cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Analyse organisationnelle de la Fédération sénégalaise de basket-ball.
Creators: name: Seye, Amadou Anna.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1997
Subjects: subject: Education, Physical.

description: Cette etude est centree sur l'analyse organisationnelle d'un modele d'association voluntaire: la federation senegalaise de basket-ball (F.S.B.B.). Le modele d'analyse strategique de Crozier et Friedberg (1977) a ete choisi pour analyser le fonctionnement de la federation ciblee. Une methode phenomenologique restreinte a ete utilisee et l'elaboration des strategies a ete faite a partir d'une analyse de contenu des 14 entrevues realisees aupres des dirigeants de la F.S.B.B. Trois ideal-types de strategies ont ete degages et correspondent chacun a une categorie d'acteurs. Le dirigeant non-detache au sommet adopte une strategie offensive visant a creer une atmosphere de paix a l'interne et a avoir carte blanche a l'externe. Les dirigeants detaches font appel a une strategie de la technocratie, dans le but de proteger leur emploi. Quant aux autres dirigeants non-detaches, ils se cantonnent derriere une strategie defensive afin de mantenir leur marge de maoeuvre. Cette etude met la F.S.B.B. en relation avec son environnement pertinent (Etat, sponsors, medias). On constate alors qu'au Senegal, les sponsors et les medias ne constituent pas une source alternative de revenus. Ainsi, la politique de desengagement prone par l'Etat pourrait avoir de facheuses consequences sur le bon fonctionnement de la F.S.B.B. Dans la situation actuelle, l'autonomisation de la federation est une utopie dans la mesure ou ses moyens financiers restent tres limites. Toutefois, l'Etat tout comme la F.S.B.B. doivent continuer a reflechir sur les voies et moyens pouvant permettre a cette derniere de se prendre en charge.
Essays in Corporate Finance
Creators: name: Agarwal, Prerna
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2024
Subjects: public abstract

description: This thesis consists of three essays that attempt to provide original empirical analyses of significant problems in finance. In the first chapter, I evaluate firms’ debt capacity in the light of geographic diversification. In the second chapter, we examine the impact of religiosity on executive contracting choices. In the third chapter, we examine the effect of headquarter relocation on entrepreneurial growth. In Chapter 1 titled “Cash Flow Diversification of Offshoring Firms”, using the 10-K textual data of firms’ offshore sales network, I examine the implications of cash flow diversification on firms’ leverage, debt capacity and cash flow volatility. Consistent with a debt coinsurance effect, I find that the benefits of international diversification are higher for firms operating in countries where shocks co-vary less with the domestic ones. My empirical analysis further confirms that purchasing input from the same nation where a firm sells its output is counter-cyclical and serves as an operational hedge which in turn strengthens the effects of cash flow diversification. Also, the effect is less pronounced when the offshore sales are located in countries with high economic uncertainty. The results are robust to controlling for potential selection effects and alternate interpretations.
description: In Chapter 2 titled “The Impact of Religiosity on Contractual Choices: Evidence from CEO Employment Agreements”, we examine the impact of firm’s culture, specifically it’s religiosity on the use of explicit employment agreements (EA). Using a sample of S&P 1500 U.S based firms, we find that local religiosity is negatively (positively) related to the choice of explicit (implicit) employment agreements. In a religious environment, the concerns of opportunistic behavior are mitigated, and the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have no incentive to enter into a formal, written, explicit agreement. In addition, we find the negative association between religiosity and explicit contracting persists in secular dominated areas regardless of the religious denomination, Protestants or Catholics. Finally, we also analyze how religious social norms interact with governance mechanisms to explain our findings.
description: In Chapter 3 titled “Incoming headquarters boost local entrepreneurial ecosystem: Evidence from Private Equity backed firms”, we provide novel evidence on the relationship between corporate headquarter entry and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our experimental setup employs a differences-in-differences approach and utilizes headquarter relocations of the S&P 1500 firms across fourteen years. We find that headquarter entry has a positive impact on private equity backed investments, new venture capital entrants, and initial public offerings in the area. Headquarters of R&D intensive firms entering the region have a stronger effect on the local entrepreneurial ecosystem indicating that knowledge spillovers are an important factor in regional economic growth.
diceR: an R package for class discovery using an ensemble driven approach
Creators: name: Chiu, Derek S
name: Talhouk, Aline
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2018

