the students into negative spaces, creates issues of stress, depression, lacking energy, and productivity. While there’s ample research data that highlights these issues, I can attest to such negative emotions myself as a student in this field.
This practicum will primarily draw from my personal experiences as an actively engaged design and architecture student within the broader North American post-secondary education system. My overarching goal in embarking on this journey is to conceptualize and design a novel student center that serves as a complementary support hub for students within the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The core intent behind this new student center is to provide architecture students with a distinct and tailor-made environment that caters to their unique needs as design-oriented individuals.October 202
Assessing the effect of preprocessing of clinical notes on classification tasks and similarity measures
No full textBackground: Unstructured text data (UTD) in electronic medical records (EMRs) may be challenging to use because of noise including spelling errors, abbreviations, and punctuation symbols. It is expected that preprocessing improves the performance of statistical or machine learning models.
Objectives: The research objectives were to assess the effect of the number and order of preprocessing methods (1) on the detection of health conditions from UTD, (2) on clinical and demographic cohort selection criteria in UTD, (3) on the similarity of information contained in pairs of EMR notes for the same patient, and (4) on accurate de-identification of UTD.
Method: Study data were from the Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2) challenges. The 2008, 2014 and 2018 i2b2 datasets were used for different Objectives. Preprocessing methods included tokenization, removing punctuation symbols, correcting spelling errors, expanding abbreviations, word stemming, and lemmatization. A nested experimental design was adopted, in which order was nested within the number of methods. Balanced random forest, support vector machine, and bidirectional long short-term memory-conditional random field models were used for Objectives 1, 2, and 4, respectively, and model performance was evaluated by accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, and precision. For Objective 3, cosine similarity was used to measure the similarity between pairs of notes. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and descriptive statistics were used to test research hypotheses.
Results: Mean sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, accuracy, and precision were similar across the orders of methods and numbers of methods, for Objectives 1 and 2. Cosine similarity scores were similar across orders of methods for Objective 3. Deep learning models for Objective 4 were not trainable with the preprocessed data. The ANOVA F test results showed no significant effect of the order of methods for different numbers and identical mean values of outcome variables implied no difference among the numbers of methods.
Conclusion: The order and number of preprocessing methods did not have any effect on model performance for a variety of tasks applied to text data. Future research could investigate the effect of the source of spelling correction libraries, medical dictionaries, and abbreviation lists on model performance results.May 202
Environmental assessment and impact of air, water and noise levels near a cement factory in Ewekoro, Ogun State, Nigeria
No full textThe air, water and noise were assessed for respirable particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and heavy metals (lead, chromium, nickel, cadmium, zinc and copper) and noise levels around a cement factory in Ewekoro. Air was sampled using a cassette sampler and was taken at Ewekoro and neighbouring communities (Papalantoro, Lapeleko and Itori) in Nigeria’s Ogun State. An atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) measured heavy metals in the water, and a sound level meter was used to monitor the noise levels. Comparing levels with the World Health Organization (WHO), National Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency guideline (NESREA, Nigeria) and Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards (CAAQS) show some standards were exceeded.
The mean concentrations of Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr) and Nickel (Ni) in the air of the cement factory area and the impacted neighbourhoods were higher than the WHO/EU permissible limits. Chromium's hazard quotient (HQ) was above the WHO/EU safe level in adults and children through ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact in all areas monitored. Also, the HQ for Ni and Cd were higher than the safe levels in the cement factory area and Papalantoro but not in other areas, while Zinc (Zn) was determined to be at safe levels.
All heavy metals monitored in the river water, except Zn, exceeded the WHO permissible limit. The heavy metal sources cannot be pinpointed to the cement factor as other points and non-point contamination sources exist. The hazard index (HI) was greater than one in all the rivers monitored in children and adults, signifying an unacceptable health risk for non-carcinogenic effects. The HI for children in all the rivers sampled was higher than that for adults, indicating that children will experience more non-carcinogenic health risks than adults. The sum of Incremental lifetime cancer risk (∑ILCR) of both adults and children was higher than the acceptable level.
The highest daily noise level result at the cement factory was below the NESREA regulatory standard, while the result at the residential area was slightly higher than the standard.February 202