Life Sciences Commons^™

Using A One Health Approach For The Assessment Of Rabies Control In Rural Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Ryan Lapenna

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Rabies, a viral zoonotic disease, is widespread in Zimbabwe, with human fatalities reported annually in the country. To supplement the Government’s effort on rabies control, the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust and Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe have joined forces to carry out dog rabies vaccinations in rural communities adjacent to the major tourist attraction of The Victoria Falls. A One Health approach was used to 1) determine the level of protective rabies antibodies among a sample of rural dogs and 2) collect information and describe the knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to rabies among dog owners. In 2020, blood was …

Interplay Between Shift Work, Psychological Distress, Sleep Quality, And Cognitive Performance, Rea Therese Alonzo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Shift work schedules are designed to maintain a continuous operation of goods and services. However, engaging in shift work may impact cognitive functioning. This thesis assessed the relationship between shift work and cognitive performance. Using cross-sectional data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, multiple linear regression models were used to investigate the association between shift work and cognitive performance, as well as the moderating effects of psychological distress and sleep quality. Differences by sex and retirement status were also investigated. Shift work was significantly associated with poor performance for executive functioning but not for declarative memory. Poorer cognitive performance …

Understanding Physical Activity Behaviour In Ontario, Canada: A Cross-Sectional Cohort Analysis Of Carrot Rewards App Users, David D. Mchugh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Little device-measured data are available to describe the physical activity (PA) of rural-dwelling individuals living with chronic disease. PURPOSE: From accelerometer data collected using a smartphone app (‘Carrot Rewards’), we sought to provide mean daily step counts for app users in general and by age and gender for those living in rural/urban areas and those self-reporting a chronic disease or not. METHODS: This cross-sectional cohort study used device-assessed data from Ontario app users (i.e., PA data collected over a 7-day period for each user) who completed an in-app chronic disease survey from December 2018 to April 2019. A …

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 …

Communicating Through A Brain-Computer Interface: Towards The Assessment Of Quality Of Life In Minimally Conscious And Covertly Aware Vegetative State Patients, Jasmine Tung

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Neuroimaging has been utilized to establish communication, using a brain-computer interface, with select patients with severe brain injuries and profound communication impairments. Due to the severe injuries sustained by these patients, traditional techniques used to develop quality of life instruments cannot be used. The Aware Study used a novel approach to establish the key dimensions for assessing the quality of life of patients who can only communicate using this sophisticated technology. Consensus methodology was employed, with the assistance of a multidisciplinary panel of experts, to collectively decide which dimensions are essential for the inclusion in a quality of life instrument …

Evidence For Using Immunosuppressive Treatments When Treating Idiopathic Non-Infectious Uveitis: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Hargurinder Singh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Idiopathic non-infectious uveitis is the spontaneous inflammation of the eye, which can lead to blindness if not treated correctly. Due to long-term side effects of corticosteroids, 4 classes of off-label immunosuppressive treatments are sometimes used (alkylating agents, inhibitors of T-lymphocyte signalling, antimetabolites and biological modifiers). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of different treatment classes on uveitis patients with similar characteristics. Results of the systematic review concurred with the conclusions from the meta-analysis, which found that all immunosuppressive treatments improved patient vision, with a statistically significant change in logMAR of -0.11 (95% CI of -0.152 …

Economic Evaluation Of Potential Applications Of Gene Expression Profiling In Clinical Oncology, Malek Hannouf

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Histopathological analysis of tumor is currently the main tool used to guide cancer management. Gene expression profiling may provide additional valuable information for both classification and prognostication of individual tumors. A number of gene expression profiling assays have been developed recently to inform therapy decisions in women with early stage breast cancer and help identify the primary tumor site in patients with metastatic cancer of unknown primary. The impact of these assays on health and economic outcomes, if introduced into general practice, has not been determined. I aimed to conduct an economic evaluation of regulatory-approved gene expression profiling assays for …