VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Application of radionuclide methods in determining the importance of P-glycoprotein function in multidrug resistance

Multidrug resistance (MDR) describes a phenotype where resistance is seen not only to the selecting cytotoxic agent, but a whole class of structurally and functionally unrelated compounds. Evidence for alteration at the genetic level comes from gene transfection studies that indicate transfer of the complete MDR-phenotype as a single step process. Using gene-transfection, sublines of the human mammary carcinoma cell line (MCF-7) have been developed that express the MDR-phenotype due to P-glycoprotein without any exposure to cytotoxic selecting agents. Assuming this to be a purely P-glycoprotein expressing cell line, it was the objective of this study to: (1) Determine the importance of P-glycoprotein function towards the total MDR process by comparing the drug selected $\rm(MCF7/Adr\sp{R})$ and gene transfected (MCF-7/BC19) pair. (2) To detect modulation of MDR both in vitro (cell lines) and in vivo (Scid mice tumor xenografts). (3) To parallel radionuclide uptake studies with those of the selecting cytotoxic agent (Doxorubicin) by the flow cytometry method in order to determine the predictive value of radionuclide methods in the clinical setting. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Synthetic motion capture for interactive virtual worlds

The numerical simulation of biomechanical models enables the behavioral animation of realistic artificial animals in virtual worlds. Unfortunately, even on high-end graphics workstations, the biomechanical simulation approach is at present computationally too demanding for the animation of numerous animals at interactive frame rates. We tackle this problem by replacing biomechanical animal models with fast kinematic replicas that reproduce the locomotion abilities of the original models with reasonable fidelity. Our technique is based on capturing motion data by systematically simulating the biomechanical models. We refer to it as synthetic motion capture, because of the similarity to natural motion capture applied to real animals. We compile the captured motion data into kinematic action repertoires that are sufficiently rich to support elaborate behavioral animation. Synthetic motion capture in conjunction with level-of-detail geometric modeling and object culling during rendering has enabled us to transform a system designed for the realistic, off-line biomechanical/behavioral animation of artificial fishes, into an interactive, stereoscopic, virtual undersea experience.
Maternal working model of the child and emotional availability in a sample of aggressive preschoolers

In this study, the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) (Zeanah, Benoit, & Barton, 1993) along with the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS) (Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1989/93) were used to investigate the association between maternal representation of the child and mother-child interaction. The purpose of the study was to examine this association rather than to validate the two instruments. A pretreatment sample of 40 aggressive preschoolers between the ages of 3 and 6 and their mothers was randomly chosen from a larger sample who were recruited for the purpose of joining a parenting group designed to help parents of aggressive and/or noncompliant preschoolers. As predicted, there were fewer mothers with balanced and more with nonbalanced classifications on the WMCI in this sample of aggressive preschoolers (10% and 90%) than in previously published nonclinical samples with comparable demographic characteristics (38% and 62%, Benoit, Zeanah, Parker, Nicholson, & Coolbear, 1997). The results supported the hypothesis that sensitivity, as measured by the WMCI would be positively correlated with the Maternal Sensitivity scale of the EAS. In contrast to the study's hypotheses, scores on the five EAS scales did not distinguish the balanced group from the distorted and disengaged groups on the WMCI. An exception was the finding that mothers with balanced representations scored higher on the Maternal Sensitivity scale than the disengaged group. The Child Responsiveness scale of the EAS was correlated with Maternal Sensitivity on the EAS, as predicted, but not with the sensitivity scale of the WMCI. In the discussion, suggestions for future research were made, and the clinical implications of the findings were outlined.
Von Müttern und von Dirnen, ursprünge und literarische inszenierungsformen eines dualistischen weiblichkeitskonzeptes von der jahrhundertwende bis 1938

