924 research outputs found
Veteran Law Students: Institutional Initiatives To Transform Their Law School Experiences
No full textPeer reviewe
Repositioning the graphic designer as researcher
No full textIn academic terms, the discipline of graphic design is relatively young. Consequently the position of the discipline within academic territory, and the role of the designer, continue to be debated. In part, these debates have been a product of attempts to define and defend the discipline’s borders from within, in order to establish a sense of the role of graphic design and the graphic designer as commensurate with other disciplines both within and beyond art and design. In recent years graphic designers have variously been defined as ‘authors’, ‘producers’ and ‘readers’, yet none of these definitions seem to have provided any kind of productive or lasting impact within the academy. This paper suggests that rather than continue to seek territorial definitions and positions from within, it could be more productive to look beyond the confines of the discipline. Gaining a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on, and understanding of, qualitative research methods from other disciplines may enable the graphic designer to more fully position his or her practice within the wider academy. Such a perspective could help facilitate the repositioning and redefinition of the graphic designer as ‘researcher’ - a move that would be productive in relation to the future development of postgraduate research within the discipline
Terms of inclusion? Rejecting the role of 'honorary man' in the ivory tower
No full textThe chapter, "Terms of inclusion? Rejecting the role of 'honorary man' in the ivory tower" was written by Alison M. Thomas (Douglas College Faculty). Featuring many personal accounts, the twenty-four essays in this collection explore the challenges and possibilities confronting those, especially women, who combine parenting and academic work. Written by a diverse group of educators who present a real-world variety of situations, the collection also includes ideas for change at the individual, interpersonal, policy, and system levels.book chapterPublished
Mitochondrial dysfunction and dynamics in tumourigenesis
No full textMitochondria are essential in many cancer-related processes, but the link between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) dysfunction and cancer remains poorly understood, partly due to a historical focus on the nuclear genome and challenges in mtDNA analysis. Current understanding identifies three main somatic mtDNA alterations in tumours: sequence variations, changes in copy number, and integrations into the nuclear genome (NUMTs). Although these phenomena are increasingly observed across tumour types, small sample sizes and limited clinical data have hindered our understanding of their clinical significance, highlighting the need for more focused research.
In this thesis, we developed an accurate mtDNA variant-calling pipeline to detect both somatic and germline mtDNA variants across heteroplasmies. We applied this, along with established pipelines for mtDNA copy number estimation and NUMT detection, to the largest High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (HGSOC) sequencing cohort to date. Our analysis revealed frequent somatic mtDNA variants and increased copy numbers in HGSOC tumours compared to normal tissue, though no somatic NUMT integrations were detected. Notably, predicted deleterious mtDNA variants were associated with poorer patient prognosis, independent of age, stage and homologous recombination deficiency. This pattern also scaled with heteroplasmy level and was consistent across missense variant effect prediction strategies.
Expanding our analysis to 17,509 tumour samples across various cancer types, we found widespread mtDNA somatic variants, with certain cancers showing higher susceptibility, and significant increases in mtDNA copy number compared to matched normals. Similar survival differences for predicted deleterious mtDNA variants were observed only in a breast tumour cohort. Though survival differences could not be replicated in an independent HGSOC cohort, potentially a result of differing tumour aggressiveness between cohorts.
Finally, we explored the functional impact of predicted deleterious mtDNA variants using matched transcriptomic data from the HGSOC cohort. Our findings suggest that these variants may disrupt oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and could influence chemotherapy sensitivity. Additionally, we identified mtDNA expression groups weakly associated with patient prognosis, independent of predicted deleterious mtDNA variants.