description: Background: Given a set of features, researchers are often interested in partitioning objects into homogeneous clusters. In health research, cancer research in particular, high-throughput data is collected with the aim of segmenting patients into sub-populations to aid in disease diagnosis, prognosis or response to therapy. Cluster analysis, a class of unsupervised learning techniques, is often used for class discovery. Cluster analysis suffers from some limitations, including the need to select up-front the algorithm to be used as well as the number of clusters to generate, in addition, there may exist several groupings consistent with the data, making it very difficult to validate a final solution. Ensemble clustering is a technique used to mitigate these limitations and facilitate the generalization and reproducibility of findings in new cohorts of patients. Results: We introduce diceR (diverse cluster ensemble in R), a software package available on CRAN: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=diceR Conclusions: diceR is designed to provide a set of tools to guide researchers through a general cluster analysis process that relies on minimizing subjective decision-making. Although developed in a biological context, the tools in diceR are data-agnostic and thus can be applied in different contexts.
title: “I’m this girl who’s drinking and getting into trouble”
title: a feminist analysis of alcohol-related arrest narratives of undergraduate college women
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Archibald, Gwendolyn C.
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2022
Subjects: Alcohol
Arrest
College
Feminist
Narrative
Women
public abstract

description: The purpose of this study was to understand how college women construct and articulate their arrest story for an alcohol-related offense during college, and how their narrative illustrates how they make meaning of that experience. This qualitative study used narrative inquiry grounded in a critical feminist lens as a framework for understanding how the women process a unique collegiate experience in the context of their identity formation. The study is grounded in the constructivist philosophical tradition, and used a critical feminist (FemCrit) lens to illuminate issues of power and privilege related to the students’ identity development present in the narratives of the participants. Themes present in the findings illustrated the ways the women had to navigate through organizational, social, and familial relationships during and after their arrests, as well as negotiate intense and even traumatic impacts on their emotional and mental health needs, and conscious and unconscious ways that gender and power dynamics complicated the arrest experience as told by the women. The findings provide higher education administrators and researchers a window into the storied experiences of an understudied yet commonplace policy and practice for handling the complex public health issue of college student high-risk drinking. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.
3468018.pdf
Creators: name: Lee, Byoungho
name: Lee, Byounghyo
name: Hong, Jong-Young
name: Yoo, Dongheon
name: Cho, Jaebum
name: Jeong, Youngmo
name: Moon, Seokil
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2025
Subjects: Uncategorized
Optical Physics not elsewhere classified

description: Supplemental document
title: A novel method for evaluating forces present during RME treatment
title: a clinical pilot study
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Alford, Brennan Ross
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2023
Subjects: Expansion
Forces
RME
RPE
public abstract
Orthodontics

description: Maxillary constriction is a common condition, often resulting in maxillary crowding, functional shifts, asymmetric jaw growth and posterior crossbites. The standard of orthodontic care is treatment with a rapid maxillary expander (RME), which applies expanding forces on the maxilla via the turning of a jackscrew of the RME, with the goal of separating the midpalatal suture. Few studies have attempted to measure these forces.
description: The objective of this study was to pilot a novel method for measuring the forces of expansion. To do so, a novel calibration procedure was fine-tuned and utilized to enable a prediction to be made of the forces within the maxilla and dentition resisting expansion, estimated from the force needed to turn the key of the expander jackscrew.
description: Analysis corroborates previous findings that forces range from 0 to 20 lbs, with no decrease in forces following sutural separation, indicating that resistance to expansion is not due to the midpalatal suture alone. On average, forces increased approximately 500 grams per day (with a 2-turns per day activation schedule) prior to diastema formation, and 200 grams per day after diastema formation. Force increase per day prior to diastema formation was significantly age dependent. Older patients showed higher rates of load increase per day prior to diastema formation, and a more significant decrease in slope after diastema formation.
Functional neuroimaging effects of recently discovered genetic risk loci for schizophrenia and polygenic risk profile in five RDoC subdomains
Creators: name: Erk, S.
name: Mohnke, S.
name: Ripke, S.
name: Lett, T. A.
name: Veer, I. M.
name: Wackerhagen, C.
name: Grimm, O.
name: Romanczuk-Seiferth, N.
name: Degenhardt, F. [U.V.M.]
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Recently, 125 loci with genome-wide support for association with schizophrenia were identified. We investigated the impact of these variants and their accumulated genetic risk on brain activation in five neurocognitive domains of the Research Domain Criteria (working memory, reward processing, episodic memory, social cognition and emotion processing). In 578 healthy subjects we tested for association (i) of a polygenic risk profile score (RPS) including all single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) reaching genome-wide significance in the recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) meta-analysis and (ii) of all independent genome-wide significant loci separately that showed sufficient distribution of all allelic groups in our sample (105 SNPs). The RPS was nominally associated with perigenual anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate/precuneus activation during episodic memory (PFWE(ROI)=0.047) and social cognition (PFWE(ROI)=0.025), respectively. Single SNP analyses revealed that rs9607782, located near EP300, was significantly associated with amygdala recruitment during emotion processing (PFWE(ROI)=1.63 × 10−4, surpassing Bonferroni correction for the number of SNPs). Importantly, this association was replicable in an independent sample (N=150; PFWE(ROI)<0.025). Other SNP effects previously associated with imaging phenotypes were nominally significant, but did not withstand correction for the number of SNPs tested. To assess whether there was true signal within our data, we repeated single SNP analyses with 105 randomly chosen non-schizophrenia-associated variants, observing fewer significant results and lower association probabilities. Applying stringent methodological procedures, we found preliminary evidence for the notion that genetic risk for schizophrenia conferred by rs9607782 may be mediated by amygdala function. We critically evaluate the potential caveats of the methodological approaches employed and offer suggestions for future studies.
Application of Lanczos' minimized iterations to non-homogeneous linear integral equations with weak singularities.
Creators: name: Chan, C. Y.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1967
Subjects: subject: Mathematics.

