On Yonge Street

Yonge Street is a unique urban resource for the City of Toronto. It acts as the central nervous system uniting local, suburban and out-of-town populations with both surface and underground networks. It has transformed to adapt to fluctuating cultural, social climates and urban development projects. Many fragments can be found both within this major thoroughfare’s physical streetscape and in the hearts of many Torontonians. The largely generic street fabric found in the stretch between Queen and Bloor may lack in architectural integrity, but offers a spectrum of establishments that exhibit the diversity found in Toronto. The tension between these assorted venues is what gives the street both value and complexity despite their individual architectural modesty. It is a casual place in the city that speaks to the everyday citizen. It’s eclectic and sometimes tawdry charm raises mixed reviews by locals and often confuses city bureaucrats. Many development strategies have been initiated in order to give the street a homogenized image and a public face. However, it is in its informal candidness where its value rests. This thesis claims that Yonge Street is a democratic urban platform built upon complex layers. The diverse, overlapping and kinetic happenings felt on the street are both its strength and weakness. The rich experience is difficult to articulate using traditional urban design analysis. This thesis offers a new version of portraiture that seeks to illustrate the spirit of Yonge Street. Using unconventional mapping methods and visualisations, it will render qualities often difficult to express. Five portraits of Yonge Street are presented, inspired by five buildings: the Yonge-Bloor Subway Station, Sam the Record Man, Zanzibar Tavern, the Yonge Street Mission and Yonge-Dundas Square. Each describes one of Yonge Street’s many faces using a collection of subjective mapping exercises to portray a different character present on the street. Urban developments that add to Yonge Street, or allow it to evolve as an eclectic social condenser can only be created when the existing phenomena embedded in its fabric is understood. In order to provoke a new interpretation of Yonge Street, the thesis synthesizes the findings of these mappings into a collection of street art proposals. The interventions presented act as agents directed towards a new engagement and understanding of Yonge Street, framing it as an irreplaceable resource for the citizens Toronto

Pseudodominant Friedreich's ataxia with phenotypic heterogeneity

Objective - A family with a clinically heterogeneous progressive ataxia in two generations is presented. Methods - Having eliminated mutations within the known dominant spinocerebellar ataxia genes, the family was investigated for expansion at the Friedreich's gene. Results - The affected members (father, son and daughter) were homozygous for the mutation at the Friedreich's gene, while the unaffected (the mother and her sister) were heterozygous. Conclusion - This pseudodominant form of Friedreich's ataxia should be considered in families with an apparently autosomal dominant progressive ataxia in conjunction with sensory neuropathy and pyramidal signs. © 2007 The Authors

Symptomatic focal mononeuropathies in diabetic patients: Increased or not?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether symptomatic mononeuropathies are more frequent in diabetic patients without symptoms of acute or subacute polyneuropathy than in the general population.For this purpose, six hundred and forty two consecutive outpatients with various acute symptomatic mononeuropathies (radial, ulnar or peroneal neuropathy, Bell's palsy or carpal tunnel syndrome) without symptoms of acute or subacute polyneuropathy were studied. The results showed that in 522 patients with symptomatic carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and in 38 patients with Bell's palsy, the rate of diabetes was 7.7% and 10.5%, respectively. These rates do not differ significantly from the anticipated frequency of diabetes in the general population. On the other hand, in 18 patients with radial neuropathy at (or distally to) the spiral groove, in 41 patients with ulnar neuropathy and in 23 patients with peroneal neuropathy at the fibular head, the respective rates were 27.8%, 12.2 % and 30.4%. These rates are significantly higher than those anticipated according to the frequency of diabetes in the general population. The findings of the present study indicate that only focal limb neuropathies due to acute external compression are more frequent in diabetic patients

Migraine with aura: Segregation analysis and heritability estimation

A genetic study was performed in a group of 60 migraine patients and their first-degree relatives as well as in a group of sex- and age-matched controls. Segregation analysis showed that multifactorial inheritance seems to be the most probable mode of genetic transmission. Heritabilities were estimated according to the sex of probands and relatives. Our findings favor multifactorial inheritance, but the contribution of a major gene can not be excluded

Spinal muscular atrophy: DNA fragmentation and immaturity of muscle fibers

The presence of apoptotic fibers and the embryonic proteins desmin and vimentin were investigated in muscle biopsy specimens from patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Apoptosis was studied in 24 cases of SMA by means of in situ end labeling of nuclear DNA fragmentation using TUNEL staining and immunohistochemistry. Apoptotic nuclei were observed in 54.1% of the cases, and desmin and vimentin positive fibers were found in the majority of cases. A significant negative correlation was observed between the number of apoptotic nuclei and the duration of the disease, as well as between the number of desmin and vimentin positive fibers and the age of onset. These findings indicate that apoptosis, although probably a secondary phenomenon following denervation, plays a role in the progress of spinal muscular atrophy. © 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved