Mechanism of Blood Maturation Induced by Hedgehog Inhibition in Pluripotent Sources

The generation of hematopoietic progenitors from human pluripotent cell sources for use in personalized medicine is an attainable goal for the ease of clinical intervention using these cells. Furthermore, generated platelets and mature red blood cells are enucleated which allows for the use of induced pluripotent stem cells as a starting source or other sources of genetic manipulation. Generating these cells has proven difficult as the cells appear to be stuck in a primitive state of differentiation and do not mature into an adult phenotype. This thesis shows that inhibition of the hedgehog signaling pathway early in the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells induces a maturation towards definitive hematopoiesis. Generated erythroid cells were shown to express beta globin at the transcript as well as protein level. This maturation effect was confirmed to occur through central hedgehog repressor, Gli3R, through genetic manipulation. Further interrogation of this mechanism showed that globin regulation was not mediated by chromatin methylation by the polycomb repressive complex. Finally, Gli3R was also shown to not act as a transcription factor influencing globin expression directly and is therefore engaging separate regulatory mechanisms. This data provides great strides towards the generation of clinically relevant hematopoietic populations from pluripotent sources, however Gli3R’s direct mechanism of action remains to be determined.Master of Science (MSc

Evaluation of IDRC-supported eHealth projects : final report

This report provides an in-depth account of the evaluation findings and recommendations for the next five years of IDRC’s eHealth programming. The quantitative and qualitative assessment covered 25 projects representing activities in 25 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) of which approximately 50% have been completed and 50% remain on-going ranging in scope from $30,000 -$2,422,652. The total dollar value of the projects included in this evaluation is approximately $17 million CAD. To complement the evaluation a targeted literature review of eHealth, a series of Lessons Learned Workshops with grantees and IDRC staff, and key informant interviews with internal and external stakeholders were conducted..

Experimental Study of Pathological and Some Immunological Aspect of Infection Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria and Exotoxin in Rabbits

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen which infect immunocompromised patients. bacteria produce large types of virulence factors that serves its pathogenicity. The exotoxin A is major toxic extracellular virulent factor produced by P. aeruginosa. To clear the effect of exotoxin A and P. aeruginosa , Bacteria suspension and Exotoxin A extraction were injected intraperitonially in four group of rabbits, the result show there was significant decrease in total leukocyte count in all groups specially after 7 days from injection of Bacteria suspension and Exotoxin A also there is increase in neutrophilia percentage is the same period, the bacteria suspension and toxin A are capable alone or in both to activated phagocytosis, and produce neutralizing antibodies and produce pathological and immunological effect in liver spleen , kidney and lung and this suggest that toxin A and P. aeruginosa bacteria can effect in some immunological and pathological aspect when injected in experimental rabbit

Kuali OLE Project Update

The Kuali OLE version 0.8 release will be the first implementable release of Kuali OLE. This session will give an update to the project overall, and specific details as to the functionality included in version 0.8 and what is planned for 1.0. The presentation will include how Kuali OLE is using technologies, specifically Kuali Finance, Kuali Rice, and Apache Jackrabbit document repository, to deliver a complete environment for managing library collections and resources

The Effect of Attitudes and Emotions on the Desire to Use Arabic in Communication: Case Study of the Learners of Arabic as a Second Language at the Malysian University of Islamic Sciences

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of attitudes and emotions on the desire to use Arabic in communication in a second language learning context, in this case learners of Arabic as a second language at the Malaysian University of Islamic Sciences. A number of 225 students from the Islamic Science University of Malaysiavoluntarily participated in the study. The students represented four faculties of the University. A model of "willingness" to communicate in the second language was tested using Structural Equation Modeling and was found to accurately fit the data. The study found that language competence was antecedent of language communication confidence, while language confidence significantly and statistically correlated with willingness to communicate and consequently with language proficiency. The study also showed that male learners are more liable to language anxiety which was found to be negatively correlated with language competence and consequently lack of ability to use the target language. The study recommends that teachers provide learners of Arabic as a second language with greater opportunities to use the language inside and outside the classroom and to make their teaching more task-orientedinstead of lecture-oriented

mHealth Series:mHealth project in Zhao County, rural China - Description of objectives, field site and methods

BACKGROUND: We set up a collaboration between researchers in China and the UK that aimed to explore the use of mHealth in China. This is the first paper in a series of papers on a large mHealth project part of this collaboration. This paper included the aims and objectives of the mHealth project, our field site, and the detailed methods of two studies. FIELD SITE: The field site for this mHealth project was Zhao County, which lies 280 km south of Beijing in Hebei Province, China. METHODS: We described the methodology of two studies: (i) a mixed methods study exploring factors influencing sample size calculations for mHealth–based health surveys and (ii) a cross–over study determining validity of an mHealth text messaging data collection tool. The first study used mixed methods, both quantitative and qualitative, including: (i) two surveys with caregivers of young children, (ii) interviews with caregivers, village doctors and participants of the cross–over study, and (iii) researchers’ views. We combined data from caregivers, village doctors and researchers to provide an in–depth understanding of factors influencing sample size calculations for mHealth–based health surveys. The second study, a cross–over study, used a randomised cross–over study design to compare the traditional face–to–face survey method to the new text messaging survey method. We assessed data equivalence (intrarater agreement), the amount of information in responses, reasons for giving different responses, the response rate, characteristics of non–responders, and the error rate. CONCLUSIONS: This paper described the objectives, field site and methods of a large mHealth project part of a collaboration between researchers in China and the UK. The mixed methods study evaluating factors that influence sample size calculations could help future studies with estimating reliable sample sizes. The cross–over study comparing face–to–face and text message survey data collection could help future studies with developing their mHealth tools

Solution Deposition of Conformal Gold Coatings on Knitted Fabric for E-Textiles and Electroluminescent Clothing

The vision for wearable electronics involves creating an imperceptible boundary between humans and devices. Integrating electronic devices into clothing represents an important path to this vision; however, combining conductive materials with textiles is challenging due to the porous structure of knitted textiles. Stretchability depends on maintaining the void structure between the yarns of the fabric; filling these voids with conductive materials stiffens the textile and can lead to detrimental cracking. The authors demonstrate the solution-based metallization of a knitted textile that conformally coats individual fibers with gold, leaving the void structure intact. The resulting gold-coated textile is highly conductive, with a sheet resistance of 1.07 Wsq-1in the course direction. The resistance decreases by 80% when the fabric is stretched to 15% strain, and remains at this value to 160% strain. This outstanding combination of stretchability and conductivity is accompanied by durability to wearing, sweating, and washing. Low-cost screen printing of a wax resist is demonstrated to produce patterned gold textiles suitable for electrically connecting discrete devices in clothing. The fabrication of electroluminescent fabric by depositing layers of device materials onto the gold-coated textile is furthermore demonstrated, intimately merging device functionality with textiles for imperceptible wearable devices