VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The effects of flaxseed and its components on reproductive indices and cancer risk in rats

Flaxseed is a rich source Ã-linolenic add (ALA) and secoisolariciresinol diglycoside (SDG). The objective of this study was to determine whether feeding various doses of flaxseed or its SDG or ALA components to rats during different developmental stages influences reproduction and cancer risk. Pregnant rats were fed basal diet (BD), BD supplemented with either 10% flaxseed, 5% flaxseed or its equivalent amount of flaxseed oil (1.82%) or SDG (1.5 mg/d). At weaning, the offspring were fed diets resulting in no dietary flaxseed treatment, dietary flaxseed fed only during gestation and lactation, after weaning or from gestation until adulthood. Flaxseed had no effect on the dam's pregnancy or lactation but altered offspring reproductive indices. Gestation and lactation or gestation until postnatal day (PND) 132 feeding altered reproductive indices whereas feeding after weaning had no effect. Reproductive changes differed depending on dose. The 10% flaxseed estrogenized the female offspring as indicated by lower birth weight, shortened anogenital distance, greater immature uterine weight, earlier age and lighter body weight at puberty, and, at a later age, greater ovarian weight, lengthened estrous cycles and persistent estrus. The male offspring had lower birth weight, reduced postnatal weight gain and, at PND 132, greater relative accessory sex gland and prostate weights suggesting estrogenic effects. In contrast, 5% flaxseed reduced immature ovarian weight, delayed puberty and lengthened diestrus indicating an antiestrogenic effect. The SDG produced similar effects to those of the 5% flaxseed suggesting that lignans were responsible for the observed effects. Lignans were transferred to the offspring via rat milk as indicated by the recovery of radioactivity in the offspring of lactating dams given 3H-SDG. In the mammary gland, both flaxseed doses reduced the terminal end bud structures suggesting cancer protective effects. In the prostate, flaxseed and SDG produced effects that may be cancer protective at moderate dose (5%), but not at the high dose (10%). In conclusion, feeding 10% flaxseed produced permanent reproductive changes and potentially increased prostate disease risk. On the other hand, the lower 5% flaxseed dose resulted in few reproductive effects and produced potential protective effects against mammary and prostate cancer risk.
A rhetoric of digression, the discursive critique of ratiocentrism in the major novels of middle Bellow, 1953-1975

One of the most striking formal attributes of Saul Bellow's fiction is its digressivity, and the tendency of Bellovian narrative to wander and return is particularly pronounced in the long fiction of the author's middle period (1953-1975). From 'The Adventures of Augie March' (1953) to 'Humboldt's Gift' (1975), by way of 'Henderson the Rain King' (1959), 'Herzog' (1964), and 'Mr. Sammler's Planet' (1970), Bellow's novelistic fiction manifests an incremental shift of emphasis from plot to theme and from action to reflection. Both the articulation of theme and the representation of reflection--increasingly the former by means of the latter--are accommodated by the creative variety of digressive means Bellow employs to effect suspensions of the narrative of event. At least four major patterns of digression can be discerned in middle Bellow: dialogic, narratorial, epistolary, and meditative. By means of dialogues that are monologic in 'Augie' and univocal in 'Sammler ', narration that is eccentric and discursive in 'Henderson ', epistolary techniques that are peculiar to 'Herzog', and detailed representations of meditative withdrawals that are unique to ' Humboldt', Bellow voices his fundamental protest against the modern world: secularism and science, by subordinating other human faculties to reason, have given humankind an impoverished conception of itself and its abilities. Refusing to be bound by secular dogmas or the scientific world view, Bellow employs a rhetoric of digression to provide a space within his fiction where his counterposition emerges in a counternarrative of affirmation, the principal tenets of which are the existence of the soul, the primacy of the imagination, and the necessity of suprarational epistemology.
Organizational and personal characteristics influencing Canadian employers' attitudes toward older workers

The objectives of this thesis are to ascertain Canadian employers' current attitudes toward older workers and to determine which factors influence their attitudes toward them. These objectives are tested using data collected from 559 Canadian employers who responded to the 'Options 45+' Employer Survey. Six independent variables, found to be relevant in the literature, and explored here, include both organizational characteristics (industrial sector, company size, and proportion of older workers in the organization) and employers' personal characteristics (age, sex, and education). Frequency distributions indicate that employers were predominantly positive in their attitudes toward older workers. A principal components factor analysis using unweighted data yielded three attitudinal dimensions: 'age-related decline'; 'experiential attributes'; and 'reliable and productive'. Using one-way ANOVAs and t-tests, indicators of employers' attitudes on one or more dimension(s) include the following: company size, employers' age, and employers' sex.
Lymphocyte responses to B7-1 expressing human cancer cells

