Niigani Miinigowiziiwin (we give these gifts to the future)

This dissertation is the ni di-bah-ji-mo-win (my personal story) of being an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibway woman) doctoral student, studying conventional systems thinking, complexity and transitions to sustainability discourse at a Canadian university. I problematize the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) paradigm in transformations to sustainability discourse and explore the foundations of an Indigenous standpoint theory (relational systems thinking) to transcend the binary mental model that limits conventional approaches to decolonization of Western theory. Relational systems thinking has spirituality at its core, it is naa-wi aki (middle ground). It offers protocols and processes for biin-di-go-daa-di-win (To enter one another’s lodge). Respecting Anishinabe i-zhi-chi-gay-win zhigo kayn-dah-so-win (Ways of doing and knowing) this research explores the pluralization of transformation discourse through Anishinabe bish-kayn-di-ji-gay-win (pedagogy). Offered protective space at the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience, I explore whether the standpoint theory of relational systems thinking is a pathbreaking innovation that supports the transition from systemic regimes of colonization to a systemic regime of Ojibway-Anishinaabe bish-kayn-di-ji-gay-win (pedagogy) at the niche or micro scale. What emerges is a realization that this work is land-based, language-and culture based and spiritual. The Spirits hear our distress and real systems change happens when we wake up the Spirits and they start to do their work. Yarning with Anishinaabe Knowledge Keepers, Language Speakers and Elders Eleanor Skead, Bert Landon, and Keith Boissoneau, I introduce readers to the beings/helpers I met on my journey, when I walked in the woods amongst the Ancestors. This dissertation recounts the living stories of my apprenticeship with complexity

Impact of culture and social inequality on risk communication : a case study of the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation, Southern Manitoba

This thesis examines the sociocultural factors that influenced risk perception and risk communication among the residents of Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation in Southern Manitoba during the flood of 1997. I discuss the limitations of the technical assessment of risk and the need to understand the cultural contexts in which risks are framed and debated. I discuss how risk communication occurs within specific cultural contexts and how the people of Roseau River chose risks other than flooding as their focus for concern. This research is based on both primary and secondary data collection. Primary data sources include: I) a household survey of flood risk communication in the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation Community; 2) personal interviews with several residents and key informants in the community of Roseau River; and, 3) ethnographic field notes from three visits to the community. Secondary data sources include social science literature on the social construction of risk and risk communication studies, and scholarly and popular descriptions and analysis of the flood and its consequences. Similar to other studies, this research confirms that risk is socially constructed and furthers our understanding of how persistent disagreements about risk have their origin in different belief and value systems. The residents of Roseau River had a different dialogue of risk than other communities. This dialogue involved a rhetoric of rectitude and a call for justice. I argue that risk is best understood when the social context of framing is considered, rather than simply focusing on the physical or technological agents. For the people of Roseau River the flood of 1997 was more about injustice and government policy than it was about floodwaters and property damage. My data supports the argument that culture plays an important role in framing of risk, I discuss that for the people of Roseau River, floodplain management is ultimately the product of a public policy, the Indian Act, whose main thrust has always been, and continues to be, the assimilation of Aboriginal people. I argue that it is not risk from flooding but risk of dependence that distresses the people of Roseau River. Based on statements made by community members and the results of the household survey, I argue that the members of Roseau River must be consulted in the development of future floodplain management policy. For these people, risk communication is not about disaster warnings; it is about having a seat at the table during policy formation. Policymakers must open effective two-way communication between themselves and the people of Roseau River. Effective communication must incorporate the Roseau River language of risk and not be biased towards a more technical language of risk. This community must be supported in its efforts to rebuild and to heal. Rediscovery of culture and renegotiation of self-determination efforts must be encouraged from within the community and from Canada. Further research needs to be undertaken regarding the social construction of risk in First Nation communities. Whether it is natural hazards like flooding in Roseau River or technological hazards like pollution or resource depletion. Aboriginal people continually struggle for protection from the imminent dangers they face. There is a need to examine the various contexts in which Aboriginal people negotiate risk. This may provide us with solutions for minimizing risk and improving risk communication for Aboriginal peoples

Quantitative shotgun proteomics reveals extensive changes to the proteome of the orbitofrontal cortex in rats that are hyperactive following withdrawal from a high sugar diet

In most Westernized societies, there has been an alarming increase in the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks. For many adults these drinks represent a substantial proportion of their total daily caloric intake. Here we investigated whether extended exposure to sugar changes behavior and protein expression in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Male adult Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 8 per group) were treated for 26 days with either water or a 10% sucrose solution. Locomotor behavior was measured on the first and last day of treatment, then 1 week after treatment. Following the 1-week period free from treatment, sucrose treated rats were significantly more active than the control. Two hours following final behavioral testing, brains were rapidly removed and prepared for proteomic analysis of the OFC. Label free quantitative shotgun proteomic analyses of three rats from each group found 290 proteins were differentially expressed in the sucrose treated group when compared to the control group. Major changes in the proteome were seen in proteins related to energy metabolism, mitochondrial function and the cellular response to stress. This research does not seek to suggest that sugar will cause specific neurological disorders, however similar changes in proteins have been seen in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia

An application of cartographic area interpolation to German administrative data

Area interpolation , Dasymetric mapping , German administrative data,

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Altres ajuts: Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); Illumina; LifeArc; Medical Research Council (MRC); UKRI; Sepsis Research (the Fiona Elizabeth Agnew Trust); the Intensive Care Society, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship (223164/Z/21/Z); BBSRC Institute Program Support Grant to the Roslin Institute (BBS/E/D/20002172, BBS/E/D/10002070, BBS/E/D/30002275); UKRI grants (MC_PC_20004, MC_PC_19025, MC_PC_1905, MRNO2995X/1); UK Research and Innovation (MC_PC_20029); the Wellcome PhD training fellowship for clinicians (204979/Z/16/Z); the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track (ECAT) programme; the National Institute for Health Research, the Wellcome Trust; the MRC; Cancer Research UK; the DHSC; NHS England; the Smilow family; the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (CTSA award number UL1TR001878); the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; National Institute on Aging (NIA U01AG009740); the National Institute on Aging (RC2 AG036495, RC4 AG039029); the Common Fund of the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health; NCI; NHGRI; NHLBI; NIDA; NIMH; NINDS.Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care or hospitalization after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes-including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)-in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease