ReCollection

The intent of this written research document is to support the creative research works entitled: ReCollection. This work supports an investigation of collecting and accumulation of material items in the American culture. I intend to question the importance and place that material possessions have in our culture, considering both how and why they are an integral part of our contemporary world.  This thesis work consists of six different series of art pieces that have developed from an interest in the relationship that humans have with objects. I have chosen to execute the work using a variety of materials and fabrication techniques to gain a better understanding of the broad topic - collection. Metalsmithing, papermaking, textiles, and printmaking processes have all been implemented in the creation of a visual narrative about collecting.  M.F.A

Continued Sport Participation and the Negotiation of Constraints

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the social processes that support ongoing involvement in recreational sport and the negotiation of constraints that would otherwise limit participation. This purpose is explored through three studies. Study 1 examined the contributions of a social group to women’s continued participation in golf through ethnographic methods. Data were collected through an ethnography of a women’s social group that regularly played golf, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Findings suggested two overarching themes that explained persistence in golf for these women: connecting with group members, and constructing a group culture. Importantly, the processes that facilitated the development of group connections were also identified. Study 2 develops an understanding of constraints and negotiation processes in a self-organized middle age women’s recreation group. While research has found that people prefer to participate with others, work examining constraints to participation have primarily taken an individual perspective. Data were collected and analyzed the same way they were in Study 1. While some of these constraints influenced recreation involvements negatively, the findings predominantly describe six ways in which the group has collectively developed strategies that enabled them to negotiate most constraints. Study 3 extends recent work on the constraint negotiation process through the addition and refinement of key factors, within the context of intramural sports involving undergraduate university students. Results of the structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the perceived-constraint-effects model provided a good fit to the data, and supported the inclusion of ego involvement and motivation

Enhancing Executive Functions in Preschoolers through a Mindfulness-Based Intervention

Executive functions (EFs) develop rapidly in preschoolers and lay an important foundation for school readiness. One potential method of supporting EF development is through mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). While previous studies with adults have supported this approach, research has been more limited for child populations. This dissertation investigated the relationship between MBIs and the development of EF in early childhood. First, a meta-analysis was conducted that investigated the effectiveness of MBIs in improving EF skills for children as well as potential moderators of effectiveness. Inclusion criteria were dissertation or peerreviewed articles published by December 31, 2015 that measured the impact of MBIs on EF outcomes in participants 18 years or younger. Thirty-two articles were identified that met the criteria, including 3,156 participants and 108 relevant outcomes. The overall mean effect size was statistically significant and in the small to medium range (Hedge’s g = 0.30, p \u3c .001). Significant moderators of effectiveness included higher effect sizes for dissertations compared to journal articles and more improvement reported for MBIs that incorporated home practice versus those that did not. The effect size did not differ significantly based on participant characteristics, intervention dosage, or outcome characteristics. Results suggested that MBIs are effective at improving EF skills in children from diverse populations. The second chapter focused on the evaluation of Mini-Mind, a 12-session MBI created for preschoolers. The study used a randomized controlled design to investigate the effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of the implementation of Mini-Mind in a sample of 27 (intervention n = 12) preschoolers (3-5 years old). The evaluation included direct and indirect measures of EF skills. Additionally, parents, teachers, children, and facilitators provided feedback about the intervention. Overall, Mini-Mind was highly feasible and acceptable across stakeholders. Direct measures of EF did not indicate a significant difference between the intervention and control groups. Indirect measures of EF revealed non-significant, small to medium effects in favor of the intervention group in attention, working memory, inhibition, and shifting. Taken together, the intervention was highly acceptable and feasible, but studies with more participants are needed to better understand the effectiveness

The Use of Therapeutic Theater in Supporting Clients in Eating Disorder Recovery After Intensive Treatment: A Qualitative Study

In 2007, Wilson, Grilo, and Vitousek made a call for researchers to increase the research for eating disorders, declaring that counselors are “well positioned to make important contributions to the study of eating disorders” including exploring and identifying the “mechanisms of therapeutic change” (p. 212). The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore experiences of participants who were part of an experimental therapeutic theater project after receiving intensive treatment for an eating disorder and to examine how the project benefited their recovery process. The research question was, “In what ways can therapeutic theater support clients in their first year after discharge from intensive treatment for an eating disorder?” This research aimed to examine the potential benefits of therapeutic theater, as well as to answer Wilson et al.’s call for counselors to study factors associated with therapeutic change for persons in recovery from an eating disorder

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHYLENE AND SEED DORMANCY RELEASE IN ECHINACEA SPECIES

Inconsistent seed germination poses a problem for efficient seedling production of Echinacea species. Evidence suggests that ethylene can be effective for improving germination in Echinacea species. The objectives of this research were: to develop an ethylene pre-germination treatment that enhances germination in Echinacea species that is retained following drying and storage, and to determine if the ethylene effect on enhanced germination was an important mode of action for dormancy release. Four species of Echinacea (E. purpurea, E. tennesseensis, E. angustifolia and E. simulata) treated with 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) or ethephon resulted in faster and generally higher germination. Pre-treatment of seeds with ACC or ethephon followed by drying was as effective as chilling stratification for enhancing germination depending on the species. While ethylene pretreatments did increase germination to some extent depending on species, it was concluded that 60-day stratification alone was a more commercially-viable treatment. Ethylene production or perception was not necessary for germination in untreated or stratified seeds as shown by aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG), silver thiosulfate (STS), and 1-methylcyclopropene (MCP) treatments. Both stratification and ACC treatment reduced Echinacea seed sensitivity to ABA and could be a common mechanism for enhanced germination. However, it does not appear that the increased germination seen after stratification was mediated through ethylene production because final germination percentages were generally unchanged following inhibition of ethylene production or action. In contrast, inhibition of ethylene production and perception reduced early 3-day germination suggesting that ethylene was more involved in seed vigor than final germination. It was determined that there is no physiological significance of ethylene for dormancy release in these Echinacea species

Basin bifurcations, oscillatory instability and rate-induced thresholds for AMOC in a global oceanic box model

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) transports substantial amounts of heat into the North Atlantic sector, and hence is of very high importance in regional climate projections. The AMOC has been observed to show multi-stability across a range of models of different complexity. The simplest models find a bifurcation associated with the AMOC `on' state losing stability that is a saddle node. Here we study a physically derived global oceanic model of Wood {\em et al} with five boxes, that is calibrated to runs of the FAMOUS coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model. We find the loss of stability of the `on' state is due to a subcritical Hopf for parameters from both pre-industrial and doubled CO${}_2$ atmospheres. This loss of stability via subcritical Hopf bifurcation has important consequences for the behaviour of the basin of attraction close to bifurcation. We consider various time-dependent profiles of freshwater forcing to the system, and find that rate-induced thresholds for tipping can appear, even for perturbations that do not cross the bifurcation. Understanding how such state transitions occur is important in determining allowable safe climate change mitigation pathways to avoid collapse of the AMOC.Comment: 18 figure

Common Problems, Different Solutions : Learningfrom International Approaches to Improving MedicalServices Access for Underserved Populations

Canada shares with most OECD countries the problems associated with inequitable geographic access to physician services, and improving the geographic distribution of physicians is a policy preoccupation of all ministries of health in Canada today. Recent court challenges by newly-entering physicians to physician supply controls in B. C. and New Brunswick have brought the issue into sharp relief. The authors explore the degree to which the provinces have adopted common approaches to addressing these problems, and whether Canadian policy-makers have learned from international experience. The recent judgment in the Waldman case in B.C. is analyzed in terms of likely implications for future policies on the geographic distribution of physicians in Canada. The authors conclude that the B.C. and New Brunswick cases may lead to broad changes in health care policy direction by severely limiting the range of narrowly targeted policy options available to ministries of health across Canada

High-Content Imaging for Large-Scale Detection of Low-Affinity Extracellular Protein Interactions.

Extracellular protein interactions coordinate cellular responses with their local environment and have important roles in pathogen invasion and disease. Due to technical challenges associated with studying binding events at the cell surface, the systematic and reliable identification of novel ligand-receptor pairs remains difficult. Here, we describe the development of a cell-based assay using large-scale transient transfections and high-content imaging (HCI) to detect extracellular binding events. We optimized the parameters for efficient transfection of human cells with cDNA plasmids encoding full-length cell surface receptors in 384-well plates. Using a range of well-characterized structurally diverse low-affinity cell surface interactions, we show that transfected cells probed with highly avid ligands can be used to successfully identify ligand-receptor pairs using an HCI platform and automated image analysis software. To establish the high-throughput potential of this approach, we also screened a pool of ligands against a collection of 2455 cell surface expression clones and found that known ligand-receptor interactions could be robustly and consistently detected across the library using this technology