IMAGE OF GOD: EFFECT ON COPING, PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING AND FEAR OF RECURRENCE IN EARLY BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine whether a breast cancer survivor’s view of God influences her religious coping strategies, depression, anxiety, stress, fear of recurrence, and psychological well-being. These variables were selected based on literature that demonstrates relationships among them for breast cancer survivors. The specific aims of this dissertation were to: 1) identify religious coping strategies common to each of the four views of God; 2) examine the relationship of psychological well-being (Ryff) and religious coping strategies; and 3) examine differences in depression, anxiety, stress, fear of recurrence, and psychological well-being among women holding various views of God. Three manuscripts comprise this dissertation. The first manuscript is a systematic review of the literature describing what is known about the relationships between psychological adjustment and religion/spirituality (R/S) in women with breast cancer. The second manuscript examines the psychometric properties of the Image of God Scale in a population responding to a crisis event, women with breast cancer. The original scale was developed from a general population survey. Finally, the third manuscript investigates the relationships between view of God, religious coping strategies, and psychological adjustment in women with breast cancer. The systematic review identified three primary themes: 1) R/S domains and psychological adjustment; 2) dynamics of R/S conservation and struggle; and 3) reframing the cancer experience. The psychometric analysis confirmed the original 2-factor model with factor loadings ranging from .56 to .83. Cronbach’s alphas for the two subscales – belief in God’s anger (.80) and belief in God’s engagement (.89) – were consistent with those established at development. Differences were found between views of God and use of religious/spiritual coping strategies focused on Spiritual Conservation and Spiritual Struggle. Psychological Well-Being (SPWB) was inversely correlated with Spiritual Struggle. Differences were noted for psychological well-being, Fear of Recurrence, and the Stress subscale in women who viewed God as highly engaged or not. No differences were noted for the same variables in women who view God as more or less angry. Direct comparisons between groups and variations in outcomes based on common views of God could lead to effective screening for persons at risk for particular outcomes and to effective individualized interventions

Active Experiential Learning at a Distance

E-learning became the mode of instruction for students worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instruction was forced onto numerous online platforms quickly, some seamlessly and some not. For those not well versed in online education, the move of all forms of education, including hands-on, laboratory experiential learning, deprived students of new experiences, skills, and knowledge due to a lack of provisions to perform remotely. Uncertain of the pandemic’s duration as well as the future of hands-on education, these authors investigated new technology, equipment, and experiments that would provide a hands-on laboratory experience performed by students at a distance. In response to the laboratory learning dilemma, these authors compiled a distance laboratory kit with physical equipment and components, detailed supplemental instructions, and online communication software to provide a remote live laboratory learning experience for the summer. The new distance learning format was implemented in the summer semester course with students successfully demonstrating a fundamental understanding of electronics while troubleshooting complications with instructor assistance. The instructors determined that the online communication tools provided a timely response between students and instructors to complete work seamlessly and address feedback for course improvements. While the work was completed in a very challenging environment, the techniques and potential change to the learning environment provides the need to share successful implementation that supports the student’s learning experience. This paper documents the successful implementation of college-level hands-on laboratory experiments with electronics performed at a distance by students during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many laboratory classes transitioned to simulation software for experimentation, this course utilized physical equipment and components to conduct experiments and provide valuable experience, skills, and knowledge in the field of electronics off-campus

Suplementação de ratos diabéticos com óleo de peixe e seu efeito sobre parâmetros bioquímicos e imunológicos

Orientador: Luiz Cláudio FernandesMonografia (Bacharelado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná. Setor de Ciências Biológicas. Curso de Graduação em Ciências BiológicasResumo : Devido ao grande número de portadores, cerca de 280 milhões de pessoas, a diabetes vem sendo estudada de forma cada vez maior nos últimos anos, não somente para determinar suas causas como também para investigar possíveis tratamentos que aumentem a qualidade de vida dos doentes. Causado pela destruição das células pancreáticas produtoras da insulina, o diabetes pode ser detectado principalmente por meio da hiperglicemia, ou seja, pelas elevadas concentrações séricas de glucose, além de elevadas taxas de lipídeos no sangue (hipertriacilglicerolemia). Os ácidos graxos poliinsaturados (AGPI) ômega 3 são moléculas de hidrocarboneto com uma terminação carboxila (-COOH) e outra radical metila, e possuem mais de uma insaturação entre os carbonos da cadeia. São classificados através da posição da primeira dupla ligação a partir da extremidade metila na cadeia carbônica. Sua importância reside em serem mediadores de comunicação intercelular, através de seus metabólitos, os chamados eicosanóides, que podem ter efeitos pro ou antiinflamatórios, dependendo do ácido graxo que os deu origem. Este trabalho foi realizado a fim de obter mais conhecimento sobre os efeitos da suplementação com ácidos graxos ômega 3: EPA (ácido eicosapentaenóico) e DHA (ácido docosahexaenóico), no sistema imunitário e em parâmetros bioquímicos relevantes no quadro diabético em murinos (glicemia, triacilglicerol sérico, colesterol total, fagocitose, retenção lisossomal, produção de ânion superóxido e produção de peróxido de hidrogênio por macrófagos). Foram utilizados ratos machos da linhagem Wistar, suplementados com óleo de peixe e gordura de côco por 30 dias, em dose equivalente ao peso corpóreo de cada animal. O uso do óleo de peixe não mostrou resultados sobre os valores glicêmicos quando administrada isoladamente, entretanto, os triacilgliceróis foram reduzidos nos animais diabéticos, sendo possível também perceber efeito deletério da gordura saturada no grupo diabético em que foi utilizada. O colesterol, que apresentou aumento expressivo no grupo GC, não sofreu alteração no grupo OP, entretanto, foi reduzido no grupo D/OP. Não foi observada alteração na fagocitose entre os grupos controle e controle com suplementação, enquanto foi observado aumento neste parâmetro causado pelo quadro diabético. A retenção lisossomal, que foi menor nos animais diabéticos, se comparados com o grupo C, apresentou aumento no grupo D/OP, mas ambos os grupos tratados com hormônio apresentaram valores inferiores àqueles sem tal tratamento. A produção das espécies reativas de oxigênio possuiu diferenças entre os parâmetros analisados: o ânion superóxido sofreu aumento no grupo OP e queda no grupo GC, e a suplementação com n3 no grupo D/OP obteve aumento em relação ao grupo diabético (D). Já para o peróxido de hidrogênio, ambas as suplementações e o quadro diabético influenciaram da mesma forma, com queda em sua produção. Enquanto o grupo D/OP obteve valores superiores aos do grupo D, os grupos que foram tratados com insulina permaneceram na mesma faixa de valores, menor que os respectivos grupos D/OP e D/GC

Via indolamina 2,3-dioxigenase/quinurenina com pontencial alvo farmacológico no tratamento da dor neuropática associada ao diabetes

Orientador : Profª. Drª. Joice Maria da CunhaTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Farmacologia. Defesa: Curitiba, 05/08/2016Inclui referências : f. 78-100Resumo: O diabetes é uma doença crônica, debilitante e de alta prevalência, cuja gravidade aumenta com o aparecimento de complicações subjacentes. Dentre estas, a dor neuropática diabética (DND) parece estar associada à morbidade e mortalidade no diabetes, dada a dificuldade de tratamento. A fisiopatologia da DND tem sido associada à redução do tônus imposto pelo sistema descendente inibitório, incluindo aqueles dependentes da liberação de serotonina (5-HT). Neste contexto, nossa hipótese é de a via indolamina 2,3-dioxigenase 1 (IDO1)/quinureninas (KYN) possa estar envolvida no mecanismo patológico da DND, uma vez que a mesma é a principal via de catabolismo do triptofano, levando à depleção de serotonina e à produção de quinureninas neurotóxicas. Assim, nosso objetivo foi investigar o papel da via IDO1/KYN na alodinia mecânica em animais com diabetes experimental induzido quimicamente por estreptozotocina (STZ). Verificamos que a alodinia mecânica inicia-se 2 semanas após a indução do diabetes, com pico na 4ª semana, havendo redução de cerca de 20% no limiar mecânico dos animais diabéticos (Dbt) quando comparados aos animais normoglicêmicos (Ngl). Corroborando a nossa hipótese, foi observado que 1) animais Dbt apresentam significativa redução os níveis de 5-HT no cordão espinhal (CE), com baixa reposição deste neurotransmissor (evidenciada pelo aumento da razão 5-HT1AA/5-HT) nesta estrutura e 2) o tratameto com fluoxetina (bloqueador da recaptação da serotonina) induziu efeito antinociceptivo nestes animais. Apesar da expressão de IDO1, enzima passo-limitante da via, não estar alterada em CE de animais Dbt quando comparada aos animais Ngl, o tratamento com 1-L-metil triptofano (antagonista da IDO1) promoveu antinocicepção em animais Dbt. A ausência de alteração na expressão da IDO no CE de animais Dbt pode estar associada a não observação de alterações significativas nos níveis de citocinas inflamatórias (IL-1?, IL-6 e TNF?) nem nos marcadores para astrócitos (GFAP) e micróglia (IBA-1) no CE destes animais. Curiosamente, os níveis de IL-1? e TNF? em nervo ciático de animais Dbt apresentam-se reduzidos quando comparados aos níveis observados em animais Ngl. Da mesma forma, a enzima quinurenina 3 monoxigenase (KMO), também importante na geração de KYN, não se demonstrou aumentada em animais Dbt em relação ao grupo Ngl, embora seu bloqueio farmacologíco pelo tratamento com JM-6 tenha induzido significativo efeito antinociceptivo nestes animais. Por fim, dada a ativação de receptores NMDA por algumas KYN, verificamos que a administração intratecal de um antagonista NMDA o MK-801 também aumentou significativamente o limiar mecânico em animais Dbt. Assim, podemos concluir que a ativação da via IDO1/KYN parece estar associada ao desenvolvimento da DNP, levando tanto a redução de 5-HT e, portanto, da ativação das vias descendentes inibitórias quanto ao aumento da produção de KYN, as quais possivelmente devido à ligação aos receptores NMDA aumentam o tônus das vias descendentes facilitatórias. Palavras-chave: Dor neuropática, diabetes, serotonina, IDO1, quinureninas.Abstract: Diabetes is a highly disabling chronic disease, prevalent in both low and high income countries. Among the complications, the diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP) is cited as one of the main and more difficult to treat complication and is highly linked to higher mortality and morbidity in diabetic patients. The pathophysiology of DNP has been associated with a reduction of endogenous inhibitory descending pathway tonus, including the fat ones driven by neurotransmitters as serotonin. In this context, our hypothesis is that the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1)/kynurenine (KYN) pathway might be related to the pathological process of DNP, since this pathway is mainly related to the L-tryptophan catabolism, lowering serotonin levels and also producing neuroactive kynurenines. Then, we investigated the role of IDO1/KYN in the generation of mechanical allodynia in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic animals (Dbt) in which the mechanical allodynia was initiated 2 weeks after the STZ injection, peaking in the fourth week. Corroborating our hypothesis, we observed that Dbt rats have reduced spinal cord serotonin levels, and lower 5-HT turnover evidenced by an increase of the 5-HIAA/5HT ratio and that the mechanical allodynia in Dbt rats is significantly prevented by SSRI fluoxetine. Although the rate limiting enzyme IDO1 expression was not altered in the spinal cord from Dbt rats, the pharmacological blockade of IDO1 by 1-L-MT evoked a significant reduction in the mechanical allodynia in these animals. Pro inflammatory cytokine levels (IL-1?, IL-6 e TNF?) in the spinal cord did not differ between normoglycemic (Ngl) and Dbt rats while in sciatic nerve, we observed a reduction of IL-1? and TNF-? levels, revealing a lower pro inflammatory tonus in these tissues, which might explain the absence of statistical difference of IDO1 expression in the spinal cord. Given the presence of IDO1/KYN in glial cells and its importance for the neuropathic pain states, we observed no effect of diabetes on the expression of IBA-1 (microglial marker) and GFAP (astrocytic marker) production between Ngl and Dbt animals. In addition, immunofluorescence revealed morphological changes in astrocytic cells in the spinal cord of Dbt animals 3 and 4 weeks after the STZ injection, prompting to idea that these cells might have an alteration in its metabolism or function. The kynurenine 3-monooxigenase (KMO) enzyme, another important enzyme for the kynurenine generation, remained unchanged in Dbt rats after 4 weeks when compared to Ngl group, despite its blockade induced antinociception by JM-6 in these animals. Since NMDA receptors might be activated by quinurenins, as these receptors are upregulated in the DPN, we further demonstrated that the pharmacological blockade of these receptors also promoted reduction in the mechanical allodynia in Dbt group. All together, our data suggest that the physiopathology of DNP may involve the overactivation of IDO1/KYN pathway, which explained the decrease of serotonin levels/ turnover and the pharmacological effectiveness of compounds that interfere directly or indirectly in this pathway over the mechanical allodynia in DBT animals. Further studies however are needed to characterize the importance of this pathway activation not only in DNP but also in other neuropathic pain conditions. Keywords: diabetes; streptozotocin; serotonin; cytokines

Castrating the Female Dominant: An Analysis of Female Agency in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus im Pelz

This work examines the agency of the female dominant in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus im Pelz through the lens of contemporary theories on masochism. I argue that, contrary to popular scholarship, the dominant can assume control of the masochistic scenes through a creation of her own fantasies, fetishes, and authorship of the masochistic contract. To assess the female dominant's role as agent in the original, widely read version of the work published in 1870, I compare it with the lesser known revision published eight years later. I maintain that the dominant's agency is significantly diminished in this later version and that discerning the motivations behind such revisions offers a better understanding masochism in Sacher-Masoch's work

Power play: beyond the erotics of masochism in nineteenth-century German literature and philosophy

