Child with progressive toy

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Détérioration progressive de la lecture et de l'écriture dans la maladie d'Alzheimer : systèmes espagnol et français d'écriture

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Détérioration progressive de la lecture et de l'écriture dans la maladie d'Alzheimer : systèmes espagnol et français d'écriture

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Progressive changes in the Western English Channel foster a reorganization in the plankton food web

Growing evidence has shown a profound modification of plankton communities of the North East Atlantic and adjacent seas over the past decades. This drastic change has been attributed to a modification of the environmental conditions that regulate the dynamics and the spatial distribution of ectothermic species in the ocean. Recently, several studies have highlighted modifications of the regional climate station L4 (50° 15.00′N, 4° 13.02′W) in the Western English Channel. We here focus on the modification of the plankton community by studying the long-term, annual and seasonal changes of five zooplankton groups and eight copepod genera. We detail the main composition and the phenology of the plankton communities during four climatic periods identified at the L4 station: 1988–1994, 1995–2000, 2001–2007 and 2008–2012. Our results show that long-term environmental changes underlined by Molinero et al. (2013) drive a profound restructuration of the plankton community modifying the phenology and the dominance of key planktonic groups including fish larvae. Consequently, the slow but deep modifications detected in the plankton community highlight a climate driven ecosystem shift in the Western English Channel.

Progressive changes in the Western English Channel foster a reorganization in the plankton food web

Growing evidence has shown a profound modification of plankton communities of the North East Atlantic and adjacent seas over the past decades. This drastic change has been attributed to a modification of the environmental conditions that regulate the dynamics and the spatial distribution of ectothermic species in the ocean. Recently, several studies have highlighted modifications of the regional climate station L4 (50° 15.00′N, 4° 13.02′W) in the Western English Channel. We here focus on the modification of the plankton community by studying the long-term, annual and seasonal changes of five zooplankton groups and eight copepod genera. We detail the main composition and the phenology of the plankton communities during four climatic periods identified at the L4 station: 1988–1994, 1995–2000, 2001–2007 and 2008–2012. Our results show that long-term environmental changes underlined by Molinero et al. (2013) drive a profound restructuration of the plankton community modifying the phenology and the dominance of key planktonic groups including fish larvae. Consequently, the slow but deep modifications detected in the plankton community highlight a climate driven ecosystem shift in the Western English Channel.

Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Focus on Etiology

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) caused by reactivation of the JC virus (JCV), a human polyomavirus, occurs in autoimmune disorders, most frequently in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We describe a HIV-negative 34-year-old female with SLE who had been treated with immunosuppressant therapy (IST; steroids and azathioprine) since 2004. In 2011, she developed decreased sensation and weakness of the right hand, followed by vertigo and gait instability. The diagnosis of PML was made on the basis of brain MRI findings (posterior fossa lesions) and JCV isolation from the cerebrospinal fluid (700 copies/ml). IST was immediately discontinued. Cidofovir, mirtazapine, mefloquine and cycles of cytarabine were sequentially added, but there was progressive deterioration with a fatal outcome 1 year after disease onset. This report discusses current therapeutic choices for PML and the importance of early infection screening when SLE patients present with neurological symptoms. In the light of recent reports of PML in SLE patients treated with rituximab or belimumab, we highlight that other IST may just as well be implicated. We conclude that severe lymphopenia was most likely responsible for JCV reactivation in this patient and discuss how effective management of lymphopenia in SLE and PML therapy remains an unmet need.

Measurement of Training Intensity and Work During Submaximal Isokinetic Progressive Resistance Training Protocols

Physical exercise programmes are routinely prescribed in clinical practice to treat impairments, improve activity and participation in daily life because of their known physiological, health and psychological benefits (RCP, 2009). Progressive resistance exercise is a type of exercise prescribed specifically to improve skeletal muscle strength (Latham et al., 2004). The effectiveness of progressive resistance exercise varies considerably between studies and populations. This thesis focuses on how training parameters influence the delivery of progressive resistance exercise. In order to appropriately evaluate the influence of training parameters, this thesis argues the need to record training performance and the total work completed by participants as prescribed by training protocols. In the first study, participants were taken through a series of protocols differentiated by the intensity and volume of training. Training intensity was defined as a proportion of the mean peak torque achieved during maximal voluntary contractions and was set at 80% and 40% respectively of the MVC mean peak torque. Training volume was defined as the total external work achieved over the training period. Measures of training performance were developed to accurately report the intensity, repetitions and work completed during the training period. A second study evaluated training performance of the training protocols over repeated sessions. These protocols were then applied to 3 stroke survivors. Study 1 found sedentary participants could achieve a differentiated training intensity. Participants completing the high and low intensity protocols trained at 80% and 40% respectively of the MVC mean peak torque. The total work achieved in the high intensity low repetition protocol was lower than the total work achieved in the low intensity high repetition protocol. With repeated practice, study 2 found participants were able to improve in their ability to perform manoeuvres as shown by a reduction in the variation of the mean training intensity achieving total work as specified by the protocol to a lower margin of error. When these protocols were applied to 3 stroke survivors, they were able to achieve the specified training intensity but they were not able to achieve the total work as expected for the protocol. This is likely to be due to an inability in achieving a consistent force throughout the contraction. These results demonstrate evaluation of training characteristics and support the need to record and report training performance characteristics during progressive resistance exercise, including the total work achieved, in order to elucidate the influence of training parameters on progressive resistance exercise. The lack of accurate training performance may partly explain the inconsistencies between studies on optimal training parameters for progressive resistance exercise.

Niche segregation between immature and adult seabirds: Does progressive maturation play a role?

In long-lived species with slow maturation, prebreeders often represent a large percentage of the individuals alive at any moment, but their ecology is still understudied. Recent studies have found prebreeding seabirds to differ in their isotopic (and trophic) niche from adult breeders attending the same nesting colonies. These differences have been hypothesized to be linked to the less-developed foraging performance of younger and less-experienced immatures or perhaps to their inferior competitive abilities. Such differences from adults would wane as individuals mature (“the progressive ontogenetic shift hypothesis”) and could underpin the prolonged breeding deferral until adulthood displayed by those species. This study documents a marked difference in the nitrogen and carbon isotopic ratios measured in the whole blood of immatures and breeders in 2 pelagic seabird species (Cory’s shearwaters, Calonectris borealis, and black-browed albatrosses, Thalassarche melanophris) nesting in contrasting environments. However, blood isotopic values did not present a relationship with prebreeder age, suggesting no gradual ontogenetic shift from an immature toward an adult isotopic niche. Furthermore, isotopic signatures of sabbatical adults could not be separated from those of immatures attending the same colonies, but were clearly segregated from adult breeders. These results suggest that isotopic differentiation between immatures and breeders is mainly linked to a factor unrelated to previous experience and hence probably unrelated to a hypothetical gradual improvement of foraging competence or competitive abilities. Any ecological differentiation between breeders and nonbreeders is more likely related to the severity of the central-place foraging constraints and to the energetic requirements of reproduction (“the reproductive constraint hypothesis”).

The Euro-American psyche and the imaging of Samoa in the early 20th century

Drawing on English language sources and material from Western Samoa (now Samoa), this examination of photographically illustrated serial encyclopaedia and magazines proposes an alternative historical analysis of the colonial photographs of Samoa, the most extensively covered field in Oceanic photographic studies. Photographs published between the 1890s and World War II were not necessarily from that era, and despite claims in the text of illustrated publications of an unchanged, enduring, archaic tradition in Samoa, the amazing variety of content and subject matter often offered contradictory evidence, depicting a modern, adaptive and progressive Samoa. Contrary to orthodox historical analysis, the images of Samoa in illustrated magazines and encyclopaedia were not limited to a small, repetitive gallery of partially clothed women and costumed chiefs.

Creating a scene: Balinese punk's beginnings

The promotion of alternative music by deregulated television and recording industries, together with the increasingly felt presence of the metropolis, converged on Balinese cultural and physical landscapes in the 1990s. Mirroring developments in broader society, a regionalist discourse, which polarized notions of ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’, emerged among Balinese youth in the context of the local band scene. For certain musicians, musical authenticity was firmly rooted in a cultural and geographical locale, and was articulated by their abhorrence for socializing at shopping malls. In contrast, these Balinese alternative (including punk) musicians sought authenticity in a metropolitan elsewhere. This article is a case study of the indigenization of a ‘global’ code in a non-western periphery. It contests arguments for the ‘post-imperial’ nature of globalization, and demonstrates the continued salience of centre–periphery dialectics in local discourses. At the same time, the study attests to the progressive role a metropolitan superculture can play in cultural renewal in the periphery.

