VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Well-being following stroke in later life: The interplay of self and society

A stroke can be a serious and debilitating chronic health problem with diverse psychological and social consequences. Yet, subjective well-being following stroke is not necessarily a response to physical impairment or function. Some survivors with severe deficits manage to retain a strong sense of well-being, while others with only minor deficits report a considerable decline in well-being. Factors at both the micro and macro levels of social reality may be at work in this process, and a more complete understanding is likely to come from an integration of both perspectives, with attention paid to the mechanisms by which the self and society interact dialectically. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodological strategies, the purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the process by which community dwelling seniors maintain or lose well-being following a stroke, with attention paid to micro level factors within structural constraints. A quantitative approach is taken with a national survey of Canadian seniors to describe the patterns and correlates of well-being following stroke, and to compare these relationships with older Canadians who have not experienced a stroke. Qualitative methods are then used in a separate sample of community dwelling stroke survivors to gain a greater understanding of the underlying meaning and processes by which stroke affects well-being in later life. Results from the quantitative component indicate that there are various micro and macro level factors that are associated with well-being in later life. For seniors who are recovering from a stroke, physical and cognitive function are repeatedly found to be important for psychological well-being, much more so than for seniors who are aging without the effects of stroke. Macro level social resources, including social supports and socio-economic resources, are positively associated with well-being in all seniors, and for stroke survivors these resources were found to be particularly influential in buffering the impact of functional disability and poor health on well-being. The qualitative findings provide insight into the underlying reasons why these patterns and relationships exist in stroke survivors, and also identify the presence of additional factors that are important for well-being following stroke that were not measured in the quantitative survey.
Investigation of a putative interaction between TGalpha1, a heterotrimeric G protein alpha subunit, and a DnaJ homologue in tomato

An interactive cloning method of screening a tomato cDNA library using recombinant TGÃ1, an Ã subunit homologue of the heterotrimeric G protein family, as bait identified LeJ1, a DnaJ homologue, as a putative interactor of TGÃ1. The full-length amino acid sequence of LeJ1 indicated that LeJ1 has limited functional domain similarity to other DnaJ homologues. A recombinant protein of 39 kDa was generated and purified from 'Escherichia coli'. Polyclonal antibodies were raised using recombinant LeJ1 protein as an antigen and were used in the subcellular localization of LeJ1 protein. A fungal elicitor from 'Cladosporium fulvum' was demonstrated to up-regulate the expression of LeJ1. A number of 'in vitro' experiments were designed to corroborate the interaction between TGÃ1 and LeJ1. Recombinant TGÃ1 and LeJ1 were used in protein overlays, affinity column chromatography, co-transformation of 'E. coli', and ' in vitro' co-immunoprecipitation experiments. In all cases, the interaction was observed, however, the yeast two-hybrid system failed to demonstrate the interaction. 'In vivo' co-immunoprecipitation experiments were also attempted in order to demonstrate the interaction under cellular conditions and to identify other possible chaperones that may be involved. The ' in vivo' experiments also failed to corroborate the interaction. The ' in vitro' weight of evidence supports the conclusion that the interaction occurs, however, no physiological basis for it has been determined.
Effects of high carbohydrate and high protein meals on plasma cortisol and mood in normal women

To investigate the effects of macronutrient intake on plasma cortisol levels and mood states, normal women were fed high carbohydrate and high protein lunchtime meals on consecutive days. Following meal consumption, plasma cortisol levels were measured at 30 minute intervals, in addition to mood states using the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X). Both meals resulted in changes in plasma cortisol and mood. Following meal consumption, post-prandial plasma cortisol initially rose and, then, steadily fell. The clearest post-prandial mood change was a decrease in arousal, as indicated by decreases in POSITIVE AFFECT and increases in FATIGUE. The only significant difference attributable to meal composition was a MEAL x TIME interaction, indicating that plasma cortisol rose earlier following carbohydrate (at 30 minutes) than following protein (60 minutes) meals. While no statistically significant correlation between hormonal and mood responses was found, a larger sample size is necessary to investigate this further.
The category of animacy, a semantic feature hierarchy?

This dissertation focuses on variation in the accusative form in Serbian and Russian that in much of the previous research has been ascribed to marking of the category of animacy in Slavic languages that have the case system. Analysis of data from these two languages suggests that the accusative-genitive syncretism, which the scholars traditionally associated with marking of the, object's animacy, in fact marks its atypicality, while the accusative-nominative syncretism marks the object's typicality. Since the speaker sees him/herself as the ultimate subject and the most atypical object, every object that has features the speaker usually associates with him/herself can be treated as atypical. Whenever an object is animate, has a personal name, is highly referential and possesses features that are associated with a high degree of referentiality (is individuated and/or definite), or is in the focus, or is supplied with a large amount of information about it, or provokes a special attitude from the speaker, than this object can acquire the accusative-genitive form; this case marking does not necessarily correspond to the object's real-life status and semantically appropriate marking from the point of view of animacy. Conversely, when the object is not to be perceived as atypical (individuated and relevant "on its own" for the speaker's particular communicational needs), it can be marked with the accusative-nominative form, regardless of its animacy status. The connection of choice of the accusative form to the speaker's perception of objects as typical or atypical makes it possible to eliminate long lists of "exceptions" and semantically inexplicable cases of animacy marking, and to view animacy as a part of a more general category of atypical objects. Many factors that can influence the accusative form sometimes occur simultaneously in a sentence, or can overrule one another, which makes it impossible to establish a rigid hierarchy that would govern the choice of the accusative form.
Fields of wry, serious laughter, humour, and nation in nineteenth- and twentieth-century English-Canadian and American fiction

By focussing on the laughter evoked by prose fiction rather than by dramatic comedies, this study augments the recent work done by scholars of black humour and women's humour, who claim that not all humour texts produce an agreeable or communal laughing response. The idea of serious laughter brings together two aspects of the term "humour": a consideration of the etymological roots of the word "humour," which has been historically associated with laughter that expresses both joy and sorrow, and an examination of how sex/gender systems traditionally have been treated by theorists of humour and laughter. Serious laughter is intended to provide an inclusive concept of the laughing body, by stressing the "non-comic" possibilities of laughter and by looking closely at how individuals read and respond to texts, especially those works which may not be conventionally considered "funny." The nationality of a humorist offers critics a way to categorize styles of humour. Serious laughter, however, can complicate this approach. The United States and Canada, with their shared border, provide a test case for a comparative reading of humour and nation that acknowledges the circulation of humour within and beyond the borders of individual countries. Exploring the relationship of nation to narration and analysing some of the differences and similarities between the American and Canadian humour traditions, through close readings of four texts (by Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Mark Twain, Toni Morrison, and Thomas King), brings another perspective to nation-based examinations of humour. Using serious laughter to read these works reveals the need for a more overtly comparative approach to humour studies that encompasses issues of nationality but also acknowledges how the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation may alter the study of humour and nation by eliciting different kinds of serious laughter.
The relationship between early childhood speech/language impairment and young adulthood antisocial behaviour

This investigation used data from the Ottawa Language Study to examine the relationship between early childhood speech/language impairments and young adulthood antisocial behaviour. At age 5, 284 children were categorized as either speech-only impaired. language impaired or controls. While accounting for a large variety of age 5 covariates, their age 19 antisocial behaviour was assessed. Children who were language impaired had the worst outcome. These children were at significant risk for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (odds ratio = 3.66, 95%CL:1.49-9.01) and were also considered by parents and/or teachers to be significantly more antisocial than those without a history of such impairments. However, when antisocial behaviour was measured in terms of criminal activity or when subjects rated their own antisocial behaviour, no significant differences were found among the age 5 speech/language groups. Despite this, these findings are the first to report the long-term, young adulthood psychiatric consequences of early childhood language impairments.
The effect of tubercidin on the induction of AP-1 and NF-[kappa]B dependent genes by interleukin-1

The clinical presentation of rheumatoid and osteoarthritis results from a myriad of biochemical alterations and molecular changes that take place systemically and within the affected joints. It can be considered that there are two broad classes of signals which act synergistically and symbiotically to produce the overall disease condition: inflammatory and tissue degrading signals. The transcription factor NF-[kappa]B has been shown to be a critical mediator of the inflammatory response and the generation of inflammatory factors, while the physiological and pathological-processes of tissue regeneration and tissue degradation are more closely associated with the regulatory complex AP-1. Alterations in microtubule dynamics have been shown to be associated with changes in signaling cascades in certain cells. Previous data from our lab has shown that MT interfering agents, such as Taxol, prevent the induction of tissue degrading matrix metalloproteases by IL-1 in primary chondrocytes. In view of the above, the goal of this study was to more closely examine the involvement of the MT network in the induction of both NF-[kappa]B and AP-1 dependent processes by IL-1 in bovine chondrocytes. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Monitoring photodynamic therapy with electrical impedance spectroscopy

