VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Expression and regulation of rhombotin-2 (RBTN/LMO-2) in normal hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis

Recurrent chromosome translocations are frequently found in hematologic malignancies. In T-cell leukemias rearrangements involving the T-cell antigen receptor on chromosome 14 or 7 and partners on chromosomes 1, 10 and 11 have been found. In this thesis I characterize a translocation involving 14q11 and 11p13, in a leukemic cell line. The translocation was found to be in the region of RBTN2, however the breakpoint was far upstream of the previously identified break point cluster region. In addition the mechanism of recombination appears to be different from that usually observed in malignancy of the immune system. The cell line KOPT-K1 will be useful in our understanding of how RBTN2 and co-operating genes contribute to T-ALL. Subsequently I characterized the expression of RBTN2 in normal and malignant cells of the hematopoietic system. I found that RBTN2 is expressed in acute myeloblastic leukemia and normal bone marrow. However, within the normal bone marrow the expression of RBTN2 is restricted to progenitor cells and mature and maturing erythrocytes and megakaryocytes. This finding suggests that RBNT2 plays a role in self renewal and differentiation. Finally, I investigated the transcriptional regulation of RBTN2. I found that in normal and leukemic cells, RBTN2 is expressed predominantly from the proximal, P2, promoter. I then went on to determine whether this region was important in regulating tissue specific expression of RBTN2. I found that a genomic fragment of 1.3 kb upstream of P2 resulted in expression in a non-specific manner. However, I was also able to identify in this region sequences that did confer a degree of lineage specific expression. The reagents that I have created, and the finding that RBTN2 is involved in regulating early events in hematopoiesis lays the groundwork for further studies of this gene and possibly identifying RBTN2 or interacting proteins as a target for disease specific therapy in the acute leukemias.
Work recovery in schizophrenia

The goal of this study was to advance the development of theory related to the process of work recovery for individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. The methodology was the explanatory, multi-case study. Purposive, criterion based selection procedures were used to recruit two adults diagnosed with schizophrenia who were employed in the community based labour force and one who had been unemployed for several years. The primary mode of data collection was the qualitative interview, focusing on the individual's experience of work recovery. Interviews with significant others and document analysis supplemented data and enhanced methodological triangulation. Strauss' (1987) elements of qualitative data analysis guided the analysis process. Work recovery was conceptualized as an evolutionary transaction between the individual and the environment. Actual participation in work activities provided the ongoing feedback necessary to realize the individual's potential. The work patterns reflected a non-linear career trajectory with subtle but progressive accomplishments in the work realm. Individual characteristics associated with work recovery included: a strong work ethic; a flexible attitude towards work; the view that work experiences represented growth and learnirig; the belief that work participation was expected and supported by significant people, and; freedom from financial disincentives of government disability benefits. Social networks that developed real work opportunities for the individual were particularly instrumental in the recovery process. Work participation in the presence of persistent psychiatric symptoms was the norm. Psychotic features interfered with meeting the demands of work. Medications were the primary means of managing these symptoms, but active coping strategies compensated for learning problems, neutralized unpleasant affective responses and promoted social problem solving. The early management of psychosis was vital to maintain involvement in community based work. A critical task of recovery was the individual's integration of the disorder and the self to create a functional identity in the work realm. A potential threat to the personal meanings associated with work, integration appeared to be the source of considerable stress. There was evidence that negotiating work demands in the presence of psychiatric symptoms prior to formal diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia prepared individuals for the struggles of working with schizophrenia.
From wretched employment to honourable profession, the changing image of teachers in nineteenth-century Ontario

At the turn of the nineteenth century, schooling in Upper Canada was, for the most part, haphazard and unsupervised. Yet, in less than a century, the province could boast of a free, universal and compulsory system of state-run education which ranked among the best in the world. This transformation was due in large part to the ability of Egerton Ryerson, Chief Superintendent of Schools for Upper Canada during much of the period, to after public perceptions of teaching. Ryerson's hope for a professional corps of teachers enjoyed considerable success. However, changing social and economic conditions, combined with the practical experience of teachers, altered the trajectory of Ryerson's initial vision. Through the reminiscences of superannuated teachers writing at century's end, this paper shows that teachers' view of themselves did not necessarily parallel the one constructed by Ryerson, or any other bureaucrat.

