VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Exploration of Critical Care Nurses' Use of Accumulated knowledge and Information-seeking for Non-routine Tasks

Background Nurses complete tasks during patient care to promote the recovery, or to maintain the health, of patients. These tasks can be routine or non-routine to the nurse. Non-routine tasks are characterized by unfamiliarity, requiring nurses to seek additional information from a variety of sources to effectively complete the tasks. Nurses’ perception of their problem-solving skills, as characterized by the attributes of personal control, problem-solving confidence, and avoidance-approach style, influences how information is sought. Objectives/Research Questions Guided by the information-seeking behaviour model, this study was designed to: (1) examine how the non-routineness of the task affects nurses’ information-seeking behaviour and the use of accumulated knowledge; and, (2) explore nurses’ perception of their problem-solving abilities. Methods An exploratory cross-sectional survey design was used. A random sample of critical care nurses who worked in a hospital setting were selected from the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) research participant database. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the proposed relationships. Results Avoidance-approach style and, problem-solving confidence did not have a significant relationship with nurses’ information-seeking behaviour. None of the variables explained use of accumulated knowledge (F = 0.902, p > 0.05). Previous training (p = 0.008), Non-routineness of the task (p = 0.018), and Personal control (p = 0.040) had a positive relationship with information-seeking behaviour (Adjusted R2 = 0.136). Implications The study results provide evidence that problem-solving ability, and in particular the attribute of personal control, influences nurses’ information-seeking behaviour during the completion of nursing tasks. They reveal how information is sought from resources, and what specific information resources are necessary to promote access to, and use of, evidence-based information. The results also help direct efforts towards training nurses in issues related to problem-solving and information-seeking by targeting the development of personal control and retrieving evidence-based information.

Keywords: Information-seeking
Critical care nurses
Problem-solving ability
non-routine tasks
Advisor: Doran, Diane
The Activation of Small Molecules Employing Main Group and Transition Metal Frustrated Lewis Pairs

Combinations of sterically encumbered Lewis acids and Lewis bases are precluded from dative bond formation, failing to yield classical Lewis acid-base adducts. These unique systems are referred to as frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) and demonstrate a plethora of unique small molecule activations.Herein, the syntheses of phosphonium alkoxy- and aryloxyborate salts in addition to phosphonium thioborate salts are detailed. The scope of Lewis acid and base, alcohol and thiol, that are effective in this chemistry, is also detailed. The syntheses of novel borate and boronate esters of the form B(OR)3 and (C6R4O2)B(C6F5) are detailed and applied in metal-free heterolytic dihydrogen activation with phosphines. The further study of a variety of perfluoroboranes in the activation of H2 with tertiary phosphines is also detailed. Derivatization of triarylboranes, boronate esters, borinic esters and chloroboranes by reaction with one or two equivalents of alky- or aryldiazomethane is achieved yielding the corresponding RR’C insertion products. The solid-state structures of the free boranes, in addition to Lewis base adducts of a sampling of these species, are detailed. Reactivity of the resulting sterically encumbered boranes in imine hydrogenations, H2 and XeF2 activation are also detailed. Combinations of intermolecular frustrated Lewis pairs are found to react collaboratively to activate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O), yielding the corresponding zwitterionic compounds R3P(CO2)BR2R’ and R3P(N2O)BR’3. Atom connectivity has been established via X-ray crystallographic studies and molecular structures and parameters are discussed. Subsequent exchange chemistry of both CO2 and N2O species with transition metal and other d-block Lewis acids are investigated and yield zwitterionic compounds and ion pairs which are otherwise unobtainable employing more conventional methods. Transition metal containing Lewis acids are employed in conjunction with tri(tert-butyl)phosphine for the FLP-mediated direct activation of N2O.

Keywords: Frustrated Lewis Pairs
Small Molecule Activation
Advisor: Stephan, Douglas
Properties of Surfactants that Govern their Functions and Applications on Lipid Membranes

This work aims at a better understanding of the parameters and properties of surfactants that govern their specific biological functions and their suitability for applications related to biological membranes. First, the hypothesis is tested that membrane lysis starts when a surfactant has built up a critical level of curvature strain, that is detected as a chain disordering. This could be confirmed for many surfactants but some, mostly biosurfactants act by a locally focused, heterogeneous perturbation, which explains their enhanced antibiotic activity and selectivity. A model and protocol were established to obtain a volumetric characterization of micelles by pressure perturbation calorimetry. For some classic detergents studied so far, their chain packing was found to agree with that of bulk hydrocarbon. Finally, the effective charge and consequent membrane permeability were assessed by zeta potential measurements.

Advisor: Heerklotz, Heiko
Improving Executive Functioning in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders using the Alert Program for Self Regulation®

The chronic and severe executive functioning (EF) and self regulation deficits experienced by children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are well documented and EF and self regulation have been identified as core targets for intervention. The goals of this dissertation were to: (i) examine the effects of a self regulation treatment for children with FASD on a range of EF measures (ii) examine neural markers of treatment outcome and determine if functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can differentiate treatment responders from nonresponders; (iii) determine if treatment effects generalize to child compliance and qualitatively examine the treatment process. Twenty-five children with FASD participated. Using a wait-list control design children were assigned to an immediate treatment (TXT; n = 12) or delayed treatment control (DTC; n = 13) condition. All children received an evaluation of EF and fMRI at baseline and 12-week follow-up. Parents also completed questionnaires assessing EF and behavior as well as a feedback questionnaire upon completion of treatment. A subset of parents tracked compliance over the course of their child’s therapy. For the TXT group only, parent questionnaires were readministered at 6 month follow-up. At 12-week follow-up, children in the TXT group displayed significant improvements in inhibitory control and social cognition. Additionally, parents reported improved behavioral and emotional regulation. This improvement, along with a further improvement in parent-rated inhibitory control, was maintained at the 6-month follow-up. Neuroplastic changes were also observed as the TXT group showed increased BOLD response in the right prefrontal cortex (PFC) and left caudate on a task of inhibitory control. When treatment responders were compared to nonresponders a pattern of increased BOLD response was found bilaterally in the PFC and left caudate. Compliance tracking revealed that self regulation therapy generalized to improved child compliance at home. Qualitative analysis indicated that perceived clinician competence, caregiver insight about child’s problems and caregiver perceptions of child’s insight about their problems, were the most commonly endorsed themes by caregivers. Results from this research signify that children with FASD are responsive to psychotherapy and following a brief intervention, showed improvements in self regulatory abilities that generalize to other EF areas and parent-reported behaviors.

Keywords: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Intervention
Advisor: Rovet, Kelly
A Life of One’s Own: Freedom and Obligation in the Novels of Henry James

This dissertation argues that the novels of Henry James offer a conception of personhood and of human freedom better able to explain and unify private law than the conceptions currently dominant in private law theory. I begin by laying out the two conceptual frameworks that now dominate private law theory: Kantian right and the feminist ethic of care. I argue that Kantian right‟s exclusive focus on respect for freedom of choice makes it unable to explain private law doctrines founded upon concern for human well-being, including unjust enrichment, unconscionability, and liability for negligence. However, feminism‟s ethic of care, which can be understood as a response to the Kantian abstraction from considerations of well-being and need, is also incomplete, because its understanding of the person as essentially connected to others fails to respect human separateness. I then offer readings of James‟ novels—The Portrait of a Lady, What Maisie Knew, and The Ambassadors—that show how vindicating individual worth requires both respect for abstract agency‟s separateness and freedom to choose, on the one hand, and concern for the dependent individual‟s well-being and autonomous flourishing, on the other. I argue that these two ideas are complementary parts of a complete understanding of human dignity and freedom. Finally, I argue that this understanding illuminates doctrines of private law that remain mysterious on the Kantian account while avoiding feminism‟s tendency to immerse private law in public law.

Keywords: private law
Henry James
law and literature
private law theory
Advisor: Morgan, Ed
Dyzenhaus, David
A Study of Classroom Teachers' Experiences in a Collaborative Learning Community: Learning to Improve Support for Students with characteristics of ADHD and their Literacy Learning

This research investigated elementary classroom teachers' experiences in a collaborative learning community (CLC) on the topic of supporting the literacy learning of students with characteristics of ADHD. Five general education classroom teachers participated in biweekly CLC meetings over a 5-month period. Qualitative methods of data gathering were employed in the form of participant observations in the classroom and during 9 CLC meetings. Participants were also interviewed three times. The first interview was conducted before the CLC meetings began, the second interview was conducted immediately after formal CLC meetings had ceased, and the final interview was conducted 6 months after meetings had ended. Three main findings emerged from the research. First, participants' literacy teaching of their students with characteristics of ADHD was positively influenced as a result of their participation in the CLC. This positive influence came through an interaction of factors related to their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs. It also resulted from a reconceptualization of both their understanding of their students with characteristics of ADHD and of themselves as literacy teachers. Second, certain aspects of the CLC contributed to this positive outcome. These aspects were the opportunity to work with colleagues, participant control over the format and content of CLC, and repeated opportunities to reflect on and refine teaching practice. Third, personal and contextual factors shaped the participants' experiences within the CLC. Participants who had challenges during their own schooling were more driven and committed to understand and respond to their students’ diverse learning needs. Participants with the most number of years of teaching experience had a more fully realized skill set, higher levels of self-efficacy, and lower levels of stress related to teaching and meeting the needs of their students with characteristics of ADHD. Implications for school literacy teaching, preservice education, in-service education, and future avenues for research are discussed in light of the findings.

Keywords: Professional Development
ADHD
Collaborative Learning Communities
Literacy
Professional Learning
Inattention
Hyperactivity
Teaching Strategies
Teaching
Elementary
Teacher Training
Advisor: Cameron, Linda
Structural Basis for Misfolding at Disease Phenotypic Positions in CFTR

Misfolding of membrane proteins as a result of mutations that disrupt their functions in substrate transport across the membrane or signal transduction is the cause of many significant human diseases. Yet, we still have a limited understanding of the direct consequences of these mutations on folding and function - a necessary step toward the rational design of corrective therapeutics. This thesis addresses the gap in understanding the residue-specific implications for folding through a series of experiments that utilize the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) as a model in various contexts. We first examined the thermodynamic implications of mutations in the soluble nucleotide binding domain 1 (NBD1) of CFTR. We found that mutations can have a significant effect on thermodynamic stability that is masked in non-physiological conditions. Our studies were then focussed on a membrane-embedded hairpin CFTR fragment comprised of transmembrane segments 3 (TM3) and 4 (TM4) to evaluate the direct effects of mutations on folding in a systematic manner. It was found that the translocon-mediated membrane insertion of helices closely parallels a basic hydrophobic-aqueous partitioning event. This study was then extended to determine residue-specific effects on helix-helix association. We found that this process is not solely dependent on hydropathy, but there is a context dependence of these results with regard to residue position within the helix. Overall, these findings constitute a key step in relating mutation-derived effects on membrane protein folding to the underlying basis of human disease such as cystic fibrosis.

Keywords: cystic fibrosis
CFTR
membrane protein
protein folding
Advisor: Deber, Charles M.
Structural Brain Abnormalities in Temporomandibular Disorders

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are a family of prevalent chronic pain disorders affecting masticatory muscles and/or the temporomandibular joint. There is no unequivocally recognized peripheral aetiology for idiopathic TMD. The central nervous system (CNS) may initiate and/or maintain the pain in idiopathic TMD due to sustained or long-term nociceptive input that induces maladaptive brain plasticity, and/or to inherent personality-related factors that may reduce the brain's capacity to modulate nociceptive activity. The main aim of this thesis is to determine whether there are structural neural abnormalities in patients with TMD, and whether these abnormalities are related to TMD pain characteristics, or to neuroticism. The specific aims are to delineate in TMD: (1) gray matter (GM) brain abnormalities and the contribution of pain and neuroticism to abnormalities; (2) the contribution of abnormal brain GM aging in focal cortical regions associated with nociceptive processes; and (3) abnormalities in brain white matter and trigeminal nerve and the contribution of pain. In groups of 17 female patients with TMD and 17 age- and sex- matched controls, magnetic resonance imaging revealed that patients with TMD had: (1) thicker cortex in the somatosensory, ventrolateral prefrontal and frontal polar cortices than controls, (2) cortical thickness in motor and cognitive areas that was negatively related to pain intensity, orbitofrontal cortical thickness that was negatively correlated to pain unpleasantness, and thalamic GM volume correlated to TMD duration, (3) an abnormal relationship between neuroticism and orbitofrontal cortical thickness, (4) abnormal GM aging in nociceptive, modulatory and motor areas, (5) widespread abnormalities in white matter tracts in the brain related to sensory, motor and cognitive functions, (6) reduced trigeminal nerve integrity related to pain duration, and (7) abnormal connectivity in cognitive and modulatory brain regions. In sum, this thesis demonstrates for the first time abnormalities in both peripheral nerve and CNS in patients with TMD.

Keywords: MRI
Pain
Temporomandibular disorder
Chronic Pain
Brain
Plasticity
Voxel-based morphometry
Cortical thickness analysis
Diffusion tensor imaging
brain
white matter
gray matter
trigeminal
age
Advisor: Davis, Karen
Probing the Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: New Insight into Unfolding and Misfolding Mechanisms of the Cu, Zn Superoxide Dismutase

