Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Emerging Data Infrastructure & Potential Collaborations Strategic Policy And Research Branch, Christian Dea

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Conferences

No abstract provided.

Canada’S Immigration Policy And Labour Shortages, Ana Ferrer

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Conferences

No abstract provided.

Issues In The Analysis Of Inequality, Michael R. Smith

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Conferences

No abstract provided.

The Income Distribution Of Canada's Seniors: The Top End And Everyone Else, Mike Veall

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Conferences

No abstract provided.

Program, Population Change And Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Conferences

No abstract provided.

Relationships Amongst Osteoarthritis Biomarkers, Dynamic Knee Joint Load, And Exercise: Results From A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study, Michael A. Hunt, Courtney L. Pollock, Virginia Byers Kraus, Tore Saxne, Sue Peters, Janet L. Huebner, Eric C. Sayre, Jolanda Cibere

Physical Therapy Publications

Background

Little is known about the relationships of circulating levels of biomarkers of cartilage degradation with biomechanical outcomes relevant to knee osteoarthritis (OA) or biomarker changes following non-pharmacological interventions. The objectives of this exploratory, pilot study were to: 1) examine relationships between biomarkers of articular cartilage degradation and synthesis with measures of knee joint load during walking, and 2) examine changes in these biomarkers following 10 weeks of strengthening exercises.

Methods

Seventeen (8 male, 9 female; 66.1 +/- 11.3 years of age) individuals with radiographically-confirmed medial tibiofemoral OA participated. All participants underwent a baseline testing session where serum and urine …

Children First: It’S Time To Change! Mental Health Promotion, Prevention, And Treatment Informed By Public Health, And Resiliency Approaches, Vicki Schwean, Susan Rodger

Journal Articles

Although the importance of healthy mental development in children and youth is not disputed, the mental health needs of far too many Canadian children are being ignored. Within the context of recent federal and provincial calls for systemic reform of the mental health care systems for children and youth, we underscore the necessity for ongoing innovation, development, education, and evaluation. This article describes our aims to establish demonstration and research sites focused on promising frameworks that draw from systems of care, public health, and resiliency approaches.

Supporting Rebuilding Efforts In Afghanistan

Data and Test Instruments

The Royal College has been quietly assisting in thereconstruction of Afghanistan’s residency education system,devastated by years of war, by supplying members of theNATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A) with educationalmaterials and advice to appropriately modernize the country’straining programs.“These efforts are essential for the training of Afghanphysicians in medical and surgical specialties, to ensure ahealthy future for the people of Afghanistan,” says Major Vivian McAlister, MD, FRCSC, member ofRoyal College Council and NTM-A participant.The capacity-building initiative is supported on the ground by the NTM-A team, which includesnumerous Fellows of the Royal College, who advise their Afghan counterparts on ways they can leadadvances in …

Supporting Rebuilding Efforts In Afghanistan, Dialogue

Data and Test Instruments

The Royal College has been quietly assisting in the reconstruction of Afghanistan’s residency education system, devastated by years of war, by supplying members of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A) with educational materials and advice to appropriately modernize the country’s training programs.“These efforts are essential for the training of Afghan physicians in medical and surgical specialties, to ensure a healthy future for the people of Afghanistan,” says Major Vivian McAlister, MD, FRCSC, member of Royal College Council and NTM-A participant.The capacity-building initiative is supported on the ground by the NTM-A team, which includes numerous Fellows of the Royal College, who advise …

Molecular Imaging To Target Transplanted Muscle Progenitor Cells, Kelly Gutpell, Rebecca Mcgirr, Lisa Hoffman

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe genetic neuromuscular disorder that affects 1 in 3,500 boys, and is characterized by progressive muscle degeneration(1, 2). In patients, the ability of resident muscle satellite cells (SCs) to regenerate damaged myofibers becomes increasingly inefficient(4). Therefore, transplantation of muscle progenitor cells (MPCs)/myoblasts from healthy subjects is a promising therapeutic approach to DMD. A major limitation to the use of stem cell therapy, however, is a lack of reliable imaging technologies for long-term monitoring of implanted cells, and for evaluating its effectiveness. Here, we describe a non-invasive, real-time approach to evaluate the success of myoblast …

