Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Localization Of Pain-Related Brain Activation: A Meta-Analysis Of Neuroimaging Data, Emma G. Duerden, Marie Claire Albanese

Paediatrics Publications

A meta-analysis of 140 neuroimaging studies was performed using the activation-likelihood-estimate (ALE) method to explore the location and extent of activation in the brain in response to noxious stimuli in healthy volunteers. The first analysis involved the creation of a likelihood map illustrating brain activation common across studies using noxious stimuli. The left thalamus, right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral anterior insulae, and left dorsal posterior insula had the highest likelihood of being activated. The second analysis contrasted noxious cold with noxious heat stimulation and revealed higher likelihood of activation to noxious cold in the subgenual ACC and the amygdala. …

Effects Of Age And Symptomatology On Cortical Thickness In Autism Spectrum Disorders, Krissy A.R. Doyle-Thomas, Emma G. Duerden, Margot J. Taylor, Jason P. Lerch, Latha V. Soorya, A. Ting Wang, Jin Fan, Eric Hollander, Evdokia Anagnostou

Paediatrics Publications

Several brain regions show structural and functional abnormalities in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the developmental trajectory of abnormalities in these structures and how they may relate to social and communicative impairments are still unclear. We assessed the effects of age on cortical thickness in individuals with ASD, between the ages of 7 and 39 years in comparison to typically developing controls. Additionally, we examined differences in cortical thickness in relation to symptomatology in the ASD group, and their association with age. Analyses were conducted using a general linear model, controlling for sex. Social and communication scores from …

Assessing The Feasibility Of Time-Resolved Fnirs To Detect Brain Activity During Motor Imagery, Androu Abdalmalak, Daniel Milej, Mamdou Diop, Lorina Naci, Adrian M. Owen, Keith St. Lawrence

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive optical technique for detecting brain activity, which has been previously used during motor and motor executive tasks. There is an increasing interest in using fNIRS as a brain computer interface (BCI) for patients who lack the physical, but not the mental, ability to respond to commands. The goal of this study is to assess the feasibility of time-resolved fNIRS to detect brain activity during motor imagery. Stability tests were conducted to ensure the temporal stability of the signal, and motor imagery data were acquired on healthy subjects. The NIRS probes were placed on …

Assessing Tumor Physiology By Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, Kyle Verdecchia, Jonathan Elliott, Mamadou Diop, Lisa Hoffman, Ting-Yim Lee, Keith St. Lawrence

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

The purpose of this study was to develop a dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique to characterize tumor physiology. Dynamic data were acquired using two contrast agents of different molecular weights, indocyanine green (ICG) and IRDye 800CW carboxylate (IRDcxb). The DCE curves were analyzed using a kinetic model capable of extracting estimates of tumor blood flow (F), capillary transit time (t(c)) and the amount of dye that leaked into the extravascular space (EVS) - characterized by the extraction fraction (E). Data were acquired from five nude rats with tumor xenografts (>10mm) implanted in the neck. Four DCE-NIR datasets …

Assessing Residual Reasoning Ability In Overtly Non-Communicative Patients Using Fmri, Adam Hampshire, Beth L. Parkin, Rhodri Cusack, Davinia Fernandez Espejo, Judith Allanson, Evelyn Kamau, John D. Pickard, Adrian M. Owen

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

It is now well established that some patients who are diagnosed as being in a vegetative state or a minimally conscious state show reliable signs of volition that may only be detected by measuring neural responses. A pertinent question is whether these patients are also capable of logical thought. Here, we validate an fMRI paradigm that can detect the neural fingerprint of reasoning processes and moreover, can confirm whether a participant derives logical answers. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach in a physically non-communicative patient who had been shown to engage in mental imagery in response to simple auditory …

Errors In Device Localization In Mri Using Z-Frames., Jeremy Cepek, Blaine A Chronik, Aaron Fenster

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The use of a passive MRI-visible tracking frame is a common method of localizing devices in MRI space for MRI-guided procedures. One of the most common tracking frame designs found in the literature is the z-frame, as it allows six degree-of-freedom pose estimation using only a single image slice. Despite the popularity of this design, it is susceptible to errors in pose estimation due to various image distortion mechanisms in MRI. In this paper, the absolute error in using a z-frame to localize a tool in MRI is quantified over various positions of the z-frame relative to the MRI isocenter, …