While great strides have been made in treating many classes of human disease, the late-onset neurodegenerative diseases continue to elude modern medicine. These diseases, which include Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), involve accumulation of insoluble aggregates of one or more causative proteins, leading to progressive loss of central nervous system neurons, progressively worsening neurological symptoms, and eventual patient death. All of these diseases are currently incurable and fatal. In the case of ALS, progressive death of upper and lower motor neurons leads to full-body paralysis, respiratory difficulty, and patient death. Of the subset of ALS cases showing familial inheritance, approximately 20% are caused by mutations in the SOD1 gene, encoding the Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1). These mutations do not have the common property of impairing SOD1's normal function as a free radical scavenger. Instead, they are thought to increase the protein's likelihood of misfolding and aggregating via a poorly-understood aggregation cascade. It is believed that species populated along the misfolding and aggregation pathway may prove to be good targets for therapies designed to block accumulation of downstream toxic species, or to prevent aberrant protein-protein interactions responsible for neurotoxicity. In this thesis, several new techniques are developed to enable detailed elucidation of the SOD1 unfolding and misfolding pathways. Time-resolved measurements collected during SOD1 unfolding or misfolding of release of bound Cu and Zn, of changes in intrinsic fluorescence, of exposure of hydrophobic surface area, and of alterations in the chemical environment of histidine residues, are presented. A new mathematical analysis technique named the Analytical Laplace Inversion Algorithm is developed for rapid extraction of mechanistic information from these time-resolved signals. These tools are applied to the construction of the most detailed models to date of the unfolding and misfolding mechanisms of WT and ALS-causing mutant SOD1. The models presented identify several well-populated unfolding and misfolding intermediates that could serve as good targets for therapies designed to address the fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying SOD1-associated ALS, and to treat what is currently a devastating and incurable disease.

Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
protein folding
neurodegeneration
conformational disease
inverse Laplace transform
superoxide dismutase
protein misfolding
metalloproteins
kinetics
protein aggregation
Advisor: Chakrabartty, Avijit
Virus and Virus-sized Particle Transport in Variable-aperture Dolomite Rock Fractures

In this thesis a study of the factors affecting virus and virus-sized particle transport in discrete fractured dolomite rocks is presented. Physical and chemical characteristics of two fractured rocks were determined, including fracture aperture distribution, rock matrix porosity, mineral composition, and surface charge. Hydraulic and transport tests were conducted in the fractures with a conservative solute (bromide) and carboxylate-modified latex (CML) microspheres of three sizes (20, 200, and 500 nm in diameter). The earlier arrival of larger microspheres as compared to bromide indicated the effects of pore-size exclusion and preferential flow paths in the fractures. The tailing of the bromide and the smaller microsphere (20 nm) in the breakthrough curves (BTC) indicated the diffusive mass transfer between the mobile water (flowing) and immobile water (stagnant water in the low aperture areas and porous rock matrix). The effects of ionic strength and cation type on the transport of viruses (bacteriophages MS2 and PR772) and virus-sized microspheres (20 and 200 nm) were determined from the transport tests in a fracture at three levels of ionic strength (3, 5, and 12 mM) and composition (containing Na+ and/or Ca2+ ions). Retention of the microspheres and bacteriophages increased with increasing ionic strength. The addition of divalent ions (Ca2+) influenced the retention to a greater extent than monovalent ions (Na+). The effects of the aperture distribution variability, matrix diffusion, and specific discharge on the solute and microsphere transport were determined from the transport tests conducted in two fractures. The higher variability in the aperture distribution contributed to higher solute dispersion, and flow channeling as evident from the breakthrough curves for individual spatially distributed outlets. A three-dimensional model simulation of the bromide transport with varying matrix porosity identified that the porous matrix influenced the solute transport. In the transport tests, retention of the microspheres decreased with increasing specific discharge in both fractures. The results of this research have helped in identifying the important factors and their effects on solute, virus, and virus-sized colloid transport in fractured dolomite rocks, which can be useful in determining the risk of pathogen contamination of water supplies in fractured dolomite rock aquifers.

Keywords: Variable-aperture rock fracture
Dolomite rock
Virus transport
Colloid transport
Rock matrix diffusion
Fracture surface roughness
Advisor: Sleep, Brent E.
Resilient Women: Resisting the Pressure to Be Thin

The purpose of this study was to explore protective factors that help women resist societal pressures for thinness. The present study used a qualitative life history methodology to examine the experiences of women who identified themselves as resilient to pressures to be thin and as liking their bodies regardless of size. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 women, ages 18 to 25, representing diverse social and ethno-cultural backgrounds and body physiques. In the interviews, the participants were inquired about their experiences related to anything they felt was helpful for them in developing a positive body image from childhood, adolescence, and to present day. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes using constructivist grounded theory methodology. Data analysis was informed by the feminist theoretical approach, with attention paid to social and contextual factors. Three core categories emerged from the analysis, which included protective factors associated with participants’ experiences of identity, ways of inhabiting their bodies, and the nature of social influences in their lives. This research highlighted the women’s active role in maintaining a resilient stance in the face of pressures for thinness as well as the importance of social factors that assist them in this process.

Keywords: Eating disorders
Pressures for thinness
Qualitative
Protective factors
Advisor: Piran, Niva