Lactate\u27s Role in Appetite Suppression

Once considered metabolic waste produced during exercise, lactate is now known to have diverse roles in biology. Muscle-derived lactate can travel through the bloodstream and be taken up by other tissues and i) oxidized, ii) converted to glucose via gluconeogenesis, or iii) bind to its receptor to trigger molecular signaling cascades. Lactate has been described as a “myokine” capable of inter-organ crosstalk and compelling evidence demonstrates lactate’s role as a signalling molecule in pathways related to the regulation of appetite. The purpose of this dissertation was to further elucidate lactate’s role in appetite regulation using series of studies aimed at manipulating lactate concentrations while attempting to minimize other extraneous factors that could influence appetite regulation. The main findings of this dissertation include: 1) oral sodium lactate ingestion does not increase blood lactate concentrations and is not an effective way to assess lactate’s effects on metabolism (Study #1); 2) using human studies with exercise intensity or a different exercise modality (resistance training) demonstrated exercise-induced lactate accumulation coincides with reductions in acylated ghrelin (Studies #2 & #3); 3) using a systematic review of all available work on exercise-induced lactate accumulation and post-exercise acylated ghrelin concentrations, statistical synthesis demonstrates an association between lactate and the acylated ghrelin (Study #4); 4) blood lactate accumulation following exercise does not alter the appetite regulating neuropeptides (or that peripheral blood samples do not reflect the central concentrations) (study #5); and finally 5) lactate accumulation due to exercise, injection, or oxamate administration (lactate dehydrogenase inhibitor) in a mouse-model does not alter the signaling cascades involved in appetite regulation. Overall, the results of this dissertation have improved our understanding of lactate’s role in appetite regulation and will guide future research necessary to fully elucidate the involvement of lactate in appetite-regulation

Student Engagement and Resistance: Exploring the stories of African Canadian girls in high schools in southwestern Ontario

Abstract Student resistance is complex and has been described in existing literature as self defeatist, reactionary, conformist, transformational or strategic. Some Black students respond to interactions considered oppressive at school by engaging in a variety of resistive actions. Existing scholarship about Black student resistance in the US and Canada are largely framed within deficit frameworks with limited focus on Transformational Student Resistance. Research that focuses on transformational student resistance by Black girls, how schools respond, and how some resistive behaviours can be considered opportunities for change, is limited. While a diverse community, studies about Black girls often portray them as a monolithic group. Nevertheless, discussing some of their school related intragroup differences and similarities bring existing nuances to the fore. For example, studies about the experiences of African Canadian girls in high schools in Canada are relatively limited. Their experiences are largely invisible in the literature on Black girls, education and student resistance. By centering the experiences of African Canadian girls, this study emphasizes the benefits of providing support to all Black girls in high schools to enhance their engagement and academic outcomes. Teachers can support their students to adopt positive strategies when they engage, rather than censor students when they participate in student resistance activities or related actions. The nexus between meaningful Black student engagement and academic outcomes cannot be overstated. This qualitative narrative inquiry expands existing research on Transformational Student Resistance and Black students by exploring the organizing and advocacy related activities of 19 African Canadian girls aged 16-24 through purposive sampling, in some high schools in southwestern Ontario. Their stories are gathered through qualitative interviews and focus groups. This study explores issues of race with a specific focus on Critical Race Theory and anti-Black racism. The dissertation disrupts negative narratives about African Canadian girls as passive objects by positioning them as valid knowledge holders in a bid to draw attention to their agentic powers and subjectivities. Specifically, participant narratives counter existing perceptions about their ‘deviant oppositional behaviour’ and instead documents their efforts at enacting agency through organizing and advocacy with the goal of transforming their schools. The findings of the study provide additional insights into how educators, staff, administrators and policy makers can work towards equity in schools

Episode 0: Welcome to Community of Praxis!

In this episode, host Brenna Clarke Gray introduces her podcast as a space for educators who crave meaningful change, thoughtful conversation, and a touch of rebellious spirit. She shares her vision of blending theory with practice by interviewing bold thinkers in education and then unpacking those ideas with her longtime collaborator, David N. Wright, in companion episodes full of candid, coffee shop-style chats. With themes of accessibility, kindness, and “productive disobedience,” Brenna invites listeners into a supportive community where big ideas meet real classroom challenge…and where breaking the rules might just be the key to better teaching.https://scholars.wlu.ca/community-of-praxis/1000/thumbnail.jp

Episode 3a: CoP Interview: Open at the Margins with Maha Bali

In this episode, Brenna interviews Maha Bali about her edited collection Open at the Margins and the ways open education is not always already equitable. Maha discusses intentionally equitable hospitality, being a scholar outside the dominant discursive frame, and the complexities of consent in the classroom. Maha invites us to consider our values and the challenges in upholding them.https://scholars.wlu.ca/community-of-praxis/1005/thumbnail.jp

The Design and Synthesis of New Materials using Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution Reactions