Around the turn of the century, the debate on femininity unfolds as a central structuring feature of the intellectual debates of the time. Of course, this phenomenon does not occur for the first time at the end of the nineteenth century, but the experience of modernized society added a new sharpness to it. Attempts to theorize the feminine brought its subject from the domain of myth into that of abstract terminology. However, on the other hand the feminine was still assigned the role of a counter model and respite that nature could no longer fulfill at a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Images from both modes of presentation are going to be examined in this study. They are viewed as stereotypes which could be brought back and perpetuated through the literary text as containing cultural constructions without being dependent on an actual presence in a given society; stereotypes which set into play an irreducible ambivalence towards the feminine. Gender functions as interpretative category which shaped the contents of scientific knowledge and philosophical assumptions underlying the contemporaneous interpretations of nature as well as cultural and social experience. The primary texts examined in this study are viewed as exemplary in their appropriation of specific elements from a broader context of cultural philosophy concerned with the experience of modernity. The relationships between modernity and the feminine are shown to be diverse and multifaceted and the figure of woman pervades modern culture as a powerful symbol of both danger and promise. In order to outline the set of premises more clearly, the study includes a close reading of Otto Weininger's work 'Geschlecht und Charakter' (1903). Weininger's wide-ranging impact on many of the most important writers of his time has been well established by the research of the past decade. Weininger sees the central problem of all ethics in the relationship between the sexes. He endeavours to locate the feminine in a space which combines the categories of the mother and the harlot as corporeal, morally deficient forms of existence. His attempt ends with a figurative negation of the sexual in order to restore the possibility of deliberative moral actions of an autonomous subject. Embracing the influence of Weininger's work this study sets out to uncover numerous 'Weiningerian' subtexts. Furthermore, it introduces subcategories to the literary equivalents of Weininger's categories in order to make it easier to systematize these literary equivalents. Rather than stating a recurrence of identical phenomena, this study is concerned with the repetition of certain images within changing contexts of intellectual history.
The use of oxygen to decrease electrical energy usage in the electric arc furnace

The increased intensity of the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steelmaking process has resulted in corresponding increases in energy losses. The reduction of chemical energy losses, by the injection of targeted oxygen, has the potential to become an enormous advantage in today's highly competitive steel industry. A variety of methods have been used for the addition of this supplemental oxygen, including auxiliary lances, oxygen injectors and existing side wall burners. In this study the ratio of natural gas to oxygen, flowing through the existing side wall burners, was modified in order to increase the amount of free oxygen flow to the EAF at Co-Steel Lasco. Decreases of 4.0% with respect to Specific Electrical Energy Consumption, 42.7% with respect to Specific Natural Gas Consumption, 5.0% with respect to Power on Time, and 4.5% with respect to Tap to Tap Time were observed.
Socio-economic status and the utilisation of physicians' services, results from the national population health survey

Objectives. To assess the extent to which Canada's universal health care system eliminates socio-economic barriers in the use of physician services. This is done by examining the role of socio-economic status in the differential use of publicly-insured, primary and specialist health care services. Methods. Data from the 1994 National Population Health Survey, a nationally representative survey, was analysed using multiple logistic regression. In order to control for correlation between GP utilisation and specialist utilisation, a two-staged least squares method was used for models explaining specialist utilisation. Results. The factors found to be most consistently associated with increased physician utilisation, for both primary and specialist care, were the indicators of health need. Whereas the likelihood of an individual making at least one visit to a primary care physician was found to be independent of income, those with lower incomes were more likely to become frequent users of primary care, that is, make at least six visits to a primary care physician. After adjusting for the greater utilisation of primary care services by those in lower socio-economic groups, the utilisation of specialist services was greater among those in higher socio-economic groups. Canadians lacking a regular medical doctor were less likely to receive primary and specialist care, even after adjustments for socio-economic variables such as income and education. Conclusions. Although financial barriers may not directly impede access to health care services in Canada, differentials in the use of physician services with respect to socio-economic status persist. Despite universal health care, after adjusting for differences in health need, Canadians with lower incomes and fewer years of schooling visit specialists at a lower rate than those with moderate or high incomes and higher levels of education attained.
Contextualizing Anne Sexton, confessional process and feminist practice in the Complete Poems

This dissertation examines each of the volumes in Anne Sexton's ' Complete Poems'. I attempt to identify Sexton's work with Confession and autobiography as a sustained feminist project. The Confessional voice, I maintain, offered Sexton a way of inscribing her subjectivity, as a woman, within her work. I locate each of Sexton's collections within a wide range of social, critical, popular/literary, and political contexts. Methodologically, this dissertation proceeds and departs from the extant Sexton scholarship; it offers a thorough contextual examination of the 'Complete Poems ' and suggests, in relation to the poems, a great many literary influences and analogues. I locate the Confessional Group (in Chapter One), drawing from the existing criticism, and both confirm and trouble the notion of a knowable Confessional school; central to this discussion is my assertion that the ambitions of the male and female Confessional poets both intersect and differ (a concept which is rarely, if ever, addressed in critical readings of Confession). Chapters Two and Three examine Sexton's work (in 'To Bedlam and Part Way Back ', 'All My Pretty Ones', and 'Live or Die') with Confessional themes--suicide, mental illness and despair--themes which are strategically gendered in her poems. Chapters Four, Five, and Six trace Sexton's movement, in her writing, away from Confessional poetry, a movement which enabled her to expand her thematic range, compound her personal voice, and abandon the traditional Confessional themes. The female body/erotic bliss, fairy tales, and biblical themes are investigated, respectively, in my examination of 'Love Poems, Transformations, The Book of Folly, The Death Notebooks' and 'The Awful Rowing Poems, Transformations, The Book of Folly, The Death Notebooks' and ' The Awful Rowing Toward God'. Sexton's work in these, and all of her collections, is highly gynocentric, providing critical discourse on female representation and experience. In the Conclusion, I raise questions about the editing of Sexton's posthumous collections (collections she had not completed at the time of her death in 1974), and suggest that a discussion of this poetry would be more appropriate to a biographical study than a critical study, given the incomplete, harrowing nature of these poems.
Chemoprotective properties of naturally occurring methylenedioxybenzenes and catecholic metabolites