Recent studies using animal models have demonstrated an important role for B7-1, a costimulatory molecule, in the induction of antitumour immunity ' in vivo'. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate 'in vitro ' the immunologic effects of 'B7-1' gene transfer into human cancer cells. Our hypothesis was that B7-1 expression by human tumour cells could enhance T cell and NK cell responses 'in vitro', with T cell-mediated responses being dependent on tumour cells expressing both MHC class I molecules and antigenic epitopes. Preliminary studies were carried out with three stable human cancer cell lines transfected with ' B7-1'. The immunogenicity of these modified cancer cells was tested using allogeneic human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs). B7-1 expression increased allogeneic T cell proliferative responses in that cell line which expressed MEC molecules and antigenic epitopes. B7-1 expression also partially enhanced NK cell-mediated cytotoxic responses in another stable cell line. Having developed appropriate methodologies for detecting proliferative and cytotoxic lymphocyte responses 'in vitro', we then sought to test the hypothesis that B7-1 expression would increase autologous T cell and NK cell responses. The use of fresh tissue from cancer patients required the development of a gene delivery system which was not limited by host cell proliferation. We therefore constructed an adenovirus-B7-1 (AdB7) expression vector and demonstrated efficient gene transfer into fresh primary tumour cells. Patient lymphocytes were then tested 'in vitro ' for both proliferative and cytotoxic activity against their own autologous cancer cells, comparing AdB7-infected, B7-1+ tumour cells (TMB7) to native, mock-infected tumour cells (TM) and control Addl70.3-infected, B7-1- tumour cells (TMAd). B7-1 expression was verified by flow cytometry. Autologous PBLs mounted an increased proliferative response against B7-1+ tumour cells, 0particularly in the presence of IL-12 or low-dose IL-2. B7-1+ tumour cells were also killed more efficiently than B7-1- tumour cells in NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity assays, and this was most significant when lymphocytes had been pre-treated with IL-12. Human NK cells were found to express CD28, a receptor for B7-1. The high efficiency of AdB7- mediated gene transfer and the augmented B71-mediated lymphocyte responses suggest that AdB7 vectors may be effective in human cancer immunotherapy.
Overexpression of hepatocyte growth factor receptor/Met suppresses tumorigenecity of NCI-H1264 lung squamous carcimona cells

The protein product of c-'met' proto-oncogene, Met, is a receptor tyrosine kinase for the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). Overexpression of Met receptor is commonly observed in human lung adenocarcinoma and large-cell undifferentiated carcinoma. This event, however, rarely occurs in lung squamous cell carcinomas (SQCC). To explore the biological effects of Met overexpression in SQCC, we infected a panel of five human SQCC cell lines with amphotropic pLXSN-Met retrovirus. Only one cell line, NCI-H1264, was able to yield Met-overexpressing clones. 'In vitro' studies showed that increased Met expression in H1264 did not alter the growth rate of the cells in monolayer culture, but strongly inhibited their ability to form colonies in soft agar. Furthermore, subcutaneous injection of Metoverexpressing H1264 cells into SCID mice formed significantly fewer tumors than mice injected with the parent or pLXSN controls cell lines. Western blot analysis on tumor explants derived from pLXSN-Met infected H1264 cells demonstrated down-regulation of Met receptor expression as compared to their respective cell lines prior to 'in vivo' tumor passage. These results suggest that high Met expression may inhibit the growth or tumorigenicity of human lung SQCC cells, hence accounting for the rarity of Met overexpression in lung SQCC.
The non-economic impacts of pay equity adjustments, employee attitudes and behaviours

This thesis examines the non-economic impacts of Pay Equity (or Comparable Worth as it is called in the United States) in Ontario workplaces. Canada is widely recognized as having implemented Pay Equity more extensively than any other country in the world, and its province of Ontario is unique in its proactive application of Pay Equity to both the public and private sectors. The theoretical premise of this research is that Pay Equity legislation is a redress of presumed inequity and its implementation of differential adjustment awards results in a new situation of inequity. The predicted consequences of receiving a Pay Equity adjustment are predicated on Adams' (1963, 1965) ways to reduce inequity, as proposed by his equity theory. Data collected from seven different employee groups at three organizations are used to test the hypotheses, which are categorized as individual level and workplace-group level responses to Pay Equity, and are based on whether the employee receives a Pay Equity adjustment. Sixteen dependent variables are explored as consequences of receiving a Pay Equity award. The hypotheses compare individual attitudes, individual behaviours, intergroup attitudes, and interpersonal behaviours of employees who perceive that they did receive a Pay Equity adjustment with those of responding employees who perceive that they did not. Perceived receipt of adjustment awards, and not actual receipt, is the basis of comparison, since the overall accuracy rate is only 58%. Results indicate partial support for the following dependent variables: pay satisfaction, tardiness, working harder since the implementation of Pay Equity, gender-based resentment, and deterioration of the interactions of employees. For the individual level variables, hypothesis support is found for the males in the sample. Results show support for females for the workplace-group level variables of gender-based resentment and interpersonal interactions. Although there are some adverse non-economic impacts of Pay Equity, overall, they are not excessive.
Two practices, three styles, the evolution of typologies of compositional genre in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italian writings on music

