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Histone Modifications in the Wood Frog Brain: An Epigenetic Perspective on Anoxic Stress
Full text linkThe wood frog, Rana sylvatica, can survive extended periods of oxygen deprivation without suffering any apparent damage to its tissues or cells. This remarkable animal is capable of surviving anoxia by utilizing complex regulatory mechanisms to undergo metabolic rate depression (MRD) including histone arginine methylation/demethylation and histone lysine acetylation/deacetylation. The current study utilizes immunoblotting of relative protein expression to examine the possible effects histone modifications can have on the wood frog brain during anoxia compared to normal physiological conditions. The interplay between histone arginine methyltransferases, demethylases, lysine acetyltransferases, deacetylases (PRMTs, RDMs, KATs, HDACs, SIRTs), and their respective histone targets were examined. Altogether, this study highlights the regulatory roles played via histone modifications, and how they help the animal survive with a focus on suppression of energetically expensive processes
Molecular Underpinnings of Social Memory Encoding in the Hippocampus and CNOT3 Effect on Behaviours Relevant for Autism Spectrum Disorders
Full text linkSocial memory, essential for adaptive behaviors in species including rodents, involves hippocampal mechanisms, yet underlying molecular pathways remain unclear. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by social deficits, is linked to mutations disrupting transcriptional regulation and protein synthesis, such as in Cnot3 (CCR4-NOT subunit 3), a gene implicated in mRNA degradation. However, Cnot3’s role in ASD-related behaviors is unexplored. This thesis addressed two main objectives: first, to determine the most suitable behavioral paradigm for inducing robust social memory in mice, and second, to evaluate the behavioral impact of a Cnot3 mutation on ASD-related phenotypes. To prepare for future molecular analyses, we identified a modified three-chamber paradigm, with a 5-minute interaction duration, as the most reliable task for inducing social memory. Results also demonstrate that Cnot3 conditional heterozygous (cHet) mutations selectively impair social novelty recognition in male mice, without altering sociability, anxiety-like, or repetitive behaviors
How We Wear: Creating Clothing of Identity and Connection
Full text linkThe clothes we choose to wear are often a representation of the identity we wish to project into the world, acting as a form of self expression and impacting the way we experience our environments. Creative acts of making also allow an opportunity to represent selfhood, as our experiences, stories, and identities are actively integrated in the product of our labour through our participation in these creative processes. The act of making clothing then becomes an invaluable resource in understanding and representing ourselves to the world around us. This thesis seeks to explore the relationships that exist in our acts of making by engaging with the creative act of making clothes. The processes of making these articles of clothing are displayed through written accounts of feelings, stories, inspirations, and experiences while making, providing insight and contributions to a stronger sense of self and understanding of identity
"I Can't Even Sign off on a Hired Car": Three Emic Studies of Middle Manager Empowerment and Disempowerment in a Greedy Institution
Full text linkThe construct of empowerment is understood to comprise a person’s motivational belief that they are empowered and the antecedent factors that influence this belief. Not all antecedent factors have received equal attention in organizational studies. Organizational context, for example, is surmised to influence empowerment beliefs, but the strength and nature of this influence has not been studied in depth. Moreover, the construct of disempowerment has not been well developed in organizational studies, and how organizational context can influence disempowerment is even more obscure. This thesis addresses these gaps by exploring how empowerment and disempowerment are perceived in a specific organizational context – that of a greedy institution. It does so through three emic studies of middle managers in a police organization. Each paper applies grounded theory methods to explore, first, how middle managers in a greedy institution conceptualize empowerment; second, how they experience disempowerment; and finally, what factors they identify as influencing their empowerment or their disempowerment. Our findings enable us to, first, suggest that middle managers in a greedy institution view the relationship with their superior as central to their concept of empowerment; second, that they attribute disempowerment to either the behavior of their superior or their organizational culture, and that their primary behavioral reaction is to accept being disempowered without protest; and third, that the relationship dynamics of empowerment and disempowerment appear to lie on a continuum, so that any single dynamic either empowers or disempowers depending on its strength and direction. Taken together, these three papers contribute to the research and practice of empowerment by offering insights into how organizational context may influence empowerment beliefs and provide concepts to enable further research to develop a robust construct of disempowerment in management studies