Naturally occurring methylenedioxybenzenes (MDBs) are found in a wide variety of human food, essential oils and flavors. MDBs have been widely accepted as cytochrome P450 inhibitors. The chemoprotective effects of this group of dietary compounds are, however, still unknown. In the present work, the dietary MDBs, in particular isosafrole, have been found to: (1) prevent CCl4 -induced liver necrosis 'in vivo' and BrCCl3-induced hepatocyte injury 'in vitro'; (2) protect against carcinogens N-dimethylnitrosamine and chloroform hepatotoxicity 'in vivo'; (3) prevent phenetidine (a deleterious metabolite of phenacetin)-induced methemoglobinemia in mice. Isosafrole was highly protective even at dosages as low as 10 mg/kg, and was found to be a potent inhibitor of P450 isozymes CYP2E1, CYP2B1/2 and CYP1A2 that are involved in the bioactivation of the toxicants both ' in vivo' and 'in vitro'. The protective effects of MDBs were therefore predominantly attributed to the formation of inhibitory MDB metabolic intermediate-ferrocytochrome P450 complexes, which resulted in inactivation of P450 isozymes and thus prevented the metabolic activation of the xenobiotics. It was also discovered for the first time that these MDBs and their catecholic metabolites markedly inhibited reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated ferric nitrilotriacetate-induced renal necrosis in mice as well as lipid peroxidation with rat hepatocytes and liver microsomes. The antioxidative effect of isosafrole was however decreased if the hepatocytes were pre-incubated with other P450 inhibitors. This suggested that MDBs are potential antioxidants that could prevent ROS-mediated cytotoxicity mainly through their catecholic metabolites, which are direct antioxidants, and metal chelators. Catechol and its derivatives were also found to form stable catecholic ferric complexes at physiological pH, which possess greater superoxide dismutase mimic activity than uncomplexed catechols. These catecholic iron complexes were also much more effective than uncomplexed catechols at protecting hepatocytes against hypoxic cell injury. The chemoprotective properties of this group of compounds suggested that MDBs, particularly the non-genotoxic isosafrole, could protect against ' in vivo' chemical carcinogenesis catalyzed by cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenases as well as ROS-mediated oxidative injury catalyzed by the presence of iron.
Ethnicity and public policy, the Chinese in Metropolitan Toronto

This thesis examines the political responsiveness of local governments towards ethnic demands through a study of the rapidly expanding Chinese Canadian community in Metropolitan Toronto. The main research objective is to identify those structures or political arenas that facilitate political responsiveness for ethnic group demands. Starting from an institutional analysis perspective, this thesis constructs an "issue arena" framework for examining the effectiveness of demands made by ethnic Chinese in the City of Toronto and the City of Scarborough. The four elements examined in the "issue arena" framework are ethnic cohesiveness, political opposition, political support, and institutional channels. A total of four case studies are chosen to form the empirical data for this thesis. One pair of cases is selected from Toronto and another pair of cases is selected from Scarborough. Two cases focus on a critical ethnic township issue: zoning for parking. Two other cases are centered on the element of cultural heritage--the development of an heritage language program in the public school system. Hence, the four case studies are heritage language program in Toronto, heritage language program in Scarborough, parking in Toronto's Chinatown, and parking in Scarborough's Chinatown. To provide context for these four cases, the thesis analyzes, in historical perspective, the development of the Chinese Canadian community in Metropolitan Toronto. A major finding is that contrary to popular beliefs, the Chinese Canadian community in Metropolitan Toronto despite its increase in population lacks electoral strength. This relative electoral impotence becomes an important conditioning element in our study of political responsiveness. The results of this research suggests that the likelihood of a positive political response to group demands occurs when the "issue arena" has the following characteristics: (a) a high level of ethnic group cohesiveness, (b) significant insiders' political support. The thesis also found that the degree of political responsiveness is further enhanced when inside supporters include technocrats who are specialized in the issue concerned. Finally, the research suggests that an important factor facilitating responsiveness is the extent to which the "issue arena" is secluded from or opened to public confrontation.
Influences, reactions, and outcomes: A study of physical and health education as an educational subculture