Overall, this thesis provides strong evidence for the prognostic value of somatic mtDNA variants in HGSOC, underscoring the importance of mitochondrial genetics in cancer research. These findings lay the groundwork for future studies on the mechanisms of predicted deleterious mtDNA variants, with potential implications for improving patient survival and treatment strategies in HGSOC and other cancers
Mining e-mail content for author identification forensics
No full textWe describe an investigation into e-mail content mining for author identification, or authorship attribution, for the purpose of forensic investigation. We focus our discussion on the ability to discriminate between authors for the case of both aggregated e-mail topics as well as across different email topics. An extended set of e-mail document features including structural characteristics and linguistic patterns were derived and, together with a Support Vector Machine learning algorithm, were used for mining the e-mail content. Experiments using a number of e-mail documents generated by different authors on a set of topics gave promising results for both aggregated and multi-topic author categorisation
Quantifying single nucleotide variant detection sensitivity in exome sequencing
No full textBACKGROUND: The targeted capture and sequencing of genomic regions has rapidlydemonstrated its utility in genetic studies. Inherent in this technology isconsiderable heterogeneity of target coverage and this is expected tosystematically impact our sensitivity to detect genuine polymorphisms. To fullyinterpret the polymorphisms identified in a genetic study it is often essentialto both detect polymorphisms and to understand where and with what probabilityreal polymorphisms may have been missed.RESULTS: Using down-sampling of 30 deeply sequenced exomes and a set ofgold-standard single nucleotide variant (SNV) genotype calls for each sample, we developed an empirical model relating the read depth at a polymorphic site to theprobability of calling the correct genotype at that site. We find that measuredsensitivity in SNV detection is substantially worse than that predicted from the naive expectation of sampling from a binomial. This calibrated model allows us toproduce single nucleotide resolution SNV sensitivity estimates which can bemerged to give summary sensitivity measures for any arbitrary partition of thetarget sequences (nucleotide, exon, gene, pathway, exome). These metrics aredirectly comparable between platforms and can be combined between samples to give"power estimates" for an entire study. We estimate a local read depth of 13X isrequired to detect the alleles and genotype of a heterozygous SNV 95% of thetime, but only 3X for a homozygous SNV. At a mean on-target read depth of 20X,commonly used for rare disease exome sequencing studies, we predict 5-15% ofheterozygous and 1-4% of homozygous SNVs in the targeted regions will be missed.CONCLUSIONS: Non-reference alleles in the heterozygote state have a high chanceof being missed when commonly applied read coverage thresholds are used despitethe widely held assumption that there is good polymorphism detection at thesecoverage levels. Such alleles are likely to be of functional importance inpopulation based studies of rare diseases, somatic mutations in cancer andexplaining the "missing heritability" of quantitative traits.<br/
Beyond Black & White : Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the U.S. South and Southwest
No full textEdited by Stephanie Cole & Alison M. Parker [College at Brockport faculty member] ; introduction by Nancy A. Hewitt [College at Brockport alum].
“The complex, changing and oppressive ‘multiracisms’—to use Ronit Lentin\u27s term—of the U.S. South and Southwest are brilliantly captured in this powerful collection of linked essays. So too are the ways in which differing but overlapping experiences of race, citizenship and terror created both common ground and grounds for division among racialized groups.”--David Roediger, University of Illinois, and author, Colored White: Transcending the Racial Pasthttps://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1279/thumbnail.jp
Language and gender author cohort analysis of e-mail for computer forensics
No full textAbstract. We describe an investigation of authorship gender and lan-guage background cohort attribution mining from e-mail text documents. We used an extended set of predominantly topic content-free e-mail document features such as style markers, structural characteristics and gender-preferential language features together with a Support Vector Machine learning algorithm. Experiments using a corpus of e-mail doc-uments generated by a large number of authors of both genders gave promising results for both author gender and language background co-hort categorisation.
Do UK based weight management programmes cause weight loss maintenance in adults? A systematic review
No full textThe aim of this dissertation was to examine whether UK based weight management programmes promote weight loss maintenance (follow up of 12 months to assess effectiveness of intervention in weight loss) in adults through the process of a systematic review. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described obesity as a "global epidemic". Weight management comprises two phases; weight loss and weight loss maintenance. The latter phase is the true goal for obesity and the most difficult element of weight management to achieve. However much less is know about this as compared with the weight loss phase. There is little purpose in committing time and money to reducing obesity if the weight is regained. This is counter-productive and weight loss maintenance is essential to combat the obesity epidemic. Searches were made for relevant information from a variety of scientific online databases and journals,. Seven articles met the inclusion criteria and were analysed in the review. All studies incorporated a multi-component (diet, exercise, behaviur modification) intervention approach. All control and internvetion groups reported weight loss at 12 months when compared with baseline. All groups recieved an intervention. One study reported a significant difference (P<0.05) between groups. Four studies reported on at least one component (diet, physical activity, behaviour modification) however there was not enough information to conclude whether they complied with national guidelines (NICE CG43 and SIGN 115). High attrition rates and loss to follow up are problematic for each study except one. Analysis on an intention to treat basis was common however this is problematic and there are alternative methods which may be more suitable for dealing with missing data
Supermoms and bumbling dads: How do Mother's Day and Father's Day cards help perpetuate traditional roles in the home?
No full textThe chapter, "Supermoms and bumbling dads: How do Mother's Day and Father's Day cards help perpetuate traditional roles in the home?" was written by the listed authors including Alison M. Thomas (Douglas College Faculty). Life in Canada is marked, celebrated, enjoyed, and dreaded in ways that respond specifically to the seasons. Sociological thinking allows people to ask questions about things that may otherwise be taken for granted. Thinking about the seasons sociologically opens up a unique perspective for studying and understanding social life. Each chapter in this collection approaches the seasons and the passage of time as a way to explore issues of sociological interest. The authors use seasonality as a device that can bridge, in fascinating ways, small-scale interpersonal interactions and large formal institutional structures. These contemporary, Canadian case studies are wide-ranging and include analyses of pumpkin spice lattes, policing in schools, law and colonialism, summer cottages, seasonal affective disorder, New Year’s resolutions, Vaisakhi celebrations, and more. Seasonal Sociology offers provocative new ways of thinking about the nature of our collective lives. --From publisher description.book chapterPublished
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