VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Sexual abuse of children with intellectual disabilities: factors that aid or impede mothers in protecting their children

Although all children are vulnerable to maltreatment, children with disabilities have been demonstrated to be particularly vulnerable to all forms of abuse and neglect, including child sexual abuse. A qualitative, interdisciplinary study was undertaken in two urban centres in Southern Ontario that examined factors, systemic or otherwise, that aided or impeded individual mothers in protecting their children with developmental/intellectual disabilities from extra-familial child sexual abuse. In-depth interviews were conducted with mothers, their children, therapists, police officers, assistant Crown attorneys, victim witness assistance personnel, and court preparation workers. The study resulted in five portraits, four of which describe the experience of dealing with the sexual abuse from disclosure onwards, and one which deals with the observed experience of a child with developmental disabilities in court. Each portrait was examined from a personal/psychological, legal, and ecological point of view. The dual impact of caring for a child with a disability and dealing with the aftermath of child sexual abuse was considered. The portraits suggest that mothers and their children with disabilities, who have been sexually abused, are faced with sizable obstacles in the pursuit of justice and psychological recovery. In spite of recent changes and the efforts of individual professionals, most systems and organizations mandated to respond to this problem appear to be in many ways unprepared to deal with child victims with intellectual/developmental disabilities
NEDD8 modification of the von Hippel-Lindau protein in tumour development

Functional inactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumour suppressor gene is the cause of the familial VHL disease and most of sporadic renal clear cell carcinomas (RCC). Although most disease-causing pVHL mutations hinder the regulation of the HIF-pathway, every disease-causing pVHL mutant tested to date has failed to promote the assembly of fibronectin matrix, underscoring its potential importance in VHL disease. Here, we report that an ubiquitin-like molecule called NEDD8 covalently modifies pVHL. A non-neddylateable pVHL mutant, while retaining its ability to ubiquitylate HIF, failed to bind and promote the assembly of fibronectin matrix. Expression of the neddylation-defective pVHL in RCC cells was insufficient to suppress the formation of tumours in SCID mice. The results suggest that NEDD8 modification of pVHL plays an important role in fibronectin matrix assembly and in the absence of such regulation, an intact HIF-pathway is insufficient to prevent VHL-associated tumourigenesis.
Synthetic phonics in kindergarten classrooms: effects of size of phonological unit, type of phonics unit, and amount and timing of phonics instruction on literacy outcomes

Two studies evaluated the effectiveness of a particular commercially-available synthetic phonics program, Jolly Phonics, in developing phonemic awareness and alphabetic-coding skills at the small phonological unit (SPU) level. The main study involved 5-6-year-olds who received Jolly Phonics instruction in senior kindergarten. A subsidiary study involved 4-5-year-olds who received Jolly Phonics instruction in junior kindergarten. Children in the experimental groups in both studies were given brief sessions of Jolly Phonics instruction in their regular kindergarten classrooms 3-5 times a week for 6-7 months of the school year. Children in the main study had varying amounts of Jolly Phonics instruction: a 2-years group (n = 71) was taught with Jolly Phonics during 2 school years-in junior and in senior kindergarten; a 1-year group (n = 64) was taught with Jolly Phonics during 1 school year in senior kindergarten, but not in junior kindergarten; and a 0-years group (n = 82) received no systematic phonics instruction in either junior or senior kindergarten. In the subsidiary study, the 1-year group (n = 65) was taught with Jolly Phonics during 1 school year-in junior kindergarten. The 0-years group (n = 3) received no systematic phonics instruction in junior kindergarten. The focus of the main study was to investigate the effect of SPU knowledge (1) on small and large (LPU) phonological unit literacy tasks and (2) on visual (i.e., using letter cues) blending and deletion tasks vs. auditory equivalents of the same tasks. (3) The main study also examined the effects of amount of phonics instruction (e.g., 2 years vs. 1 year vs. 0 years). (4) The subsidiary study examined the issue of timing of phonics instruction in order to determine the effectiveness of introducing Jolly Phonics in junior vs. senior kindergarten. Results indicated that: (1) SPU knowledge was effective on both SPU and LPU literacy tasks; (2) children performed better on auditory-only blending tasks and visual-only deletion tasks; (3) the 2-years group outperformed the 1-year and 0-years groups on both SPU and LPU literacy tasks; and the 1-year group outperformed the 0-years group on most tasks; and (4) junior kindergarten children benefited from Jolly Phonics instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Keywords: Phonetics
Reading, Phonetic method
English language, Phonetics
Reading (Kindergarten)
The effects of folate deficiency on genomic and site-specific DNA methylation