Keywords: Teaching
History
Teachers
History
Teachers
Public opinion
History
Enseignement
Histoire
Enseignants
Histoire
Enseignants
Opinion publique
Histoire
Location and menstruation

This study examined the impact of location on menstruation. One hundred and fifty-eight women were surveyed, 50 were interviewed and 5 participated in a focus group in order to determine whether or not attitudes and the physical experience of menstruation are affected by the area in which a woman grew up. Quantitative data were analyzed using percentages and chi squared and T tests. Qualitative data were evaluated comparatively with literature on menstruation. Findings indicated that there are few locational differences with regard to women's attitudes and experiences of their periods. This was a result of the participants' unique biological patterns which prevented distinct locational trends from being revealed. However, climate was found to affect volunteers' cycles. Variation in menstrual attitude was also found in terms of age at menarche; women who were under 13 years old at menarche generally felt worse about their periods at menstrual onset.
The long-term impacts of clear-cut logging on insect communities in the boreal mixedwood forests of northeastern Ontario

Large-scale clear-cut logging in the boreal forest may contribute to the loss of insect biodiversity through reductions in the amount of older, undisturbed forest and through stand-level decreases in structural heterogeneity. To investigate the long-term effects of clear-cutting on insect communities, hymenopteran and dipteran communities were surveyed with Malaise traps during the summer of 1998 in 12 mature (30-50 year old) post-logged and 12 unlogged boreal mixedwood stands in northeastern Ontario. Unlogged stands yielded a significantly higher abundance of Dolichopodidae (long-legged Ries), several Syrphidae (hoverflies) species, and the Syrphidae larval wood-inhabiting guild. These differences were predominantly due to the older ages of the unlogged stands which supported different habitat features, though some evidence of a logging effect per se was found. These results demonstrate the need for maintaining features characteristic of older forests in post-logged stands, and suggest a potential loss of insect species characteristic of older forests, particularly species dependent on downed woody debris, in the face of continued clear-cut logging activities.
WebCat - Information integration for Web catalogs

An important part of the World Wide Web (Web) is organized as collections of HTML pages, interrelated by hyperlinks, and arranged in some kind of hierarchy. The problem that we address is that of automating the process of searching through several collections of HTML pages, in which pages are interrelated by hyperlinks and the collections have a common domain. In order to automate the search we integrate these collections. We are interested in only those collections for which the common domain can be organized according to some kind of hierarchy. In this thesis, we define such collections as being Web catalogs and we present WebCat, a paradigm to integrate such Web catalogs. In addition, we present an implementation for this paradigm for the domain of clothing catalogs. The WebCat methodology can be divided into two distinct methods: first, a method for wrapper building for Web catalogs, and second, a method of integrating this information. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Socioeconomic determinants of prescription drug use by the elderly in British Columbia

This dissertation examines the socioeconomic determinants of prescription drug use by the elderly in British Columbia between 1989 and 1995. The objectives of this research are to describe drug utilization by the elderly in British Columbia as it varies by socioeconomic status, and to determine whether there exists a socioeconomic gradient in rates of drug use after controlling for demographic factors and other health care utilization. These relationships are explored in detailed for gastrointestinal, central nervous system and cardiovascular medications. Data sources include the British Columbia Linked Health Database and Canadian Census data. All individuals 65 years of age and over who subscribed to Plan A of Pharmacare, the provincial drug plan, are included in this analysis. Socioeconomic status is measured in terms of income quintiles, an area-based measure of average household income. Bivariate descriptive analytic techniques and multiple regression analysis were employed. The results of this study confirm the presence of an inverse, monotonic relationship between income and patterns of prescription drug use. Per capita utilization of gastrointestinal, central nervous system and cardiovascular drugs increases as income decreases. An examination of utilization rates per user, which consider only those individuals receiving at least one drug in each therapeutic drug group, reveals similar gradients, with the exception of cardiovascular drugs. Although the quantity of drugs dispensed and number prescriptions for cardiovascular drugs increase monotonically as income decreases, income level has no effect on drug costs. There is some evidence that the type of cardiovascular medications prescribed varies by income level. Multiple regression analysis demonstrates that despite the significant effect of physician, hospital and home care use on the amount of prescription drugs dispensed, income still emerges as a significant predictor of drug utilization. These results point to the existence of systematic differences in the utilization of prescription drugs. The extent to which these are due to socially determined differences in treatment, or to differences in the health status, is not known. Further research in this area would refine our knowledge of the relationships between drug utilization, socioeconomic status and need.
The Canadian Acute Respiratory Illness and Flu Scale (CARIFS), the design and assessment of a paediatric disease severity measure