Damage propagation in reinforced concrete frames under external blast loading

Iconic and significant buildings are the common target of bombings by terrorists causing large numbers of casualties and extensive property damage. Recent incidents were external bomb attacks on multi-storey buildings with reinforced concrete frames. Under a blast load circumstance, crucial damage initiates at low level storeys in a building and may then lead to a progressive collapse of whole or part of the structure. It is therefore important to identify the critical initial influence regions along the height, width and depth of the building exposed to blast effects and the structure response in order to assess the vulnerability of the structure to disproportionate and progressive collapse. This paper discusses the blast response and the propagation of its effects on a two dimensional reinforced concrete (RC) frame, designed to withstand normal gravity loads. The explicit finite element code, LS DYNA is used for the analysis. A complete RC portal frame seven storeys by six bays is modelled with reinforcement details and appropriate materials to simulate strain rate effects. Explosion loads derived from standard manuals are applied as idealized triangular pressures on the column faces of the numerical models. The analysis reports the influence of blast propagation as displacements and material yielding of the structural elements in the RC frame. The effected regions are identified and classified according to the load cases. This information can be used to determine the vulnerability of multi-storey RC buildings to various external explosion scenarios and designing buildings to resist blast loads.

Of tails and Tempests : Feminine sexuality and Shakespearean children's texts

This paper reads a range of nineteenth-century texts for children that retell either Shakespeare's The Tempest or mermaid narratives, considering the models of feminine subjectivity and sexuality that they construct. It then moves on to two key contemporary texts — Disney's film adaptation of The Little Mermaid (Clements and Musker 1989) and Penni Russon's Undine (2004) — that combine the Shakespearean heroine with the mermaid, and reads them against the nineteenth-century models. Ultimately, the essay determines that, while these texts seem to perform a progressive appropriation of the two traditions, they actually combine the most conservative aspects of both The Tempest and mermaid stories to produce authoritative (and dangerously persuasive) ideals of passive feminine sexuality that confine girls within patriarchally-dictated familial positions. The new figure for adolescent female subjectivity, the mermaid-Miranda, becomes in turn a model of identification and aspiration for the implied juvenile consumer.

New insights into rebound effects : theory and empirical evidence

The main objective of the thesis is to seek insights into the theory, and provide empirical evidence of rebound effects. Rebound effects reduce the environmental benefits of environmental policies and household behaviour changes. In particular, win-win demand side measures, in the form of energy efficiency and household consumption pattern changes, are seen as ways for households and businesses to save money and the environment. However, these savings have environmental impacts when spent, which are known as rebound effects. This is an area that has been widely neglected by policy makers. This work extends the rebound effect literature in three important ways, (1) it incorporates the potential for variation of rebound effects with household income level, (2) it enables the isolation of direct and indirect effects for cases of energy efficient technology adoption, and examines the relationship between these two component effects, and (3) it expands the scope of rebound effect analysis to include government taxes and subsidies. MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect Using a case study approach it is found that the rebound effect from household consumption pattern changes targeted at electricity is between 5 and 10%. For consumption pattern changes with reduced vehicle fuel use, the rebound effect is in the order of 20 to 30%. Higher income households in general are found to have a lower total rebound effect; however the indirect effect becomes relatively more significant at higher household income levels. In the win-lose case of domestic photovoltaic electricity generation, it is demonstrated that negative rebound effects can occur, which can potentially amplify the environmental benefits of this action. The rebound effect from a carbon tax, which occurs due to the re-spending of raised revenues, was found to be in the range of 11-32%. Taxes and transfers between households of different income levels also have environmental implications. For example, a more progressive tax structure, with increased low income welfare payments is likely to increase greenhouse gas emissions. Subsidies aimed at encouraging environmentally friendly consumption habits are also subject to rebound effects, as they constitute a substitution of government expenditure for household expenditure. For policy makers, these findings point to the need to incorporate rebound effects in the environmental policy evaluation process.’

Practical Transformations and Transformational Practices : Globalization, Postmodernism, and Early Childhood Education : Advances in Early Education and Day Care

Both traditional and progressive curricula are inadequate for the task of responding to the economic, political, social, and cultural changes that have occurred as a result of globalization. This book documents some of the ongoing work occurring in early childhood settings that is aimed at improving, and ultimately transforming, early childhood practice in these changed and changing times. The authors do not simply critique developmental approaches or the increasing standardization of the field. Instead, they describe how they are playing around with postmodern ideas in practice and developing unique approaches to the diverse educational circumstances that confront early childhood educators. Whether it is preparing teachers, using materials, or developing policies, each chapter provides readers with possibilities for enacting pedagogies that are responsive to the contemporary circumstances shaping the lives of young children.