Large Area Periodic, Systematically Changing, Multishape Nanostructures By Laser Interference Lithography And Cell Response To These Topographies, Erden Ertorer, Fartash Vasefi, Joel Keshwah, Mohamadreza Najiminaini, Christopher Halfpap, Uwe Langbein, Jeffrey J. L. Carson, Douglas W. Hamilton, Silvia Mittler

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

The fabrication details to form large area systematically changing multishape nanoscale structures on a chip by laser interference lithography (LIL) are described. The feasibility of fabricating different geometries including dots, ellipses, holes, and elliptical holes in both x- and y- directions on a single substrate is shown by implementing a Lloyd's interferometer. The fabricated structures at different substrate positions with respect to exposure time, exposure angle and associated light intensity profile are analyzed. Experimental details related to the fabrication of symmetric and biaxial periodic nanostructures on photoresist, silicon surfaces, and ion milled glass substrates are presented. Primary rat calvarial osteoblasts …

Microglia-Derived Tnfα Induces Apoptosis In Neural Precursor Cells Via Transcriptional Activation Of The Bcl-2 Family Member Puma, J. Guadagno, X. Xu, M. Karajgikar, A. Brown, S.P. Cregan

Paediatrics Publications

Neuroinflammation is a common feature of acute neurological conditions such as stroke and spinal cord injury, as well as neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Previous studies have demonstrated that acute neuroinflammation can adversely affect the survival of neural precursor cells (NPCs) and thereby limit the capacity for regeneration and repair. However, the mechanisms by which neuroinflammatory processes induce NPC death remain unclear. Microglia are key mediators of neuroinflammation and when activated to induce a pro-inflammatory state produce a number of factors that could affect NPC survival. Importantly, in the present study we demonstrate …

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: More Imaging, More Phenotyping...Better Care?, Damien Pike, Grace Parraga

Medical Biophysics Publications

No abstract provided.

Conditional Sox9 Ablation Reduces Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan Levels And Improves Motor Function Following Spinal Cord Injury, William M. Mckillop, Magdalena Dragan, Andreas Schedl, Arthur Brown

Paediatrics Publications

Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) found in perineuronal nets and in the glial scar after spinal cord injury have been shown to inhibit axonal growth and plasticity. Since we have previously identified SOX9 as a transcription factor that upregulates the expression of a battery of genes associated with glial scar formation in primary astrocyte cultures, we predicted that conditional Sox9 ablation would result in reduced CSPG expression after spinal cord injury and that this would lead to increased neuroplasticity and improved locomotor recovery. Control and Sox9 conditional knock-out mice were subject to a 70 kdyne contusion spinal cord injury at thoracic …

Hd-Cnv: Hotspot Detector For Copy Number Variants., Jenna L Butler, Marjorie Elizabeth Osborne Locke, Kathleen A Hill, Mark Daley

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

SUMMARY: Copy number variants (CNVs) are a major source of genetic variation. Comparing CNVs between samples is important in elucidating their potential effects in a wide variety of biological contexts. HD-CNV (hotspot detector for copy number variants) is a tool for downstream analysis of previously identified CNV regions from multiple samples, and it detects recurrent regions by finding cliques in an interval graph generated from the input. It creates a unique graphical representation of the data, as well as summary spreadsheets and UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz) Genome Browser track files. The interval graph, when viewed with other software …

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 …

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 …

Development Of A 3d Ultrasound System To Investigate Post-Hemorrhagic Hydrocephalus In Pre-Term Neonates, J. Kishimoto, D. Lee, K. St. Lawrence, W. Romano, A. Fenster, S. De Ribaupierre

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Clinical intracranial ultrasound (US) is performed as a standard of care on neonates at risk of intraventricular hemorrhaging (IVH) and is also used after a diagnosis to monitor for potential ventricular dilation. However, it is difficult to estimate the volume of ventricles with 2D US due to their irregular shape. We developed a 3D US system to be used as an adjunct to a clinical system to investigate volumetric changes in the ventricles of neonates with IVH. Our system has been found have an error of within 1% of actual distance measurements in all three directions and volume measurements of …