description: In this thesis, Lanczos' Method of Minimized Iterations is applied in a Hilbert space framework to solve a non-homogeneous linear integral equation of the second kind. The kernel of the integral equation is real, non-symmetric and has a weak singularity of a type frequently occurring in Potential Theory. In Chapter 1, the given operator is symmetrized. Theorem 2 shows that this symmetrization process does not affect the solution, and Theorem 5 shows that the symmetrized operator is completely continuous and self-adjoint. In Chapter 2, we use the concept of invariant (closed) subspace and Lanczos' Method of Minimized Iterations to find the approximate solution. Theorem 9 shows that this converges to the required solution faster than any geometrical progression.
3468018.pdf
Creators: name: Lee, Byoungho
name: Lee, Byounghyo
name: Hong, Jong-Young
name: Yoo, Dongheon
name: Cho, Jaebum
name: Jeong, Youngmo
name: Moon, Seokil
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2018
Subjects: Uncategorized
Optical Physics not elsewhere classified

description: Supplemental document
Making sense of chaos: Decision making by high- and low-experience rugby referees.
Creators: name: Mac Mahon, Clare.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1999
Subjects: subject: Psychology, Cognitive.

description: The purpose of this thesis research was to investigate the decision making of rugby referees. Based on past research, concepts felt to be important in this task were anticipation, and knowledge base. To investigate these features for referees, the expertise paradigm was incorporated. Thus, 12 high and 12 low experience referees were asked to evaluate clips of videotaped rugby footage for infractions. Participants were asked to anticipate upcoming actions and calls, and their ability to detect infractions was measured along with voice reaction time (VRT). In addition, referees were asked questions related to their knowledge bases, and the information sources from which they drew in performing this task. The responses to the videotaped plays were analysed using signal detection theory (Macmillan & Creelman, 1991) and revealed no significant group differences. Further, a two-way analysis of variance performed using the information sources data revealed significant differences between the high and low experience referee groups. Further sections discuss data collected on anticipation, VRT, and another measure of knowledge, that were eventually eliminated from the study. This and other related features led to a final section describing common characteristics and defining characteristics for the general population of sport monitors.
3472631.pdf
Creators: name: Roccia, Emanuele
name: Cimini, Valeria
name: Sbroscia, Marco
name: Gianani, Ilaria
name: Ruggiero, Ludovica
name: Mancino, Luca
name: Genoni, Marco
name: Ricci, Maria
name: Barbieri, Marco
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2025
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Supplemental Document
The role of serotonin in postictal breathing, arousal, and mortality
Creators: name: Joyal, Katelyn G
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2024
Subjects: Breathing
CO2
Dorsal raphe nucleus
Serotonin
SUDEP
Epilepsy