Electrical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) monitoring of photodynamic therapy (PDT) was investigated in rat tumor and liver 'in vivo', and multicellular spheroids 'in vitro'. Non-invasive impedance monitoring of PDT in a rat muscle/tumor model showed that low-frequency impedance changed by two-fold relative to pre-treatment values. Continuously measured liver impedance altered during and after Photofrin-PDT, with changes in conductivity at ~10 kHz, and of permittivity at ~30 kHz and 1 MHz. Edema was related to EIS in both animal models; cell necrosis and vascular disruption in the liver were also related to impedance. Photofrin PDT-treated spheroids experienced dose-dependent drops in permittivity and conductivity at frequencies above 10 and 100 kHz, respectively. EIS distinguished between necrotic, apoptotic, and PDT-induced damage, with histology indicating that cell distribution and membrane integrity are important EIS factors. In conclusion, EIS is sensitive to PDT-induced damage, varies with dose and time, and can be correlated qualitatively to biological changes.
An investigation of photothermal radiometric thermal diffusivity measurements of thin steel samples

In this work, a completely noncontact experimental configuration has been utilized to calculate the thermal diffusivity of thin steel samples. The technique, photothermal radiometry, is based on the periodic infrared emission of a periodically heated sample. Three frequency domain experimental techniques--(a) distance scans, (b) frequency scans and (c) pump-probe separated frequency scans--have been used to obtain thermal diffusivity values for the tested samples. In addition, a thermo-acoustic theory has been examined, to see if such a theory may be used to obtain thermal diffusivity when acoustic vibrations convolute the photothermal signal, by taking the sample in and out of focus with the detection optics.
The social organization of difference and capitalist restructuring in Canada, the making of migrant workers through the 1973 Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP)

By utilizing the materialist method of institutional ethnography of Dorothy E. Smith, complemented by Michel Foucault's analysis of 'governmentality', I conduct a documentary analysis of Canadian House of Commons debates from 1969 to 1973, inclusive, to explore how the 1973 immigration program of indentured 'migrant worker' recruitment--the Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP)--was organized as a feature of 'globalization'. I examine immigration and globalization as socially organized processes that together produce a space in which people and capital move and meet. Rather than taking a case-study approach to the study of 'migrant workers', I investigate the social organization of our knowledge of migrant workers and how this category is produced as a social phenomenon. My examination centres on an analysis of social practices and their ideological character to uncover the social relations that make certain state practices--and not others--imaginable and actionable. I reveal the importance of racist and nationalist ideological state practices to the material organization of a competitive 'Canadian' labour market within a re-structured global capitalism and the resultant re-organization of notions of Canadian nationhood. I argue that socially organizing the 'foreign-ness' of a certain racialized group of workers within the nationalized Canadian labour market and neo-liberal policy shifts in trade and investment that allow for greater capital mobility are integrally related state practices. I problematize the legitimacy of the 'migrant worker' category by examining the ideological character of repeated calls for 'order at the border' in the Canadian Parliament. I show that parliamentary discursive practices of producing certain people as 'problems' for 'Canadians' results not in the physical exclusion of those constructed as 'foreigners' but in their ideological and material differentiation from Canadians once living and working within Canadian society. I, thus, uncover how national state practices that organize social 'differences' within Canada also shape how the relations of ruling are accomplished during my period of study. I show that in the period under study, the racialization of Canadian immigration policy was shifted, in part, from the more explicit pre-1967 criteria of "preferred races and nationalities" to the 1973 'non-immigrant' category.
Carbonate radical in natural waters

Sunlight plays an important role in natural cleansing of field waters through direct photolysis and indirect photolysis by different transients. The carbonate radical (·CO3-) is a secondary radical that results from the scavenging of hydroxyl radical (·OH) by carbonate/bicarbonate and is itself strongly electrophilic. 'N',' N'-dimethylaniline (DMA) was found to be a selective probe for measuring the steady state concentration of this radical in a variety of natural waters. The pH, nitrate, total carbonate/bicarbonate, and DOC in selected field waters were quantitatively analyzed. Steady-state carbonate radical concentrations [·CO3-]ss in natural waters were investigated in a photoreactor and in summer sunlight. The measured [·CO 3-]ss strongly depended on light intensity; the range of [·CO3-]ss found in natural waters was 5 * 10-15 to 10-13 'M'. A linear relationship of [·CO3 -]ss to the major components in natural waters was derived. A novel method was used to produce the ·CO3 - with KOONO as solid ·OH source. Using a competition kinetic method, the second-order constants of nine pesticides were measured ranging from 2.0 * 107 'M-1s -1' for fenthion to 2.0 * 105 ' M-1s-1' for methyl parathion. Thioanisole, dibenzothiophene, and fenthion were selected as probes to determine the reaction pathway with ·CO3 -. Using HPLC, GC, GC-MS and LC-MS for structural confirmation, the major photodegradation products were the corresponding sulfoxides, followed by further oxidation to the sulfones. The photoreactivities of these probes in different reaction matrices were investigated. Since fenthion provided an excellent structural template in order to observe the influence of photo-oxidation on hydrolysis rates, the hydrolysis kinetics of fenthion and five metabolites were studied at different pHs and temperatures. Fenthion and its metabolites were relatively stable in neutral media, and their stability decreased as pH increased. The photo-oxidation of fenthion with ·CO3 - results in intermediates that are rapidly degraded through hydrolytic cleavage. Carbonate radical is a selective oxidant existing in natural waters with relatively high steady-state concentration that could contribute to limiting the persistence of electron-rich compounds.
A comparison of ozonation systems with respect to disinfection by-product formation and microbial inactivation