Secondary school physical and health education contributes to a multifaceted philosophy and style of education by providing recognized sources of learning, physical activity, and athletic competition for students. However, the magnitude and importance of the program seems elevated when compared to the low curricular weighting conferred on it by the Ministry of Education and Training. Still, physical education teachers demonstrate occupational stability, maintaining conviction in their program goals and outcomes, while steadfastly holding on to their educational and occupational structures, values, and norms. This study examines the role of cultural strength which often overrides or negates external influences and reinforces current and internally accepted methods of behaviour and decision-making. Organizational culture, as a conceptual and analytical tool, guides the investigation and sets the stage for three areas of investigation. First, the means by which organizations perpetuate coercive mechanisms (internal integration) that direct members' acceptance of values, norms, and behaviour is highly relevant. Identification as to why and how group members deal with external adaptation as they perform their duties is also essential. Finally, and in keeping with the concept of organizational culture, such research seeks ways of assessing and improving organizational productivity. Three research questions examined critical factors. First, dominant external influences, which either motivate or regulate site school physical educators, are exposed through interviews with relevant personnel within a single board. Secondly, reactions, in the form of professional and planning responses, of two secondary school physical education departments are examined. Finally, program outcomes are determined and evaluated. Although site school physical educators demonstrate differentiation from other school and educational cultures, they are also integrated with these other program cultures. Related loyalties, brought on by pervasive and powerful enculteration mechanisms, suggest that physical educators have stable and consistent attitudes, values, and norms that cause them to reinforce established programs. Consequently, many external influences are either negated or ignored. While methodical change is noted, program stability is a priority. Influences which strongly effect physical educators' behaviour and program selection are: their culture's values and norms, the values and norms of other closely aligned school and board cultures, Ministry policies which support academic credibility, perceived student needs, and student participation rates. Findings are relevant to faculties of education, educational administrators and to physical and health educators who wish to effect change within schools.
A strategic information system for hospital management

Although hospital management teams receive voluminous data from a wide variety of sources, they are unable to distill this data into the essential information they require to make strategic decisions. The objective of this work has been to: (1) investigate a methodology, based on the Balanced Scorecard, which helps managers define and use important management information; (2) develop an information system that makes this information accessible and which provides a context for integrated decision making; (3) investigate the impacts of the prototype system on the healthcare organization. In this work, we hypothesize that the Balanced Scorecard methodology provides an effective tool for healthcare business units both to formulate their strategic information needs and to manage strategy implementation. Over a period of four years, we have defined and implemented management systems in five business units in a large academic health science centre. The methodology incorporates a multistep prototyping method for developing and implementing a decision support information system based on the Balanced Scorecard framework. We evaluated the system by triangulating the results of user surveys with themes from a focus group and with illustrative evidence. Results of our evaluation indicate that the Balanced Scorecard provides an effective tool for healthcare managers to formulate their strategic information needs and is one tool in the manager's arsenal which helps with strategy implementation. The project has demonstrated the value of focusing on a limited number of important indicators. Managers have been satisfied with the information system ease of use and data formats, but want more timely information. The Balanced Scorecard has enhanced organizational learning by promoting systems thinking within the management groups, accountability for specific indicators and focused further data analysis as performance trends suggested deeper lines of inquiry. As a result of this work, senior executives have decided to transform the research Balanced Scorecards into production systems for the organization. We conclude that our strategic hospital management system has significant direct benefit. It also has pervasive indirect positive value by catalyzing the development of organizational capabilities for linking strategy formulation, strategy implementation, process improvement and performance feedback.
Development and evaluation of yttrium modified aluminide diffusion coatings

Yttrium modified diffusion aluminide coatings were developed on IN738 and Rene80 Ni-base superalloys using Ivadizing$\rm\sp{TM}$, a physical vapour deposition method, followed by a diffusion heat treatment. Yttrium concentrations between 0 and 3.0 wt.%, and diffusion heat treatments above and below 1000 $\sp\circ$C were investigated by cyclic oxidation, at 1100 $\sp\circ$C, and hot corrosion/sulphidation, at 900 $\sp\circ$C, testing. The yttrium modified coatings displayed improved cyclic oxidation and hot corrosion/sulphidation resistance when compared to yttrium-free aluminide coatings. Three different reactive element effect mechanisms were found to be active during cyclic oxidation. These mechanisms were responsible for the improved cyclic oxidation resistance displayed by the yttrium modified aluminide diffusion coatings. Yttrium was found to improve protective oxide scale adherence by modifying the oxide scale growth, by promoting mechanical keying at the oxide/coating interface, and by the chemical bonding of impurities. Hot corrosion/sulphidation resistance was found to be enhanced by yttrium modifying the oxide scale growth, improving protective oxide scale adherence. The mechanical keying and chemical bonding mechanisms were not found to be active during hot corrosion/sulphidation.