'Aim'. To develop and assess the Canadian Acute Respiratory Illness Flu Scale (CARIFS), a measure of the severity of influenza, and other acute respiratory infections (ARI), in children. 'Method'. A parental questionnaire was developed by a process of item generation, item reduction and scale construction. The validity of the scale was evaluated in a multicentre study of 206 children with ARI. Construct validity was assessed by comparing the CARIFS score with physicians' and nurses' ratings, parent's assessment of their child's health on a visual analogue scale, and the child's temperature. Responsiveness was assessed by comparing change in CARIFS with change in these construct measures, during clinical recovery. 'Results'. The final scale consisted of 18 items covering dime domains of illness problems; symptoms (e.g. cough), function (e.g. play) and parental impact (e.g. clinginess). The CARIFS correlated with other measures of the construct and demonstrated responsiveness to clinical change. 'Conclusion'. The CARIFS is a valid and responsive measure of paediatric ARI severity.
Examining regional hospital governance, exploring board structure and roles and their relationship to the community

This study examines hospital board governance in a regional context. Specifically, this research focuses on the structure (i.e., selection, composition, representation and accountability) and the role of governance as well as the conceptualization of community and community participation at the board level. The importance of community participation in health care has been a central theme in numerous Canadian provincial government documents in the last decade. One of the implicit assumptions of these reports is that increased community participation in governance will improve the delivery of health care and provide services that are more responsive to local needs. In practice, however, the importance of community participation as a governance role is unclear. Does it mean governance must reflect the diversity of the community, in terms of geography, social characteristics, expertise or interests? What is the meaning of community and community participation from the perspective of respondents? Further, to what extent is community participation occurring at a board level? To explore these questions this study describes one regional hospital board in New Brunswick identified as "Grande-Ville". The study draws upon three theoretical perspectives: neo-structural functionalism, neo-pluralism, and neo-social conflict as a broad baseline to identify significant issues and compare the implications of each approach. In undertaking this research different sources are used including documents, interviews with key informants, and observations of meetings. Based on this exploration, experience the study found a predominance of community leaders on the regional Board with the majority appointed by elected municipal officials. While Board members considered themselves as community stewards and advocates representing the broader community, most did not see themselves as having to be directly accountable to either the community or the government. Nevertheless, those appointed by municipal leaders typically expressed allegiance to their local community and believed they had a responsibility toward them. With respect to community participation activities, respondents provided an array of activities in which the board was involved including open board meetings, meetings with community leaders, health professionals and other public officials. By and large these activities were designed to inform or consult rather than involve the community in decision-making.
Between colliding worlds, the inherent ambiguity of special policy agencies for Aboriginal and women's issues in Canada and Australia

This dissertation explores the inherent contradictions surrounding institutional linkages between governments and social movements, by focussing on Canadian and Australian government units for women's and aboriginal policy, such as the Ontario Women's Directorate and the Western Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs. These units are referred to as "special policy agencies." I argue that these agencies interact with two distinct external environments or "worlds"--the world of public administration and the permanent bureaucracy, and the world of social movements and activists--and that the values, characteristics and expectations of these two worlds differ sharply from one another. These differences create contradictory pressures on special policy agencies, leading to inherently ambiguous identities. This ambiguity creates conflicts and misunderstandings, but also allows agencies to play boundary-spanning roles between the two worlds, linking tightly-organized public administration with fluid movements, to a greater degree than other state structures. The dissertation examines these boundary-spanning roles through several case studies of agencies. In turn, the case studies are organized around three variables affecting agencies' roles--political change, relations with other public servants, and the "new public management." I argue that special policy agencies are not just one of many interchangeable battlegrounds between social movements and the state, nor simply attempts by governing authorities to neutralize or dominate social movements. Instead, special policy agencies are best understood as shifting and ever-changing terrains of struggle, which provide valuable ground for studying the complex and evolving relationships between social movements and public administrators.
Adenosine Promotes the Survival of Adult and Aged Pyramidal Neurons in Cultured Hippocampal Slices

Typically, pyramidal neurons in hippocampal slices from adult and aged rats die within the first 1-2 days 'in vitro'. We hypothesized that this cell death was due to the mechanical trauma and ischemia associated with the initial stages of culture, and that treatments leading to reduction of Ca++ influx would be neuroprotective. Adult hippocampal slices were prepared in HBSS and cultured on millipore membranes in culture media. Neuronal death was assessed using Propidium Iodide (PI). Mg++ (10mM) and low Ca++ (0 extracellular, no EGTA) significant reduced neuronal cell death for 1 week 'in vitro '. By the second week, however, neuronal cell death reached its maximum level. Adenosine (80-400uM) enhanced pyramidal neuronal survival for up to a month. The neuroprotective effects of adenosine were mimicked by 2-chloroadensoine and were blocked by theophylline (80uM). Adenosine also decreased the number of microglia present in the cultures. Taken together, these experiments show that the initial events are major determinants of the long-term survival of the adult and aged pyramidal neurons 'in vitro'; they also identify adenosine as a neuroprotective agent important for their survival in culture.
University education and the struggle for a freer future, impasses and passageways in contemporary discourses of Lesbian Studies and the Liberal Arts