description: Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the leading cause of death in patients whose epilepsy is refractory to medication. While the precise pathophysiology underlying SUDEP is unknown, there are several well-documented risk factors for SUDEP. These include (1) periictal respiratory dysfunction, (2) nocturnal seizures, and (3) decreased postictal stimulus-induced arousal, particularly to carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a critical protective reflex. Serotonin (5-HT) plays a major role in breathing, sleep-wake regulation, and CO2-induced arousal. This has led to the speculation that 5-HT circuits are dysregulated by either seizures or epilepsy itself, leading to postictal impairment of breathing and arousal which may result in seizure-induced death.
description: We hypothesized that 5-HT neuron dysfunction underlies postictal breathing dysfunction and the suppression of postictal CO2-induced arousal, and that pharmacologically increasing 5-HT neurotransmission prior to seizure onset would increase postictal breathing. Preictal administration of selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and 5-HT2 receptor agonists increased several facets of postictal breathing but were ineffective when seizures were induced during sleep. A 5-HT2C receptor agonist caused seizure-induced death in a percentage of animals, but this was due to an off-target effect; potentially relating to an increase in corticosterone. A mouse model of seizures exhibited a decreased arousal response to CO2 postictally but not at baseline. Initial results suggest that seizures cause massive increase in 5-HT neuron activation within the brainstem, followed by a refractory period whereby they were unable respond to CO¬2 for a period of time.
description: These results suggest that 5-HT neurons are dysregulated by seizures, leading to impairment in postictal breathing and arousal. It is our hope that identifying specific 5-HT circuits that are impacted by epilepsy will inform future interventions to lower SUDEP risk.
title: Hair and stress
title: A pilot study of hair and cytokine balance alteration in healthy young women under major exam stress
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Peters, Eva M. J.
name: Mueller, Yvonne
name: Snaga, Wenke
name: Fliege, Herbert
name: Reisshauer, Anett
name: Schmidt-Rose, Thomas
name: Max, Heiner
name: Schweiger, Dorothea
name: Rose, Matthias
name: Kruse, Johannes
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Mouse models show that experimental stress mimicking prolonged life-stress exposure enhances neurogenic inflammation, induces adaptive immunity cytokine- imbalance characterized by a shift to Type 1 T-helper cell cytokines and increases apoptosis of epithelial cells. This affects hair growth in otherwise healthy animals. In this study, we investigate whether a prolonged naturalistic life-stress exposure affects cytokine balance and hair parameters in healthy humans. 33 (18 exam, 15 comparison) female medical students with comparable sociobiological status were analyzed during a stressful final examination period, at three points in time (T) 12 weeks apart. T1 was before start of the learning period, T2 between the three-day written exam and an oral examination, and T3 after a 12 week rest and recovery from the stress of the examination period. Assessments included: self-reported distress and coping strategies (Perceived Stress Questionnaire [PSQ], Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress [TICS]), COPE), cytokines in supernatants of stimulated peripheral blood mononucleocytes (PBMCs), and trichogram (hair cycle and pigmentation analysis). Comparison between students participating in the final medical exam at T2 and non-exam students, revealed significantly higher stress perception in exam students. Time-wise comparison revealed that stress level, TH1/TH2 cytokine balance and hair parameters changed significantly from T1 to T2 in the exam group, but not the control. However, no group differences were found for cytokine balance or hair parameters at T2. The study concludes that in humans, naturalistic stress, as perceived during participation in a major medical exam, has the potential to shift the immune response to TH1 and transiently hamper hair growth, but these changes stay within a physiological range. Findings are instructive for patients suffering from hair loss in times of high stress. Replication in larger and more diverse sample populations is required, to assess suitability of trichogram analysis as biological outcome for stress studies.
title: Support in the context of human-machine communication
title: a test of competing perspectives
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Beattie, Austin J.
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2023
Subjects: Chatbots
Communication
Support
public abstract
Technology

description: Support in the context of human-machine communication (SHMC) is the human use of machine agents in largely informal ways to intentionally seek or receive resources to buffer stress. However, researchers traditionally consider supportive communication as an interpersonal exchange between humans. In contrast, some recent research contends that machine agents pose a viable option to aid loneliness and depression and address human social support needs. I refer to these frameworks as the impairment and improvement perspectives, respectively. Whereas the impairment perspective suggests that machine agents will negatively influence support, the improvement perspective asserts their influence will be positive. Because previous research in both support and HMC suggest competing predictions for how machines will affect processes of supportive communication, this project seeks to synthesize and build upon understandings of how perceptions of machines influence processes and outcomes of supportive interactions by examining the role of seeking and processing supportive messages between humans and robot conversational partners.
description: In a 2X2 (human and chatbot support partners using high or low person-centered messages) between-groups experimental design, I found that participants were more likely to seek emotional support from the chatbot than they were from human partners and were also more likely to report direct support seeking behaviors with the chatbot rather than the human partners. I then found that participants reported no significant differences in perceptions of uncertainty or social presence from the chatbot than with humans, but reported lower levels of liking for the chatbot. These impressions, however, did not contribute to indirect effects between provider status and support seeking strategy (direct or indirect). I finally explored the role of verbal person-centeredness (VPC, Burleson, 1987) and how people perceive machine agents on several interpersonal and supportive communication outcomes. Consistent with previous research, a direct effect was found for message strategy such that high person-centered messages were evaluated more highly than low person-centered messages on all dependent support evaluation and outcome variables. Additionally, an interaction effect was found between bots and humans using low and high person-centered messages. Results extend the literature on support seeking, provision, and the quality of these processes in the context of HMC.
3476379.pdf
Creators: name: Kwon, Hyounghan
name: Arbabi, Ehsan
name: Kamali, Seyedeh Mahsa
name: Faraji-Dana, MohammadSadegh
name: Faraon, Andrei
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2025
Subjects: Condensed Matter Imaging