Prescriptions for specific genres of musical composition began to appear in Italian treatises on music around 1550. Considerations of text type, affective or expressive goal, social function, place of performance, decorum and propriety became associated with the specific musical materials constituting a musical work. In the writings of Vicentino and Pontio, compositions were divided into ecclesiastical, secular and instrumental types. The art of composition, however, was governed by the understanding that however diversely materials were used in musical 'kinds', all works were governed by a uniform set of contrapuntal standards. By 1600, perception of the relationship of musical genres was critically affected by increasing awareness of a bifurcation of contrapuntal practices. Standards remained based ostensibly in a unified theory, but musical works were understood to belong either to a first, or strict and observant practice, or to an 'other' second practice using justifiable irregularities of counterpoint premised on affective text expression. This reorganization came about in part due to the reciprocal effects of a series of seventeenth-century polemics and tracts--Monteverdi-Artusi, Scacchi-Siefert, Cazzati-Arresti, Liberati--which subjected works in a 'strict' style to intense critical scrutiny. In setting out 'objective' criteria by which compositions could be assessed, writers were forced to annotate generic prescriptions, and to re-think and re-modern musical practices generally. This process is clearest in the writings of Marco Scacchi (c.1600-87?) and his students. After 1650 schematics of musical genres took distinctions of 'practice' into account, so that music was divided into three 'styles', church, chamber and theatrical, and two 'practices', first and second. Meanwhile church music style in the observant manner had been strongly affected by the humanist mandate for a simplification of counterpoint for text presentation in performance and the traditionalist stream in music theory. For sociological and historical reasons, this aesthetic became focussed on Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and his Roman successors as its model and central authority. Examination of seventeenth-century prescriptions for this style, particularly in the writings of Antimo, Liberati, supplement and adjust our understanding of the relationships among 'first practice' composition, particular requirements for liturgical genres in this period, and 'modern' practice generally.
Myths of mentoring, a feminist analysis

In this thesis I attempt to provide a feminist analysis of theories and practices of mentoring as they pertain to teacher development. In examining the term "mentoring" in educational research, confusion seems to exist about its definition and purposes. Consequently, I return to mentoring's literary and linguistic roots in Greek mythology to better understand its origins and hence our current interest in the conception. I suggest that the notion of mentoring often leads to imprecision In definition and to Its unexamined acceptance in whatever guise and however practised. A rereading of the Mentor story in Homer's 'Odyssey' lays the ground for my use of gender as an analytic category. The goddess Athena must become a man in order to be guardian to Odysseus's son while the youth's father is fighting In the Trojan War. I use this sex change to question the absence of gender considerations in educational research on mentoring. I continue to trace the recurrence of the Mentor myth by examining Daniel Levinson's 'The Seasons of a Man's Life' and its impact on research in education. I establish that Levinson's work reproduces the mythic male heroic quest, and that educational researchers continue to fashion their studies in this tradition. Gender is subsumed in researchers' apparent belief in mentoring's effectiveness. Because so little of the research on mentoring directly addresses the experiences of women, I designed a questionnaire and examined seventeen women's responses to see whether there might be a women's perspective which differed from the norm mentoring seemed to have established. I suggest that gender blindness in educational research ignores women's different experiences of "helping" arrangements to women's detriment. I argue that we need to continue the struggle to produce new understandings of these arrangements and new language to express them. Finally, while mentoring in many guises is likely to continue, even flourish, in educational systems and in the wider society, I plead not only for increasing exactitude in definition but also for a consideration of friendship as a disposition (Friedman 1993) which might serve as a more appropriate foundation to describe women's working relationships in teaching.
A determination of Ontario's future ophthalmology physician workforce supply and requirements

