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Mucosa-Associated Invariant T Cell Roles And Local Responses In Cell-Mediated Immunity To Influenza A Virus, Christine Marie Wardell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mucosa-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate-like T cells that are activated by microbial vitamin B metabolites and/or cytokine stimulation to produce pro-inflammatory cytokines and cytotoxic granules. Influenza A viruses (IAVs) activate MAIT cells in a by-stander manner, and their abundance negatively correlates with infection-induced morbidity and mortality. However, how MAIT cells directly contribute to anti-viral immunity is ill-defined. I hypothesized that MAIT cells’ presence in mice enhances antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses. I observed a trend that MAIT cell-deficient mice generally developed smaller populations of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells following IAV exposure than mice abundant in MAIT …

A Ph-Sensitive Delivery System For The Prevention Of Dental Caries Using Salivary Proteins, Yi Zhu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dental caries remains one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. Salivary proteins such as histatins have demonstrated biological functions directly related to tooth homeostasis and prevention of dental caries. However, histatins are susceptible to the high proteolytic activities in the oral environment. Therefore, pH-sensitive chitosan nanoparticles (CNs) have been proposed as potential carriers to target major oral diseases that occur under acidic conditions (e.g. dental caries and dental erosion). Four different types of chitosan polymers were investigated and the optimized CNs successfully loaded histatin 3 and released it selectively under acidic conditions. Through loading the survival time of histatin …

Perceptions Of Settlement Workers On The Needs And Challenges Of Female Syrian Refugees, Sheffy Bhayee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Syrians account for a large proportion of recent refugee migrants to Canada. Settlement workers are the main point of contact for refugees; they remain with these individuals from the day of arrival until they have successfully settled. They are not only providers of information and assistance to meet basic needs but carry the responsibility of ensuring cultural integration. For this, it is crucial to understand the intersectional identities of the incoming migrant; coupled with traumatic experiences of fleeing from war, carrying cultured gender roles, and dealing with the anxiety and stress of relocation. The current study describes the settlement experiences …

Towards On-Line Plan Adaptation Of Unified Intensity-Modulated Arc Therapy Using A Fast-Direct Aperture Optimization Algorithm, Michael Macfarlane

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) plays a vital role in the treatment of cancer, with close to half of all cancer patients receiving EBRT at some point over their course of treatment. Although EBRT is a well-established form of treatment, there are a number of ways in which EBRT could still be improved in terms of quality and efficiency for treatment planning and radiation dose delivery. This thesis reports a series of improvements made to EBRT.

First, we developed and evaluated a new treatment planning technique called unified intensity-modulated arc therapy (UIMAT) which combines the optimization and delivery of rotational volumetric …

Haptics-Enabled, Gpu Augmented Surgical Simulation Platform For Glenoid Reaming, Vlad Popa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Surgical simulators are technological platforms that provide virtual substitutes to the current cadaver-based medical training models. The advantages of exposure to these devices have been thoroughly studied, with enhanced surgical proficiency being one of the assets gained after extensive use. While simulators have already penetrated numerous medical domains, the field of orthopedics remains stagnant despite a demand for the ability to practice uncommon surgeries, such as total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA). Here we extrapolate the algorithms of an inhouse software engine revolving around glenoid reaming, a critical step of TSA. The project’s purpose is to provide efficient techniques for future simulators, …

Potential Role Of Extracellular Atp Released By Bacteria In Bladder Infection And Contractility, Behnam Abbasian

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Urgency urinary incontinence (UUI), the result of conditions such as overactive bladder (OAB), could potentially be influenced by both commensal and urinary tract infection-associated bacteria. The sensing of bladder filling involves interplay between various parts of the nervous system eventually resulting in contraction of the detrusor muscle during micturition. Here we model host responses to various urogenital bacteria, firstly by using urothelial bladder cell lines and then with myofibroblast contraction assays. To measure responses, we examined calcium influx, gene expression and alpha smooth muscle actin deposition assays. We found that organisms such as Escherichia coli IA2 and Gardnerella vaginalis ATCC …

Hyperactive Torc1 Sensitizes Yeast Cells To Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress By Compromising Cell Wall Integrity, Khadija Ahmed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The disruption of protein folding homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) results in an accumulation of toxic misfolded proteins and activates a network of signaling events collectively known as the unfolded protein response (UPR). While UPR activation upon ER stress is well characterized, how other signaling pathways integrate into the ER proteostasis network is unclear. Here, I sought to investigate how the target of rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1) signaling cascade acts in parallel with the UPR to regulate ER stress sensitivity. Using S. cerevisiae, I found that TORC1 signaling is attenuated during ER stress and constitutive activation of TORC1 …

Hiv-1 Group M Subtype Fitness, Disease Progression, And Entry Efficiency, Colin M. Venner

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) emerged in the human population shortly after the turn of the 19th century. Distribution of HIV-1 across the globe over the past 30–35 years can be traced to founder events with primordial HIV strains from sub-Saharan Africa. Even considering the burden of HIV in Africa, our knowledge of HIV-1 disease is still largely limited to subtype B HIV-1, a strain responsible for 3 million infections in North America and Europe as compared to the 33 million that are infected with HIV-1 subtypes A, C, D, and circulating and unique recombinant forms.

This dissertation analyzes …

Design Of Tissue-Specific Cellular Microenvironments For Adipose-Derived Stromal Cell Culture And Delivery, Arthi Shridhar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The development of in vitro cell culture models that investigate tissue-specific effects of the extracellular matrix (ECM) on stem/progenitor cell lineage-commitment can contribute towards the design of improved cell delivery strategies. This thesis developed processing methods that conserved ECM bioactivity to generate well-characterized 2- and 3-D culture platforms that facilitated the evaluation of ECM composition on the adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation of human adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs). Initial work compared α-amylase and pepsin digestion as methods to fabricate ECM coatings. The effects of enzyme processing and ECM composition were explored using human decellularized adipose tissue (DAT) and bovine tendon collagen …

Thucydides' Account Of The Plague As Trauma Narrative, Jenna M. Colclough

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thucydides’ detailed description of the Athenian plague, which is estimated to have killed from a quarter to a third of Athens’ population[1]and led to the breakdown of several social norms, has been approached from a variety of scholarly perspectives, yet its potential as a trauma narrative is still underexplored.

Drawing on comparative evidence from the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, such as Katherine Anne Porter’s fictionalized account Pale Horse, Pale Rider, this thesis examines the emotive and commemorative functions of Thucydides’ plague episode through the lens of trauma theory. By combining elements of personal narrative, literature, and …

Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics Analysis Of Bioactive Proteins In Emd That Modulate Adhesion Of Gingival Fibroblast To Improve Bio-Integration Of Dental Implants, David Zuanazzi Machado Jr

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Titanium implants are used in dental practice to replace damaged or lost teeth. The implant needs to integrate with the surrounding gingiva to protect it against bacterial invasion that leads to implant loss. The biointegration is dependent on the implant surface that interacts with proteins from biological fluids to modulate tissues response. Tailoring the surface with specific proteins from the enamel matrix derivative (EMD) would be beneficial to improve the implant-gingiva interface since EMD can affect various cells including gingival fibroblasts. A surface-affinity approach using three different titanium surfaces and saliva was utilized as a model in combination with tandem …