description: Supplemental document including Figures S1-12
title: Success factors for water safety plan implementation in small drinking water supplies in low- and middle-income countries
title: Success factors for water safety plan implementation in small drinking water supplies in low- and middle-income countries
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Herschan, Jo
name: Rickert, Bettina
name: Mkandawire, Theresa
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2020
Subjects: Trinkwasser
Nachhaltige Entwicklung
Trinkwassersicherheitskonzept

description: The proper operation of a water supply system (WSS) requires constant investment. The priority is to provide residents with high quality potable water, in the required quantity and pressure, in accordance with the applicable regulations. The paper presents an assessment of the potential inherent operational risk of a WSS in support of the risk-based investment management process. It is of high importance to invest in the operational safety as it concerns both producers and consumers. The investment engenders additional costs that should partially be supported by the consumers. Thus, the paper presents a methodology to analyse consumers' readiness to accept water supply services' additional costs. The proposed methods may underpin a comprehensive program for risk-based investment management and operational decision-making. The case study and the approach in this article concern one particular regional WSS, based on information collected from water consumers. The assessment suggests a willingness to tolerate additional costs in view of enhancing the performance of the water supply services. © 2020 by the authors.
Speech recognition in adverse environments: Improvements to IMELDA.
Creators: name: Starks, David Ross.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1995
Subjects: subject: Engineering, Electronics and Electrical.

description: This thesis deals with speech recognition in adverse environments. The primary problem is the mismatch between training and test conditions. Cases of mismatch include the recording channel, acoustic noise and the speaker. Noise shaping and subband filtering are two noise suppression techniques that work by utilizing properties of speech. Dynamic speech analysis and some feature extraction methods are inherently robust to the influence of noise. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) can be used to combine disparate sets of speech parameters and obtain the optimal set of features. IMELDA (45) is one such method. In this thesis, we analyse the effectiveness of IMELDA under various training and test scenarios. Theoretical results are first derived and substantiated by simulations. It will be shown that LDA provides a form of noise shaping and the root-deconvolution technique is inappropriate for IMELDA. A new algorithm for predicting recognition performance is proposed and verified. Optimal cross-condition recognition is obtained by utilizing samples of noisy test speech in the within-class covariance, in the so-called QNT IMELDA transform. In the event that the noise is stationary, and can be modelled, we derive an equivalent transform by artificially modifying quiet speech samples. This suffices for the simplest instances. For the extreme helicopter case, we show the best approach to be a combination of band-pass filtering and dynamic analysis of the Mel-scale subbands. Unknown channel noise and additive noise are reduced through the respective subband processing algorithms. Finally, practical issues of applying LDA and integrating subband filtering in a speech recognition system are addressed.
Model-based tactile object recognition using pseudo-random encoding.
Creators: name: Yeung, Stephen Siu Kau.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1996
Subjects: subject: Engineering, Aerospace.

description: An original model-based tactile 3-D object recognition system is presented. The development of this system was motivated by the need for a "blind" back-up solution to maintain the object recognition capability of the Space Shuttle robot manipulator when the sun light blinds the video-cameras normally used for object recognition. Tactile object recognition requires the identification of the explored object as well as the recovery of its 3-D position and orientation. Such a complex task calls for a robotic tactile sensing system whose parameters (spatial resolution, probing compliance, tactile image processing) are beyond those usually offered by the emergent tactile sensing technology. The development of the tactile sensing system described in this thesis has resulted in a number of contributions: (i) novel tab-shaped elastic overlay which reduces the cross-talk errors in the tactile sensor, (ii) instrumented passive compliant wrist for more efficient object exploration, and (iii) 2-D correlation method for the integration of the local tactile images in a global image of the explored object surface. The original model-based tactile object recognition paradigm in this thesis can be summarized as follows: "Given a set of 3-D objects having their surfaces Braille-like embossed with terms of a Pseudo-Random Array (PRA) for which is a priori known how the unfolded faces of geometrical models of these objects are mapped into the PRA plane, and given the tactile image of the explored object surfaces, determine the identity, position, and orientation of that object." Tactile object recognition is thus reduced to the recognition of a small set of symbols embossed on object surfaces. The use of multi-valued (instead of the usual binary) pseudo-random encoding allows to reduce the number of embossed symbols which actually are needed to recognized in the tactile image. An original contribution is made by the development of a Pseudo-Random Multi-Valued Product Array (PRMVPA) encoding and related pseudo-random/natural code conversion algorithm. While it is inherently limited to a given set of embossed objects, the described "blind" method allows for a simpler and faster 3-D object recognition using solely tactile sensing. Such an object recognition method has potential applications in controlled environments such as the Space Shuttle, nuclear stations, underwater maintenance of the oil platforms and pipelines.
Developmental changes in sensory processing and state-dependent activity in sensorimotor and prefrontal cortex of infant rats
Creators: name: Gómez, Lex J.
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2023
Subjects: Behavior
Development
Motor cortex
Prefrontal cortex
Sleep
Somatosensory cortex
public abstract