The proportion of Ontario's citizens in older age cohorts is forecast to increase dramatically. In addition, the number of ophthalmology residency positions began being reduced in 1994. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to compare the future requirement for ophthalmologists to the projected supply in 2000 and 2005. The supply of ophthalmologists in 2000 and 2005 was determined by multiple regression analysis of previous data such as the baseline numbers of ophthalmologists, the number of ophthalmology residents, and the addition and deletion of ophthalmologists in each year. Four models were utilized to determine ophthalmologist requirements. The physician:population ratio method determined the requirement for ophthalmologists based on Statistics Canada's projection of Ontario's population in 2000 and 2005, and an ophthalmologist:population ratio of 1:29,650 specified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. The utilization methodology used age and gender adjustments to transform 1995 Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan (OHIP) ophthalmologist billing data into requirements for ophthalmologist services in 2000 and 2005. The substitution model also projected 1995 OHIP data into the future but modelled optometrist substitution for ophthalmologists in performing consultations for refraction. Finally, a needs-based methodology adjusted 1995 OHIP data based on regional differences in education, income levels, and the standardized mortality ratio (SMR); then projected the modified data to 2000 and 2005 using age and gender adjustments. Multiple regression analysis predicted a future supply of 485 ± 15 FTE ophthalmologists in 2000, and 477 ± 14 FTEs in 2005. Except for the needs-based methodology (533 ± 16-529 ± 16 FTEs), the other requirement methods yielded requirements (physician:population: 458 ± 14; utilization: 500 ± 15; and substitution: 470 ± 14-490 ± 15) which were within the range of the supply forecast for 2000. However, only the physician:population ratio method predicted FTE requirements (489 ± 15) which were within the range of the supply forecast for 2005. The other models predicted FTE requirement forecasts (utilization: 559 ± 17; substitution: 526 ± 16-548 ± 17; needs-based: 585 ± 18-596 ± 18) which were outside the supply range.
Supported conversation for adults with aphasia§T§M, methods and evaluation

This thesis reports the development and evaluation of a new intervention termed 'Supported Conversation for Adults with AphasiaTM' (SCATM). The approach is based on the idea that the inherent competence of people with aphasia, an adult neurogenic language disorder, can be revealed through the skill of a conversation partner. The intervention approach was developed at a community-based aphasia center where professionally trained volunteers interact with individuals with chronic aphasia and their families. Current evaluative tools focus exclusively on the person with aphasia and do not capture the impact of the conversational partner on communication. Two complementary evaluative instruments were therefore developed. One was designed to measure the skill of the conversation partner in providing conversational support to the person with aphasia. The second was designed to measure the aphasic individual's level of participation in conversation. Preliminary psychometric evaluation of these measures indicated that they were adequate for the purpose of an experimental study of the efficacy of SCATM''. The experimental study was designed to test a primary hypothesis related to the following question: Do volunteer conversation partners trained in SCA TM score higher than untrained volunteers on a 'Measure of Supported Conversation for Adults with AphasiaTM'? Secondary hypotheses related to the following two questions: (a) Do adults with aphasia, in conversation with trained volunteers, score higher than those with untrained volunteers, on a 'Measure of Aphasic Adults' Participation in Conversation' and (b) Are changes in volunteers' scores related to changes in the scores of their partners with aphasia? The study (n = 40 dyads) utilized a pre-post randomized control group design. Experimental volunteers received SCATM training and control volunteers were merely exposed to people with aphasia. Results provide substantial support for the efficacy of SCATM in training volunteer conversation partners. The methods also appear to be efficient in that training volunteers produced some positive change in the individuals with aphasia even though these individuals did not receive therapy. Implications for the treatment of aphasia and an argument for a social model of intervention are presented.
College managers' strategies for learning and using computer communication technologies

The study investigated college managers' learning and usage experiences with computer communication technologies that had already been adopted by their college and that managers had been using for a number of years. Insights into their experiences were obtained through a qualitative case study, in which data were gathered from: interviews with managers in a public college system; a profile questionnaire; and selected college documents. Analysis of the data revealed a series of six interrelated phases and associated strategies that college managers experienced in their technology learning and use process. The phases included: (1) being introduced to technology (developing attitudes); (2) learning the basics (developing technical skills); (3) practicing by doing (developing learning strategies); (4) continuously using the technology (developing information management and utilization strategies); (5) assessing the value of the technology (developing conceptual and evaluative knowledge); and (6) learning to cope with the impact of technology (developing strategies). I found that the twenty managers participating in the study: (a) learned to use computer communication technologies in a self-directed manner; (b) utilized computer communication technologies primarily for efficiency reasons--to carry out administrative tasks and to convey routine information related to college policies and procedures; and (c) perceived computer communication technologies as not decreasing managerial work. The bureaucratic cultural environment at the college played an important role in how managers perceived and used computer communication technologies. Managers were influenced by their peers' technology use behaviour and perceptions of their role at the college. In order for college managers to be effective users of advanced computer on technologies, they need to focus on not only the technical skills related to technology learning and use but also on the deeper conceptual and social knowledge associated with adopting and using advanced computer communication technologies.