While convincing evidence indicates that folate deficiency is inversely related to increased risk of colorectal cancer, the mechanisms by which this occurs have not been established yet. Mediating the transfer of one-carbon moieties is the sole biochemical function known for folate and, in this role, folate may play a role in DNA methylation, an epigenetic correlate in carcinogenesis. In vitro models of folate deficiency (non-transformed and transformed mammalian cells) were used to determine the effects of folate-deficiency on genomic, region and gene-specific methylation patterns, and cellular CpG DNA methyltransferase activity and expression. Folate deficiency induced hypomethylation of genomic DNA, site- and gene-specific methylation alterations, reduced DNA methyltransferase activity, altered DNMT1 and 3a expression and reduced steady state levels of DNMT1 mRNA in a cell-specific manner. These studies provide a mechanistic insight into the role of folate in DNA methylation changes associated with carcinogenesis.
Experiential details, and not temporal specificity, determines autobiographical memory in patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions

Patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy from hippocampal origin and patients with unilateral surgical excision of an epileptic focus located in the medial temporal lobe (TL) were compared to healthy controls on a version of the Autobiographical Interview (AI) (Levine, Svoboda, Hay, Winocur, Moscovitch, 2002) adapted to assess memory for episodic and generic personal events. For both types of personal events, patients with right and left TL both reported fewer internal details, which are bits of information pertaining to the recollected event. The source of this deficit was the paucity of perceptual information about the personal events. Results suggest that the hippocampus plays a role in the reconstruction of experience-near sensory-perceptual events. The similarity of the impairment between the episodic and the generic memory conditions also suggests that the hippocampus is not sensitive to the temporal specificity of the reconstructed personal events.
Management of post-mortem pregnancy

In my thesis I deal with the legal and ethical aspects of maintaining a brain-dead pregnant woman on “life-support” by the successful delivery of her fetus. First, I analyze post-mortem pregnancy through discussing abortions-law, the law regulating general bodily interventions in pregnant women's life style and physical condition, and the legalizing of medical interventions in dead patients. I also examine the legal framework of pregnancy clauses in advance directive legislation, and probe the pregnant woman's ethical obligation toward her fetus. Next, I deal with specific issues that rise in the context of maternal brain-death. On the one hand I examine how the moral and legal status of the fetus and its gestational age affect the dilemma whether to maintain a brain-dead pregnant woman “alive”. On the other hand, I look at the moral, legal, psychological, religious, and physical aspects of interfering with dead patients, the pragmatic and legal obstacles to such an intervention, the rights of next-of-kin and friends of the deceased, and the physician-patient relationship. Finally, I incorporate a relational feminist analysis and conclude my research with practical guidelines for managing post-mortem pregnancy.

Keywords: Pregnant women, Legal status, laws, etc
Fetus
Brain dealth
Toronto newspapers, 1798-1845: a case study in print culture

The time has come for new scholarship in book history, given the development of the discipline and the current national project for the History of the Book in Canada/Histoire du livre et de l'imprimé au Canada. Although a research infrastructure exists, there is no sustained analysis of newspapers, which were one of the most accessible genres of print in early nineteenth-century Upper Canada. This thesis begins to fill the gap with a case study of Toronto newspapers from 1798 to 1845, that is, from the time of the first press to mid-century when eleven newspapers were being published in the city. In its analysis of newspapers the present study draws upon the approaches of analytical and historical bibliography and those of social history. In order to understand the methods of newspaper production and distribution, it gathers physical evidence from the newspapers' format—the form, size, paper, typography and illustrations—and from published announcements from proprietors/editors. This information is complemented by documentation from archival sources, such as printers' memoirs and correspondence, shop account books and ledgers, and publications of the provincial government. The study contributes to book history scholarship by a quantitative and qualitative analysis of newspaper content to determine the kinds of information newspapers provided, their function in the circulation of news, and their role in the advancement of print culture. Between 1798 and 1845, thirty-two newspapers were launched in Toronto, fifteen of which endured for five or more years. The proprietors of these newspapers worked within a network of colleagues, which facilitated the exchange of information and the use of common techniques in newspaper production and news presentation. As a result, in this period the newspaper evolved from a government-controlled organ carrying official announcements and news from abroad to an instrument of readers, providing them with information they wanted and needed about the world, their province and their community, while at the same time uniting them by publishing common interests and concerns. By thus fostering a readership, newspapers emerged as a very significant factor in the advancement of print culture in Upper Canada.

Keywords: Newspapers, History
Keeping Iran's nuclear programme civil: the legality of using force against Iran in respect of its nuclear activities

The current dispute over Iran's nuclear programme has triggered, and indeed been aggravated by, reports of planned military strikes against both its nuclear and military installations. This paper considers the legality of an armed attack. It examines whether military intervention could be justified under the UN Charter as an exception to Article 2(4)'s general prohibition on the use of force i.e. as where authorised by the Security Council or as an act of self-defence. The paper then considers if anticipatory or preventive self-defence could be lawfully applied. It discovers that even if anticipatory self-defence is lawful, the factual context does not lend itself to its application. In direct contrast, the facts at hand correlate with the operating criteria of preventive self-defence but the fact that it has not yet been absorbed into customary international law impedes its legal praxis.