Language, Reading, And Math Learning Profiles In An Epidemiological Sample Of School Age Children., Lisa M D Archibald, Janis Oram Cardy, Marc F Joanisse, Daniel Ansari

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Dyscalculia, dyslexia, and specific language impairment (SLI) are relatively specific developmental learning disabilities in math, reading, and oral language, respectively, that occur in the context of average intellectual capacity and adequate environmental opportunities. Past research has been dominated by studies focused on single impairments despite the widespread recognition that overlapping and comorbid deficits are common. The present study took an epidemiological approach to study the learning profiles of a large school age sample in language, reading, and math. Both general learning profiles reflecting good or poor performance across measures and specific learning profiles involving either weak language, weak reading, weak …

Acute Alcohol Consumption Impairs Controlled But Not Automatic Processes In A Psychophysical Pointing Paradigm., Kevin Johnston, Brian Timney, Melvyn A Goodale

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Numerous studies have investigated the effects of alcohol consumption on controlled and automatic cognitive processes. Such studies have shown that alcohol impairs performance on tasks requiring conscious, intentional control, while leaving automatic performance relatively intact. Here, we sought to extend these findings to aspects of visuomotor control by investigating the effects of alcohol in a visuomotor pointing paradigm that allowed us to separate the influence of controlled and automatic processes. Six male participants were assigned to an experimental "correction" condition in which they were instructed to point at a visual target as quickly and accurately as possible. On a small …

She Came, She Saw, She Sowed: Re-Negotiating Gender-Responsive Priorities For Effective Development Of Agricultural Biotechnology In Sub-Saharan Africa, Obidimma Ezezika, Jennifer Deadman, Abdallah S. Daar

Health Studies Publications

In this paper, we argue for the importance of incorporating a gendered perspective for the effective development of sustainable agricultural biotechnology systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Priority setting for agricultural policy and project development requires attention to gender issues specific to the demands of agricultural biotechnology. This is essential for successfully addressing food security and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). There has been a great deal of debate and literature on the implications of gender in agricultural development and policy. However, the implications of gender in agricultural biotechnology and have received relatively less attention, especially in SSA. Based on interviews …

University Campus Accessibility Measure, Lea E. Klinger

Occupational Therapy Publications

No abstract provided.

The Youth Report Version Of The Child And Adolescent Scale Of Participation (Casp): Assessment Of Psychometric Properties And Comparison With Parent Report, Janette Mcdougall, Gary Bedell, Virginia Wright

Occupational Therapy Publications

Objective The Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation (CASP) parent report is a brief and valid measure for use with children and youth with chronic conditions/disabilities that has been shown to have good coverage at the chapter level of the‘Activities and Participation’component of the International Classification of Functioning,Disability and Health.The purpose of this research was to assess the psychometric properties of a CASP youth self-report version,to further validate the parent report,and to compare parent and youth reports of youths’ activity and participation.

Methods Baseline data from a longitudinal study examining predictors of changes in quality of life for youth with …

P38 Mapk Regulates Cavitation And Tight Junction Function In The Mouse Blastocyst., Christine E Bell, Andrew J Watson

Obstetrics & Gynaecology Publications

UNLABELLED: Blastocyst formation is essential for implantation and maintenance of pregnancy and is dependent on the expression and coordinated function of a series of proteins involved in establishing and maintaining the trans-trophectoderm ion gradient that enables blastocyst expansion. These consist of Na/K-ATPase, adherens junctions, tight junctions (TJ) and aquaporins (AQP). While their role in supporting blastocyst formation is established, the intracellular signaling pathways that coordinate their function is unclear. The p38 MAPK pathway plays a role in regulating these proteins in other cell types and is required for embryo development at the 8-16 cell stage, but its role has not …

The Bodily Experience Of Cerebral Palsy: A Journey To Self-Awareness., Laura K Brunton, Doreen J Bartlett

Physical Therapy Publications

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to describe the lived bodily experience of cerebral palsy (CP).

METHOD: This was a descriptive phenomenological inquiry. Ten participants were interviewed about their bodily experiences of living with CP. Interviews were semi-structured around pain and fatigue. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify themes.

RESULTS: The bodily experience of CP centered on issues of fatigue and pain as a feeling of muscle soreness. An overwhelming amount of the discussion on fatigue emphasized the fatigue that occurs with walking and prolonged activity. Self-awareness of the individuals' own bodies and adapting activity to continue to …

Determinants Of Negative Pathways To Care And Their Impact On Service Disengagement In First-Episode Psychosis., Kelly K. Anderson, Rebecca Fuhrer, Norbert Schmitz, Ashok K Malla

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

PURPOSE: Although there have been numerous studies on pathways to care in first-episode psychosis (FEP), few have examined the determinants of the pathway to care and its impact on subsequent engagement with mental health services.

METHODS: Using a sample of 324 FEP patients from a catchment area-based early intervention (EI) program in Montréal, we estimated the association of several socio-demographic, clinical, and service-level factors with negative pathways to care and treatment delay. We also assessed the impact of the pathway to care on time to disengagement from EI services.

RESULTS: Few socio-demographic or clinical factors were predictive of negative pathways …

"Any Movement At All Is Exercise": A Focused Ethnography Of Rural Community-Dwelling Older Adults' Perceptions And Experiences Of Exercise As Self-Care, Laura J. Graham, Denise M Connelly

Physical Therapy Publications

PURPOSE: To understand rural community-dwelling older adult participants' shared values, beliefs, and behaviours related to exercise as self-care.

METHODS: We conducted a constructivist-focused ethnography involving semi-structured interviews and participant observation with 17 individuals 65 years and older. Interviews were transcribed and inductively coded to develop themes related to exercise, self-care, and exercise as self-care. Field notes were triangulated with follow-up interviews and dialogue between authors to enhance interpretation.

RESULTS: Participants described exercise broadly as movement and not as a central self-care behaviour. However, awareness of the importance and health-related benefits of exercise increased after a significant personal health-related event. Participants …

Orientation Distribution Of Highly Oriented Type I Collagen Deposited On Flat Samples With Different Geometries, Qamrun Nahar, David Minh Luan Quach, Behafarid Darvish, Harvey A. Goldberg, Bernd Grohe, Silvia Mittler

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

The structural arrangement of type I collagen in vivo is critical for the normal functioning of tissues, such as bone, cornea, tendons and blood vessels. At present, there are no established low-cost techniques for fabricating aligned collagen structures for applications in regenerative medicine. Here, we report on a straightforward approach to fabricate collagen films, with defined orientation distributions of collagen fibrillar aggregates within a matrix of oriented collagen molecules on flat sample surfaces. Langmuir Blodgett (LB) technology was used to deposit thin films of oriented type I collagen onto flat substrates exhibiting various shapes. By varying the shapes of the …

Influence Of Electrostatic Forces On The Particle Propulsion In The Evanescent Field Of Silver Ion-Exchanged Waveguides, Dmytro Gebenniko, Silvia Mittler

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

The effect of electrostatic interaction between carboxylate- and amino-functionalized polystyrene particles and a charged waveguide surface on the propulsion speed in an optical tweezers is considered as a function of pH and ionic strength. It was shown that with the variation of the pH of the aqueous solution, the particles were immersed in, a systematic change of propulsion speed with a maximum speed could be achieved. The appearance of a maximum speed was ascribed to changes in the particle-waveguide separation as a result of the combination of two forces: Coulomb repulsion/attraction and induced dipole forces. The highest maximum speed at …

A Biosensor Based On Periodic Arrays Of Gold Nanodisks Under Normal Transmission, Hao Jiang, Tingjie Li, Erden Ertorer, Jun Yang, Jayshri Sabarinathan, Silvia Mittler

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

We present a biosensor based on periodic arrays of gold nanodisks patterned on top of a glass substrate. The sensor’s resonance wavelength, peak linewidth and figure of merit were studied both in experiments and in simulations. We analyzed the dependence of the sensor’s resolution on the inherent figure of merit of the sensor structure and the signal to noise ratio of the detection system. The best achieved refractive index resolution is 1.5×10-4 RIU and the detection limit on and antigen-antibody binding is better than 1 ng/mL.