Power Play: Beyond the Erotics of Masochism in Nineteenth-Century German Literature and Philosophy investigates the genealogy of masochism avant la lettre. Scholarship on masochism has identified it as symptomatic of a late-century crisis of masculinity, synonymous with the erotic and semi-autobiographical writings of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the Austrian writer for whom masochism is named. Using a Foucauldian approach to analyzing matrices of power, this project exposes the crucial prehistory of masochism in nineteenth-century German literature and thought, exploring how canonical works of German literature offer alternate genealogies located in discourses on subjectivity, pedagogy, aesthetics, and religion. Calling into question the gender discourses surrounding women in the masochistic dynamic, I compare the submission of Kleist’s titular character in Das Käthchen von Heilbronn with the female dominant in Sacher-Masoch’s Venus im Pelz, showing how both characters subvert social constructions of their identities counter the masculine discourse. The power of self-cultivation found in the German ideology of Bildung and the Bildungsroman genre are explored vis-à-vis the mode of reading and acculturation employed in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre via counter-readings of Novalis’ Heinrich von Ofterdingen and Adalbert Stifter’s Der Nachsommer. Within discourses on the aesthetic, particularly the trope of the suffering artist and the inspiration he derives from suffering, I compare the German artist in Venus im Pelz with artists in Heinrich Wackenroder’s Herzensergiessungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders, and Gottfried Keller’s Der grüne Heinrich, to consider the connection between masochistic suffering and the transcendence of the suprasensual in the sublime. Finally, I engage with two religious discourses in Sacher-Masoch’s text. First, the hagiography, providing inspiration through descriptions of suffering and transcendence, is critiqued through secular texts like Büchner’s Lenz. Second, I look at the confession, identified by Foucault as critical to the nineteenth-century production of knowledge, and how it is critiqued and subverted through anonymous pornographic texts, sepecifically Lina’s aufrichtige Bekenntnisse, Schwester Monika, and Bekenntnisse einer Giftmischerin, which appropriate and oppose the confessional form. At stake is an analysis of power that directs our attention away from a purely erotic understanding of masochism to something that simultaneously participates in and critiques these discourses of power.Doctor of Philosoph

BD2I : Normes sur l'identification de 274 images d'objets et leur mise en relation chez l'enfant français de 3 à 8 ans

The data base BD2I provides the first French norms for children of 274 pictures of objects (150 from Snodgarss and Vanderwart, 1980). Correct picture identification and naming, and identification of taxonomic and thematic associations were evaluated between 3 and 8 years. Verbal justification and strength of the associations were assessed between 4 and 8 years. All norms were collected from 80 children by age. Visual similarity was judged by 40 adults. These normative data are necessary because children are less efficient than adults in naming and also because their representations of objects relations differ from those of adults

Oberammergau Pilot Action Region: Mountain Forest Initiative (BWO)

Natural hazards caused by climate change pose a permanent threat to the inhabitants of the Alpine Space. In addition to technical protection measures, forests are very often the key to permanent and cost-effective protection against these hazards. In the Mountain Forest initiative (BWO) of the Bavarian state government, launched more than 10 years ago, suitable measures for the preservation of protective forest are discussed and, if possible, decided by consensus in on-site round tables with all involved interest groups. Only a functioning interaction between the different actors in the Alpine Space will contribute towards the set objective of integrating forests and ecosystem services in risk governance and balancing the numerous interests, demands and costs. Using the example of the Oberammergau Pilot Action Region (PAR), the process and implementation of the BWO is presented against a background of more than 10 years of experience. At the beginning, the identification of stakeholders and the overall goal and expectations of the participatory process (technical issues, trust and community building) is clarified. After a detailed actor analysis, the moderated participatory process is described

Association of parental social support and dental caries in hispanic children

This study describes social support of Hispanic parents and the correlation with dental caries in their children. A cross-sectional study design was utilized to assess the 157 parent-child triads recruited from the Children's Hospital Colorado Dental Clinic. The Basic Research Factors Questionnaire (BRFQ) survey was utilized to assess parents' oral health knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and other psychosocial measures with social support as the main predictor variable. Bivariate associations between the independent variables and dmfs were conducted. Independent variables with a bivariate association of p ≤ 0.2 for the outcome variable were included in the multivariable linear regression model. Dental caries in children was significantly associated with less overall parental social support (β = −10.10, p = 0.03). Overall social support was divided into four sub-categories: errand help, money help, childcare help, and transportation help. Dental caries decreased by 7.70 units for every 1-unit increase in transportation help (β = −7.70, p = 0.03). A significant association was observed between parental knowledge on dental utilization and dmfs (β = −2.70, p = 0.04). In the multivariable linear regression model, caries was significantly associated with social support (β = −11.18, p = 0.02) and knowledge on dental utilization (β = −3.84, p = 0.01). The study concludes that a higher level of social support and knowledge on dental utilization for Hispanic parents is correlated with lower rates of dental caries in their children