Lesbian Studies is a project dedicated to disrupting normative systems of sex, gender, and sexuality, particularly as these systems affect lesbians as the people situated at their nexus, and particularly as these systems are produced by the heteronormative curriculum of the Liberal Arts. Written from a Foucauldian theoretical framework, the thesis proceeds from an understanding of discourses as systems of language, other signs, and related social practices through which power circulates, producing subjectivities governed by their regimes of truth. In my work, I analyze the interaction of the discourse of Lesbian Studies with one of the most prominent discourses in contemporary universities, the traditionalist discourse of the Liberal Arts. The central questions of this study are 'How viable is Lesbian Studies in the Liberal Arts? Under what conditions can it emerge into the curriculum? Is it possible to do transformative work under those conditions?' The study proceeds through a series of analyses to chart the details for a blueprint of the discursive terrain in which Lesbian Studies interacts with the Liberal Arts, with the aim of identifying the key elements and operations of both discourses and the impasses and passageways between them. To do this I analyze two sets of texts: one set produced in the recent excitation to speech provoked by a sense of crisis in the Liberal Arts, the other set provoked by a sense of unprecedented and precarious opportunity to develop Lesbian Studies. I then apply the blueprint to my own experience of doing Lesbian Studies in the Liberal Arts as a course developer, course instructor, and researcher, ending by arguing for the importance of both preserving 'and' queering Lesbian Studies so as to exceed the pedagogical limits of identity-based and liberal discourses.
E-mail and learning to write in French, the influence of e-mail on the attitudes and writing development of Grade 2/3 early French immersion students

This action-research study analyses the influence of French telecommunications activities on the attitudes and writing development of Grade 2/3 early French immersion students. Nine Grade 2 students and nine Grade 3 students taught by the teacher-researcher participated as the experimental group for the study. These students pursued authentic e-mail exchanges with various francophone audiences, over a period of 17 weeks. Fourteen Grade 2 and 18 Grade 3 students from two different classes in the same program also participated, as control groups for the project. All the students completed a letter-writing assignment at the beginning and at the end of the research. Pre- and post-study attitude questionnaires were also administered to all participants to determine changes in their attitudes towards writing. This study provides evidence that e-mail activities (telecommunication) integrated in a process writing context, where collaboration is valued, can positively impact on the attitude as well as on the writing skills development of Grade 2/3 French immersion students.
Search for leptin or a leptin-like molecule in the serum and the fat-storing tissues of sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus

The objective of this research was to search for a leptin or a leptin-like protein, which may play a role in lipid metabolism during the life cycle of ' P. marinus'. Probing Western blots of 'P. marinus' sera from different intervals of lamprey life cycle with mammalian leptin antibodies detected a 65 kD protein present in higher concentrations in the larvae (growth and metamorphic stages) compared to the upstream migrants. The absence of this protein from the sera of 'Lampetra appendix' (larvae and adults) suggests that this protein is species specific. A 16-17 kD protein was detected in the nephric fold of transformers stage 2 and 4 and 100 kD protein in the fat column and muscle and 50 kD protein in the nephric fold, fat column and muscle of all intervals tested. Mammalian leptin antibodies also detected a 116 kD protein in eel serum. The identity of these immunoreactive proteins is not known but competition studies show that they most likely share antigenic determinant(s) with leptin protein.
Effect of inorganic pigments on polymer interdiffusion in low-Tg latex films

This thesis examines the influence of inorganic pigments on latex film formation. We carried out fluorescence resonance energy transfer measurements on latex films for following the extent of inter-particle polymer diffusion. We found that large calcium carbonate particles (300 nm x 1,000 nm) had little effect on the polymer diffusion rate for films containing up to 80 wt % filler, whereas 25 nm silica particles had a significant influence in poly(methyl methacrylate-'co'-2-ethylhexyl acrylate) latex films. We also examined the influence of silica particle size on this rate in poly(butyl methacrylate) latex films. We found that the 12 and 25 nm SiO2 particles significantly affect the extent of mixing with increasing amounts of filler. The rate decreases as the filler size decreases. We propose that there is a low mobility polymer layer near the filler surface than the bulk polymer, and that the small silica particles can also act as obstacles.