Loss Of Dendritic Inhibition In The Hippocampus After Repeated Early-Life Hyperthermic Seizures In Rats., Richard Boyce, L Stan Leung

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

Seizures are relatively common in children and are a risk factor for subsequent temporal lobe epilepsy. To investigate whether early-life seizures themselves are detrimental to the proper function of the adult brain, we studied whether dendritic excitation and inhibition in the hippocampus of adult rats were altered after hyperthermia-induced seizures in immature rats. In particular, we hypothesized that apical dendritic inhibition in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells would be disrupted following hyperthermia-induced seizures in early life. Seizure rats were given three hyperthermia-induced seizures per day for three days from postnatal day (PND) 13 to 15; control rats were handled similarly but …

Surface Immobilized Gold Nanoparticles By Organometallic Chemical Vapor Deposition On Amine Terminated Glass Surfaces, Erden Ertorer, Jessica C. Avery, Laura C. Pavelka, Silvia Mittler

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

We describe the growth of surface immobilized gold nanoparticles with organometallic chemical vapour deposition (OMCVD) on amine terminated surfaces, utilizing (trimethylphospine)methylgold ((CH3)3PAuCH3) precursor. Samples fabricated using different deposition times were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Particle stability on the samples was tested by washing and rinsing treatments with various organic solvents. A biotin-streptavidin scheme was applied to demonstrate the biosensing capabilities of the samples. The size, interparticle distance, and shape of the gold nanoparticles demonstrated that OMCVD is a simple, economic, and fast way to fabricate surface bonded and stable gold nanoparticles. The plasmonic properties, the stability …

Physical Accessibility Measure For Schools, Lea E. Klinger

Occupational Therapy Publications

No abstract provided.

Acute Vibration Induces Transient Expression Of Anabolic Genes In The Murine Intervertebral Disc, Matthew R. Mccann, Priya Patel, Kim L. Beaucage, Yizhi Xiao, Corey Bacher, Walter L. Siqueira, David W. Holdsworth, S. Jeffrey Dixon, Cheryle A. Séguin

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

No abstract provided.

Periodic Arrays Of Gold Nano-Disks Coupled With Evanescent Spectroscopy, Hao Jiang, Touraj Manifar, Aref Bakhtazad, Hossein Hojjati, Jayshr Sabarinathan, Silvia Mittler

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

We study and analyze various spectral features of gold nano-disk arrays coupled with the evanescent field of an optical waveguide using finite difference time domain simulations for comparison to our previous work on this topic (Jiang et al, Journal of Lightwave Technology 27, no.13, (2009): 2264-2270). We find that the quadrupolar and dipolar peaks are both heavily dependent on the coherent interactions of the periodic array and show comparable performance for refractive index sensing applications. We also find sharp extinction peaks and dips in the simulated spectra, but they are not sensitive to the index change of the surface-bound layer. …

Health Literacy Promotion: Contemporary Conceptualizations And Current Implementations In Canadian Health Librarianship, Nicole K. Dalmer

FIMS Publications

Research questions: What are the current conceptualizations of health literacy, and what strategies are Canadian health librarians in public, academic, and hospital libraries enacting to put health literacy promotion into practice? Data sources: Serving as the basis of this scoping review, library and information science, health sciences, and interdisciplinary databases were searched using key terms relating to health literacy promotion as it relates to services, programming, or resources used in a variety of library settings. A web searched allowed for the inclusion of grey literature sources. Study selection: Data sources were searched using a combination of subject headings …

Mice With Deficient Bk Channel Function Show Impaired Prepulse Inhibition And Spatial Learning, But Normal Working And Spatial Reference Memory., Marei Typlt, Magdalena Mirkowski, Erin Azzopardi, Lukas Ruettiger, Peter Ruth, Susanne Schmid

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Genetic variations in the large-conductance, voltage- and calcium activated potassium channels (BK channels) have been recently implicated in mental retardation, autism and schizophrenia which all come along with severe cognitive impairments. In the present study we investigate the effects of functional BK channel deletion on cognition using a genetic mouse model with a knock-out of the gene for the pore forming α-subunit of the channel. We tested the F1 generation of a hybrid SV129/C57BL6 mouse line in which the slo1 gene was deleted in both parent strains. We first evaluated hearing and motor function to establish the suitability of this …

Habituation Of Reflexive And Motivated Behavior In Mice With Deficient Bk Channel Function., Marei Typlt, Magdalena Mirkowski, Erin Azzopardi, Peter Ruth, Peter K D Pilz, Susanne Schmid

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Habituation is considered the most basic form of learning. It describes the decrease of a behavioral response to a repeated non-threatening sensory stimulus and therefore provides an important sensory filtering mechanism. While some neuronal pathways mediating habituation are well described, underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In general, there is an agreement that short-term and long-term habituation are based on different mechanisms. Historically, a distinction has also been made between habituation of motivated versus reflexive behavior. In recent studies in invertebrates the large conductance voltage- and calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel has been implicated to be a key player …