description: All organisms use proprioceptive and tactile information to interpret and interact with theirenvironments. The ability to use this sensory information to navigate the environment is not fully
description: established at birth and must be developed. During early life, somatosensory input serves an
description: instructive role to the developing sensorimotor system, enabling sensorimotor structures to refine
description: their somatotopy and strengthen functional connections with one another. In adults, two such
description: structures, primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and primary motor cortex (M1), are heavily
description: involved in sensory processing and motor learning, and their activities are highly interdependent.
description: Nonetheless, developmental assessments of the two structures have largely considered them
description: independently of one another. Here, I consider the two structures simultaneously to determine
description: how they respond to sensory input, how their responses are differentially modulated by sleep,
description: and when they begin to develop the connectivity upon which their adult functions depend. First,
description: in rats at postnatal day (P)8 and P12, I use in vivo electrophysiology to record neural activity in
description: the forelimb regions of S1 and M1 across cycles of sleep and wake and in response to forelimb
description: stimulation. Next, I extend my investigation to higher-order cortical areas— including secondary
description: motor cortex (M2) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)—to assess similarities and differences
description: in how these structures process state-dependent somatosensory input in comparison with M1.
description: Altogether, this dissertation critically assesses long-held assumptions about sensory processing in
description: the developing neocortex, expands our understanding of the role of behavioral state in early
description: somatosensory processing, and leads to a reconsideration of the role of sensory input in the
description: functional development of first-order and higher-order neocortical structures.
3476379.pdf
Creators: name: Kwon, Hyounghan
name: Arbabi, Ehsan
name: Kamali, Seyedeh Mahsa
name: Faraji-Dana, MohammadSadegh
name: Faraon, Andrei
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2018
Subjects: Condensed Matter Imaging

description: Supplemental document including Figures S1-12
title: The adaptive immune response
title: a potential cause of spiral ganglion neurodegeneration after deafening
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Zhang, Zhenshen
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2025

description: Sensorineural hearing loss is one of the most prevalent sensory deficits in humans today and it is commonly caused by the damage of auditory sensory cells (hair cells). Cochlear implants can restore the function of hair cells and rescue hearing loss but the efficacy of cochlear implants requires a normal and functional population of auditory neurons (spiral ganglion neurons). However, the death or damage of hair cells leads to the degeneration of spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) in humans and most animal models. The reason and mechanism of SGN degeneration is unclear but recent studies have suggested that neuroinflammation plays a role. For immune responses involved in SGN degeneration, current studies mostly focus on the innate immune response and the adaptive immune has been poorly studied. Previous studies in our lab revealed that the immune response is neurotoxic and the adaptive immune response plays a critical role in SGN degeneration after deafening. An important component of the adaptive immune response, the MHCII, is shown to be causal in SGN death. Here, I show that the MHCII expression increases after hair cell loss in the cochlea and the upregulation of MHCII occurs before SGN degeneration. Besides that, the elimination of T cells does not prevent SGN death after deafening in rats. These results suggest that the MHCII-mediated antigen presentation plays an important role in SGN death, but T lymphocytes might not contribute to SGN degeneration.
Le "lieu commun" de la pensée politique moderne: Entre mais dans la théorie politique et la théorie internationale
Creators: name: Thibault, Jean-François
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Political Science, General.