Keywords: Nuclear weapons, Iran
Nuclear power plants, Iran
Intervention (International law)
Self-defense (International law)
Evaluation of contaminant fate in the Venice Lagoon using a multi-segment fugacity/aquivalence model and a probabilistic uncertainty analysis

The loadings and fate of two metals and three persistent organic pollutants were evaluated in the Venice Lagoon using a multi-segment fugacity/aquivalence model. Erosion and in-place pollution of the central basin of the Lagoon were considered, and metal chemistry was respected through utilization of a loosely coupled TRANsport-SPECiation model. In-place pollution, industrial sources and tributaries were identified as major sources of these contaminants. Contaminants circulated extensively between the northern and central basins with limited transport to the southern basin and the Adriatic Sea. Model uncertainty was evaluated using a probabilistic approach to evaluate the effects of parametric uncertainty associated with particle dynamics. The range of model output distributions were found to vary up to an order of magnitude, exhibiting both contaminant- and site-specific variability. Sediment erosion and total suspended sediments were identified as the parameters most responsible for model uncertainty using a principal component analysis in combination with a correlation matrix.
Inhibition by heparin of signals involved in c-fos mRNA-induction by ionomycin in rat mesangial cells

Heparin has a strong inhibitory effect on induction of c- fos mRNA and proliferation of mesangial cells in vitro through Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase-II (CaMK-II) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). The aim of this thesis is to further explain the inhibitory mechanism of heparin on c-fos expression by Ca2+ signaling. Our results demonstrate that CaMK-II is an upstream signal of Erk1/2 that is mediated through c-Src and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signals, and EGFR and Erk1/2 phosphorylation are inhibited by heparin, while the signals of c-Src and CaMK-II are unresponsive to heparin. By Northern blotting, it is shown that PD 98059 (a MEK inhibitor) and AG 1478 (an EGFR inhibitor) inhibit c-fos rRNA expression, whereas PKC downregulation, PP1 (a Src inhibitor), and KN-93 (a CaMK-II inhibitor) do not. Furthermore, heparin can strongly inhibit c-fos in the presence of KN-93, but does not further inhibit c-fos induction in the presence of PD 98059. We conclude that the role of CaMK-II in regulating c-fos induction is mediated through a CaMK-II-EGFR-MAPK pathway, which is sensitive to heparin. This study furthers considerably our understanding of the crosstalk between CaMK-II and MAPK signaling pathways and provides insights into the inhibitory mechanism of heparin on mesangial cell proliferation.
Ibutilide as a firstline antiarrhythmic drug in a porcine model of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Results and Conclusions. Ibutilide increased DFT (161.1 +/- 33.3 J vs. 200 +/- 54.8 J, p = 0.044). Ibutilide did not significantly change any other variable measured. The ITV did not significantly change any variable measured. Ibutilide appears inactive in the pig, while the ITV may not function properly when used with automatic ventilators. Objectives. Class III antiarrhythmics have been demonstrated to lower defibrillation threshold (DFT). The impedance threshold valve (ITV) has been demonstrated to improve hemodynamics during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). We hypothesize that administration of the class III antiarrhythmic drug ibutilide, and use of the ITV during CPR after induction of ventricular fibrillation (VF) will lead to greater short-term survival vs. control. Methods. VF was induced in 30--35 kg pigs and left untreated for 4 minutes. CPR was performed for 8 minutes using automatic ventilation. 0.005 mg/kg IV ibutilide was administered during CPR. Electrophysiologic and hemodynamic variables were measured at baseline, during CPR, and post-resuscitation.
A novel groundwater and soil remediation technique using peroxidases

The ability of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and lignin peroxidase (Lip) to remediate aqueous and solid media impacted with petroleum hydrocarbons was studied. The enzymes were introduced to the impacted media in soluble and immobilized form. The best contaminant degradation (99.1% and 96.1%, respectively) was achieved using immobilized enzymes for both the impacted groundwater and soil media samples. Groundwater treatment via a PBR achieved the highest contaminant reduction of over 99.9%. 175 mg of gasoline (aqueous media) was remediated over 6 days using 2 mg of enzymes immobilized onto 5.375 g of activated carbon and 42 mg of gasoline (solid media) was remediated over 48 hours using 1 mg of enzymes immobilized onto 2 g of activated carbon. Combining activated carbon with enzymes enhanced removal compared to using soluble enzymes alone; the carbon may have preferentially absorbed the pollutant, bringing it into close proximity with the enzymes that facilitate conversion.
The nature of cognitive representations for familiar and unfamiliar faces:

These findings indicate that the cognitive mechanism that mediates the perception of faces is adapted for associating different exemplars of the same face together, but is unable to integrate exemplars of two different faces. The general discussion (Chapter Five) focuses on implications of these findings for theories of face perception and recognition. This research examined the nature of the cognitive representations mediating perception, priming, and explicit memory for faces. Explicit tests of memory involve an intent to recollect information from a prior episode. With implicit tests of memory, however, there is no intent to recollect but rather memory is revealed indirectly through performance facilitation on tasks that do not require reference to a prior episode. Priming for new associations was examined using three different types of pairs: unfamiliar different-person (Chapter Two), unfamiliar same-person (Chapter Three), and familiar same-person (Chapter Four). Same-person pairs consisted of different exemplars of the same-individual; different-person pairs consisted of pictures of two different individuals. All types of pairs were encoded under either deep (e.g., honesty or friendship judgments) or shallow (e.g., picture shading or left-right judgments) instructions. Following encoding, both implicit and explicit memory were assessed with accuracy and reaction time measures. Associative memory was measured by comparing test performance between intact and recombined pairs; intact pairs consisted of two faces paired together both at study and test whereas recombined pairs consisted of faces seen during study that were re-paired with other previously-studied faces. Item memory was measured by comparing test performance between intact and new pairs; new pairs were composed of either one new and one previously-seen face or two new faces. Consistent with previous research with verbal stimuli, explicit memory for faces was generally best for intact versus recombined pairs and following deep versus shallow encoding. Implicit memory test performance revealed strong and reliable associative priming effects but only for unfamiliar same-person pairs (i.e., two different images of the same unfamiliar person) and only following deep encoding instructions (Chapter Three). Reliable item priming effects were obtained with unfamiliar same-person and familiar same-person pairs, but not with unfamiliar different-person pairs.
Muscle recruitment patterns during sitting

Trunk stability during sitting is important as it allows the body to retain equilibrium against perturbations without falling. The goal of this study was to investigate the muscles and muscle patterns of body responses to external perturbations. Thirteen healthy able-bodied subjects sat on a custom seating device during experiments in which muscle activities, centre of pressure (COP) and body movements were measured. Manual perturbations from one of eight directions were applied to the torso of the subject. Directional dependencies were observed in the abdominal muscles and back muscles. The frequency of muscle response, peak muscle activity, and muscle response onset time were quantified. Changes in COP displacement and velocity were found to be direction dependent. These results could be used to develop a neuroprosthesis for trunk stability for individuals with spinal cord injury who frequently experience difficulties with maintaining stability during sitting due to their impairment.
Developing new electrochemical synthetic processes

The power and straightforwardness of electrochemical synthesis have been demonstrated in three aspects. In the first part of this thesis, the design and application of an electrosynthesis platform, the spatially addressable electrolysis platform (SAEP), for parallel electrochemical reactions, have been documented. Two examples of parallel electrosynthesis have been conducted on the SAEP. The successful parallel oxidative α-alkoxylation of amides and carbamates proved the feasibility of this methodology. Particularly the intramolecular alkoxylation has generated a small library of bicyclic heterocycles. The reductive counterpart of this approach has been shown by coupling of imines to afford vicinal diamine libraries. These contributions complement the existing methodologies in combinatorial electrochemistry and high-throughput synthesis. The second part of the current study describes a novel approach to rapid generation and screening of catalytic materials on electrode surfaces. The properties of the corresponding polymers, including catalytic performance, can be modulated by varying the monomer feed ratios, monomer concentrations, and applied polymerization potentials. Thus, the generation of the polymeric TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yloxy) catalysts was performed by electrochemical copolymerization of 2,2′-bithiophene with the TEMPO catalyst precursors containing pyrrole side chains. A library of catalyst films was obtained over a wide range of bithiophene/pyrrole ratios upon repeated scanning of the applied potential between +0.5 to +1.4 V (vs Ag/AgCl). The resulting catalyst films were utilized in both chemical and electrochemical oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes. The third and last part of this investigation illustrates a rational electrosynthetic methodology that bypasses the requirement for stoichiometric amounts of toxic oxidants and metal additives in organic redox reactions. Utilizing the difference between overpotentials of olefins and N-aminophthalimide, the nitrogen source, direct electrochemical oxidative nitrene transfer to olefins has been realized, resulting in the formation of aziridines. This process shows a broad substrate scope and is stereospecific. Extension of this methodology to the electrochemical sulfoxide imination process has also been described. The resulting N-phthalimido sulfoximines can be deprotected by reductive N-N bond cleavage, which leads to a range of parent NH sulfoximines. This latter approach solves challenging problem of removing the N -phthalimido group.