Abstract The overall objective of this research was to synthesize and study the structure-property relationships of novel polycyclic aromatic compounds capable of producing open crystalline networks based on π-stacking interactions in solid state. In this work, we describe a method of producing polycyclic aromatic compounds bearing electron-rich and electron-poor rings in order to promote cofacial π-stacking in the solid state. These compounds were synthesized from easily accessible molecules using nucleophilic aromatic substitution and copper-catalyzed aryl amination. The scope of phenoxazines bearing N-aryl substituents was explored for the synthesis of various polycyclic aromatic compounds. Interesting characteristics such as luminescence and predictable solid-state packing are displayed by electron-deficient phenoxazines. A focus was placed upon tuning the properties of the compounds by attaching phenoxazine units to different molecular architectures with the goal of producing open crystalline networks based on π-stacking interactions. The orange-colored solid compound 30 N-(4-bromophenyl) di-fluoro-di-cyano-phenoxazine was synthesized. Suzuki cross-coupling was used to attach an additional phenyl ring to compound 30 to produce compound 31. Similarly, compound 32 was synthesized by the reaction of 1, 4- benzenediboronic acid with two equivalents of compound 30. The crystal structure of compound 31revealed the presence of π-stacking interactions between the phenoxazine rings. The synthetic approach was extended to the preparation of heteropentacenes such as 52 and 58. Compound 52, which bears long alkyl chains, showed evidence of liquid crystallinity by polarized optical microscopy. However, the N-aryl heteropentacenes also showed limited stability

Exploring Canadian Social Work Students\u27 Aphobic Attitudes: The Role of Knowledge about Asexuality and Asexual People

Aphobic attitudes are negative biases and prejudices against asexual individuals that can contribute to aphobic discrimination. While the Canadian Social Work Code of Ethics states that social workers should not discriminate and should provide culturally responsive services to marginalized populations, individually held aphobic attitudes have the potential to diminish one’s ability to provide culturally responsive services to asexual people. This national study examined aphobic attitudes among 326 Canadian social work students, exploring the relationship between knowledge about asexuality and aphobic attitudes, including controlling for demographic factors, social contact with asexuals, and social attitudes that previous research has identified as being predictors of negative attitudes towards asexuals. Knowledge was found to have a negative relationship with aphobic attitudes, including when controlling for demographics, social contact, and other attitudes. The results highlight the value of increasing knowledge about asexuality in social work curricula to promote students’ acceptance of asexuals. The potential applications of these findings are discussed

Pathways to Sustainable Employment: Bridging Community Justice and Social Enterprise Programs for Criminalized Women

Within the context of the Canadian criminal justice system, women face significant challenges when striving to secure and retain employment due to structural stigma and punitive practices. These challenges form barriers to accessing employment programs or sustainable career paths. To explore these barriers, a qualitative research study including semi-structured interviews and focus groups incorporating an arts-based project was conducted with fourteen women who navigate such obstacles. The arts-based experience mapping exercise served as a foundational generative method to magnify the women’s experiences and validated the transformative contribution of arts-based methods to research processes. Through examination of the intersections established between community-based justice organizations and social entrepreneurship programs, the participants determined how bridging these systems together can support criminalized women to attain sustainable economic security. The constructivist grounded theory analysis reinforced an urgent need for the justice sector to shift from existing institutional-based employment program models to sustainable community-based configurations. The findings from this analysis informed the author’s creation of the Comoptigen Theory and Program Implementation Framework, which provides principles and program components for guiding the creation of a bridged employment program for criminalized women. This study advances the discourses about how restorative trauma-informed approaches and community-based justice development initiatives can contribute to strengthening the social economy in Ontario. Further outcomes of the research include concrete recommendations and practices for how community justice non-profit organizations can deliver employment programs integrating trauma-informed models of collective care

Two Poems: Detour and Galway Famine Ship Memorial

Kelly Norah Drukker offers two poems: Detour and “Galway Famine Ship Memorial.

Controls of Wetland Hydrology in the Zone of Discontinuous Permafrost, Northwest Territories, Canada

Mean annual air temperatures are increasing rapidly in northwestern Canada, which is among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth (Box et al., 2019). Consequently, permafrost thaw within northwestern Canada is proceeding at a rate not found in the historical record (Pelletier et al., 2017), with areal thaw rates especially high in the peatland-dominated southern margin of discontinuous permafrost (Quinton et al., 2019). Permafrost thaw has caused vast land cover changes and transformed the permafrost underlain forest into permafrost free wetlands over much of Taiga Plains (Carpino et al., 2018; Jorgenson & Osterkamp, 2005). This land cover change has altered how water is stored and cycled on the landscape (Haynes et al., 2018). These changes were driven by the expansion of runoff contributing areas, as permafrost “barriers” are removed with thaw (Connon et al., 2014). This process effectively taps water stored in the interior of plateau-wetland complexes. Considering the changes that occurred within these wetland complexes, an updated wetland basin area found that not only had the contributing area has expanded but the wetland basin had grown with the inclusion of additional wetlands to the wetland cascade. However, proportionally the forest to wetland ratio has remained the same at almost equal proportions. This study examined the inter-annual variability of water balance components for each year from 2013 to 2022 for a 11.2 hectare plateau-wetland complex. Further narrowing into a detailed wetland-based water balance for 2022, examining the intra- annual variation of water storage within the collapse scar wetland W-3. The summer of 2022 (April 1 – September 30) was characterized with an extremely low rainfall (103 mm) and deep late winter snowpack (240 mm). Subsurface hillslope runoff from the surrounding forest was the greatest flux of water into the wetland (249 mm). Although subsurface runoff varies over time, a conceptual model is presented with the inclusion of the capillary fringe as an area of intermediary water storage and transport. Overland flow between wetland was the greatest water loss mechanism for the wetland (487 mm) and was greatest during the spring freshet with 81% of the total overland flow occurring during this period, although discharge was greatly reduced post-freshet. Evapotranspiration was the second largest source of water loss within the wetland (294 mm), by June 1 evapotranspiration was the predominant source of water loss. This led to a large wetland water deficit by the end of September (-177 mm). The extreme hydrological events of 2022 are used to identify the critical thresholds of the water balance components. This study furthered our understanding on how water movement and storage within wetlands will change with continued permafrost loss. When the critical thresholds of water balance components are exceeded, the integrity of wetlands within the region is threatened