description: Cette thèse propose une contribution à l'histoire de la pensée politique moderne. Son objectif consiste à explorer la nature d'un axiome qui est au coeur du développement de cette pensée depuis le 17ieme siècle. Cet axiome est relatif à la "différence de nature" opposant l'ordre interne aux États et l'ordre entre les États. L'hypothèse qui est avancée est que cette différence de nature exprimee sous la forme de possibilités ontologiques contradictoires par la théorie politique et par la théorie internationale contiendrait une cohérence infrastructurelle représentant une dimension centrale et vraisemblablement constitutive de la pensée politique moderne. Utilisant une stratégie de questionnement déconstructeur associée aux travaux poststructuralistes, la thèse sonde l'apparition, l'articulation et l'inscription de ces "possibilités ontologiques contradictoires" dans l'oeuvre de quatre auteurs qui sont étroitement associés à la tradition du réalisme classique dans le cadre de la pensée politique moderne: Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Hans J. Morgenthau et Martin Wight. Le questionnement des thèmes de l'"état de nature" chez Hobbes, de la "contradiction de l'humanité" chez Rousseau, de l'"idéalisme politique" chez Morgenthau et de l'"impasse de la théorie internationale" chez Wight permettrait ainsi de mettre en lumière cette cohérence infrastructurelle précisement là où se confrontent ces "possibilités ontologiques contradictoires", c'est-à-dire en un "lieu commun" qui serait situé tout à la fois entre mais dans la théorie politique et la théorie internationale. C'est en prenant appui sur ce "lieu commun", mais sans cependant jamais parvenir à en assurer la parfaite maîtrise puisqu'il serait justement porteur de "possibilités ontologiques contradictoires", que la théorie politique et la théorie internationale auront pu se déployer en tant que discours constitutifs de la pensée politique moderne.
Does the genome of a putatively specialist moth (Schinia gracilenta) contain a signal of the Indigenous cultivation of its host plant (Iva annua)?
Creators: name: Renquist, Wren
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2023
Subjects: Domestication
Eastern Agricultural Complex
Population genetics
Schinia
Slender Flower Moth
Sumpweed
Evolution & development
public abstract

description: When capabilities are limited for studying the demographic history of an organism directly, study of one of its parasites may provide useful insights because such parasites will have a shared geographic history with the organism of interest. I test this strategy using the slender flower moth (Schinia gracilenta Hübner 1818), an herbivorous insect that feeds on sumpweed (Iva annua L. 1753). Sumpweed is thought to have been cultivated in North American ca. 7000 B.P and domesticated by 4400 B.P, but limited archaeobotanical records cannot address potential range changes that may have occurred during the domestication process. To test whether S. gracilenta genomes can inform possible range changes, I collected S. gracilenta, and two congeners, Schinia rivulosa and Schinia thoreaui. These moths feed variously on Iva annua, Iva frutescens, Ambrosia artemisiifolia and Ambrosia trifida across the eastern half of the USA. I used Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) to generate a phylogenetic tree of all moths using RAD-seq data and subsampled collections to make a secondary mitochondrial COI gene tree. Using population genetic methods, I determined the population structure of all Schinia collections from all host plants. Then I repeated population genetic analyses using a sample set restricted only to S. gracilenta moths.
description: Though I find that genetic distance increases with geographic distance between populations, I find no other notable population structure within S. gracilenta to indicate any range expansion of its host plant. I also find no evidence for a decrease in allelic diversity corresponding to increased distance from a presumed center or origin.
description: Although my data indicates no range expansion of I. annua, the conclusions drawn should be accepted cautiously. It is possible, for instance, that introgressed alleles from other Schinia species into I. annua may obscure a signal of range expansion. Second, though S. gracilenta is described as a specialist on I. annua, some individuals of this species were collected on other hosts. Though previous collections and experimental work suggest that Schinia moths are specialists, if they are not, S. gracilenta would not have the obligate symbiotic relationship required for detection of I. annua’s demographic history. With these caveats, my working hypothesis is that I. annua’s pre-domestication range likely extended to most of the places it is still found today, and that movement of domesticated forms did not increase its range – or the range of its associated moth parasite.
3472631.pdf
Creators: name: Roccia, Emanuele
name: Cimini, Valeria
name: Sbroscia, Marco
name: Gianani, Ilaria
name: Ruggiero, Ludovica
name: Mancino, Luca
name: Genoni, Marco
name: Ricci, Maria
name: Barbieri, Marco
Publisher: name: Optica Publishing Group
Year: 2018
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Supplemental Document
Signaling protocols for survivable all-optical networks
Creators: name: Vali Sichani, Atousa
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Engineering, Electronics and Electrical.

description: Survivable mechanisms, including fault localization and connection restoration, are achieved by means of electronically analyzing overhead bits in opaque optical networks. However, unlike opaque networks, transparent all-optical networks are unable to examine signal quality at transponders. Consequently, locating and isolating failures and attacks (intentional failures) in transparent optical networks are much harder than in opaque networks. Likewise, connection restoration and path rectification are more complex. Therefore, previously defined survivable terminologies, models, and techniques should be evolved and re-designed with respect to the dissimilarities to be applicable to all-optical networks. Accordingly, this thesis proposes several fault detection protocols, including Fault Localization Signaling Protocol, Rolling-back Signaling Protocol, and Limited-perimeter Vector Matching Protocol, and a number of connection restoration and re-routing techniques, such as Open Link Restoration Protocol, Minimum Weighted-path Restoration Protocol, and Signaling Nested Reservation Protocol, which are feasible in all-optical communication networks. The proposed protocols are all implemented by signaling in the supervisory channels of the overlay model. Since these protocols use controlling signals only as triggering signs, they are not involved in substantial processes and delays. As a result, they are compatible to high-speed all-optical networks. However, the signaling mechanisms embedded in these protocols utilize additional bandwidth from the control network.
Students’ geographic preferences to continue their training after dental school from three different US regions
Creators: name: Blen, Danubio
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2022
Subjects: public abstract

description: This study investigated factors that affected dental students' geographic preferences to continue their training after dental school. The students were surveyed, which included: 1. Demographics, 2. Knowledge and Perceptions of Prosthodontics, 3. Factors that affect interest in states to work in, 4. Main factors to take into consideration when choosing a state, 5. Main reasons for being interested in prosthodontics. The survey was emailed to students via REDCap software to students’ emails. With a response rate of 64%, results showed that married individuals are most likely to pursue the carrier of prosthodontics. Students felt confident in sharing their career plans with other people and individuals who say yes to specializing in prosthodontics vary from one individual’s marital status to another. Married individuals record the highest counts of specializing in the field. This can be assumed that they are settled in their life; thus, it can be concluded that work environment, proximity to family, work flexibility, promotions, creativity on the job, pay, responsibilities, relationship with supervisor, and personal interest greatly influence an individual’s work location.
Development of a physical literacy model for older adults – a consensus process by the collaborative working group on physical literacy for older Canadians
Creators: name: Jones, Gareth R. (Gareth Reardon), 1968-
name: Stathokostas, Liza
name: Young, Bradley W.
name: Wister, Andrew V.
name: Chau, Shirley
name: Clark, Patricia
name: Duggan, Mary
name: Mitchell, Drew
name: Nordland, Peter
Publisher: name: BioMed Central
Year: 2018

description: Background: Arguably the uptake and usability of the physical activity (PA) guidelines for older adults has not been effective with only 12% of this population meeting the minimum guidelines to maintain health. Health promoters must consider innovative ways to increase PA adoption and long-term sustainability. Physical literacy (PL) is emerging as a promising strategy to increase lifelong PA participation in younger age-groups, yet there is relatively little evidence of PL being used to support older adults in achieving the PA guidelines. Methods: An iterative and mixed-methods consensus development process was utilized over a series of six informed processes and meetings to develop a model of physical literacy for adults aged 65 years and older. Results: A multi-disciplinary collaborative working group (n = 9) from diverse practice settings across Canada, and representative and reflective of the full range of key elements of PL, was assembled. Three consensus meetings and two Delphi surveys, using an international cohort of 65 expert researchers, practitioners, non-government organizations and older adults, was conducted. 45% responded on the first round and consensus was achieved; however, we elected to run a second survey to support our results. With 79% response rate, there was consensus to support the new PL model for older adults. Conclusion: Older adults are a unique group who have yet to be exposed to PL as a means to promote long-term PA participation. This new PL model uses an ecological approach to integrate PL into the lifestyles of most older adults. Understanding the interactions between components and elements that facilitate PL will ultimately provide a new and effective tool to target PA promotion and adherence for all older Canadians.
A case study: Teacher professional development and its impact on the improvement of practice in one Ontario secondary school
Creators: name: Hinds, Marjorie J
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Education, Teacher Training.
subject: Education, Secondary.

description: This doctoral thesis focused on teacher professional development in one high school in Ontario, Canada, and explored how teachers perceived their emerging experiences as impacting on their practices. Administrators' perspectives on teacher professional development also were sought. Using a framework of adult learning, self-efficacy, collective efficacy and supervision for renewal, the study addressed the following questions: (1) How does a sample of high school teachers understand the definition and function of professional development? (2) How does the existing design and implementation of professional development contribute to teachers' respective practices? (3) What goals and aspirations do teachers have for professional development and how might those goals and aspirations contribute to their practices? (4) Are the school board's goals and aspirations for the design and implementation of professional development in conflict with or congruent with the goals and aspirations held by the teachers in the study? Key findings from in-depth interviews, validation surveys and observations revealed that the literacy initiative and mentoring for leadership programs were successful in promoting professional development of teachers. The present institutional teacher professional development programs, however, did not meet teachers' individual learning needs and had little or no sustained impact on their practices. Findings indicated that beginning teachers needed subject content and instructional strategies consistent with their assignments, mentoring, and skills in mapping the curriculum; mid-career teachers needed training on inclusive classrooms, opportunities for collaborative work, and career counseling; and experienced teachers needed challenges for renewal, mentoring in communications technology and student assessment, and opportunities for promotions. The study's findings contribute to a better understanding of what constitutes effective professional development for teachers, present evidence of the effects that professional development had on teachers' practices and student achievement, and suggest ways of connecting research, policy and practice. Keywords: adult learning, coherency, collective efficacy, learning community, self-efficacy, student achievement, supervision, and teacher professional development.