The application of ozone to drinking water was examined using bench-scale and pilot-scale systems over a range of operating conditions. The effects of pH, temperature, and reactor configuration on disinfection by-product formation and 'Bacillus subtilis' spore inactivation were investigated and assessed as to their statistical significance. Temperature and pH were shown to significantly effect bromate formation, while reactor configuration did not have a significant impact. The parameters examined (pH, temperature, reactor configuration) had varying effects on aldehyde and carboxylic acid formation. 'Bacillus subtilis' inactivation was shown to be significantly impacted by temperature and reactor configuration, while pH effects were not significant. In addition, observed 'Bacillus subtilis' inactivation results were compared to published 'Cryptosporidium' inactivation data. Results suggest that 'Bacillus subtilis' may have the potential to serve as an indicator organism and thereby aid in assessment of adequate 'Cryptosporidium' inactivation.
Gynecological surgical procedures and risk of stomach, colon and rectal cancers

An exploratory investigation was conducted to examine risk of stomach, colon and rectal cancers in women who had certain common gynecological surgical procedures in Ontario between 1979 and 1993. Person-years were measured until death, a cancer diagnosis, or the end of the study period after cohort linkage to the Ontario Cancer Registry and the Ontario mortality file. The relative risk estimates were calculated by comparing observed cancer events to expected cancer events based on age and calendar period-specific incidence rates of Ontario women. Risk of stomach cancer was consistently reduced for all procedures. This was also generally true for risk of colon and rectal cancers, although there was individual variation by site and procedure that diverged from a protective effect. Although the results support the hypothesis that the procedures alter cancer risk, the association should be investigated further. This should be done in studies that take into consideration a number of potential confounders and examine more closely lifetime endogenous and exogenous estrogen exposure.
Role of protein kinases in stretch-induced regulation of elastin synthesis through increasd translational efficiency

Under conditions of increased vascular wall stress such as is present in hypertension, the aorta responds by rapid production of additional elastin and collagen. This response can be mimicked in vitro using a model in which chick aortas are distended circumferentially with tubing. Stretch-induced increases in elastin production are not correlated with increases in elastin mRNA. In addition, stretch-induced increases in elastin production persist after pre-treatment with doses of the transcriptional inhibitor, DRB, that are capable of blocking stretch-induced increases in the transcriptional marker c-fos. These observations suggest that the response is not related to changes in transcriptional activity nor mRNA stability, but instead may be due to increased translational efficiency of existing elastin mRNA. Although the signal transduction pathway for this response remains incompletely described, we have shown that vessel distention activates S6 kinase. Rapamycin inhibits the effects of stretch on both S6 kinase activity and elastin production. Similarly, wortmannin, an inhibitor of PI3 kinase, also blocks the stretch-induced response. In addition, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor tyrphostin 25 demonstrated an ability to block stretch-induced elastin synthesis. Tyrphostin 25 also blocks the stretch-induced increase in S6 kinase activity. These results argue that stretch-induced production of aortic elastin is under translational control, and that the signaling pathway which transduces physical forces into increased elastin synthesis requires the early phosphorylation of an unknown protein by a tyrosine kinase, as well as the participation of PI3 kinase and S6 kinase.
Raising children who have spina bifida or cerebral palsy, a comparison of mothers' accounts of stigma

A secondary analysis of a larger study (McKeever, 1993) was undertaken to compare experiences of 'stigma' described by mothers whose children had cerebral palsy ('n' = 8) or spina bifida (' n' = 10). Mothers' accounts were analyzed using Goffman's (1963) conceptualization of stigma. Mothers described children with cerebral palsy as deviating markedly from expectations of 'normal' children and those with spina bifida as less deviant. However, children with spina bifida (80%) attracted more unsolicited attention than did children with cerebral palsy (50%). Mothers used strategies such as avoidance and minimization to 'cover up' discrediting attributes. Mothers of children with cerebral palsy experienced more 'courtesy stigma' in the form of devaluing and insensitive comments about themselves. They managed courtesy stigma by using humour, seeking affiliation with ' considerate' individuals, dissociating from 'inconsiderate ' individuals and portraying a conventional family life.