Susceptibility To Fatty Acid-Induced Β-Cell Dysfunction Is Enhanced In Prediabetic Diabetes-Prone Biobreeding Rats: A Potential Link Between Β-Cell Lipotoxicity And Islet Inflammation, Christine Tang, Anthony E. Naassan, Astrid Chamson-Reig, Khajag Koulajian, Tracy T. Goh, Frederick Yoon, Andrei I. Oprescu, Husam Ghanim, Gary F. Lewis, Paresh Dandona, Marc Y. Donath, Jan A. Ehses, Edith Arany, Adria Giacca

Paediatrics Publications

β-Cell lipotoxicity is thought to play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes. However, no study has examined its role in type 1 diabetes, which could be clinically relevant for slow-onset type 1 diabetes. Reports of enhanced cytokine toxicity in fat-laden islets are consistent with the hypothesis that lipid and cytokine toxicity maybe synergistic. Thus, β-cell lipotoxicity could be enhanced in models of autoimmune diabetes. To determine this, we examined the effects of prolonged free fatty acids elevation on β-cell secretory function in the prediabetic diabetes-prone BioBreeding (dp-BB) rat, its diabetes-resistant BioBreeding (dr-BB) control, and normal Wistar-Furth …

Progastrin Stimulates Colonic Cell Proliferation Via Cck2r- And Β-Arrestin-Dependent Suppression Of Bmp2, Guangchun Jin, C. Benedikt Westphalen, Yoku Hayakawa, Daniel L. Worthley, Samuel Asfaha, Xiangdong Yang, Xiaowei Chen, Yiling Si, Hongshan Wang, Yagnesh Tailor, Richard A. Friedman, Timothy C. Wang

Paediatrics Publications

Background & Aims Progastrin stimulates colonic mucosal proliferation and carcinogenesis through the cholecystokinin 2 receptor (CCK2R) - partly by increasing the number of colonic progenitor cells. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which progastrin stimulates colonic cell proliferation. We investigated the role of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) in progastrin induction of colonic cell proliferation via CCK2R. Methods We performed microarray analysis to compare changes in gene expression in the colonic mucosa of mice that express a human progastrin transgene, gastrin knockout mice, and C57BL/6 mice (controls); the effects of progastrin were also determined on in vitro colonic crypt …

Mice That Express Human Interleukin-8 Have Increased Mobilization Of Immature Myeloid Cells, Which Exacerbates Inflammation And Accelerates Colon Carcinogenesis, Samuel Asfaha, Alexander N. Dubeykovskiy, Hiroyuki Tomita, Xiangdong Yang, Sarah Stokes, Wataru Shibata, Richard A. Friedman, Hiroshi Ariyama, Zinaida A. Dubeykovskaya, Sureshkumar Muthupalani, Russell Ericksen, Harold Frucht, James G. Fox, Timothy C. Wang

Paediatrics Publications

Background & Aims: Interleukin (IL)-8 has an important role in initiating inflammation in humans, attracting immune cells such as neutrophils through their receptors CXCR1 and CXCR2. IL-8 has been proposed to contribute to chronic inflammation and cancer. However, mice do not have the IL-8 gene, so human cancer cell lines and xenograft studies have been used to study the role of IL-8 in colon and gastric carcinogenesis. We generated mice that carry a bacterial artificial chromosome that encompasses the entire human IL-8 gene, including its regulatory elements (IL-8Tg mice). Methods: We studied the effects of IL-8 expression in APCmin+/- mice …

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 …

Uwomj Volume 82, Issue 1, Spring 2013, Western University

University of Western Ontario Medical Journal

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry

Uwomj Volume 82, Supplement S1, Summer 2013, Western University

University of Western Ontario Medical Journal

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry

Uwomj Volume 82, No 2, Fall 2013, Western University

University of Western Ontario Medical Journal

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry

African Probiotic Yoghurt Network : Western Heads East Internship Report, Emily Trudell

Business and Social Enterprise

The purpose of this report is to explain to all stakeholders, and especially Western Heads East (WHE), the progression of my internship work with APYN alongside the progression of APYN’s establishment as an organization during the second half of my internship,to provide APYN with a recordof the activities we worked on together, and tohand over the documents APYN and I produced collaboratively to APYN to help guide future organizational decisions. I will begin with a review of my planning workshop, from which my two main activities stemmed, and then provide descriptions and analysis surrounding each one in the body of …

"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 …

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 …

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. …