Hydrogel formulation for enhanced regeneration in cell transplantation

Myocardial cell transplantation can compensate for the loss of necrotic cardiomyocytes. The objective of this research study was to reformulate the hydrogel with concentrations of growth factors, such as Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF), Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), and Interleukin-6 (IL-6). A controlled delivery system of PEO-PPO-PEO was formulated for release of a single growth factor and of multiple growth factors. Cytotoxicity and proliferation assay for single growth factors starting with 4000 skeletal myoblasts yielded their highest proliferation at 4 days with HGF (25,500 cells) and LIF (42,000 cells), while IL-6 (115,000 cells) generated its highest proliferation at 5 days. Combination of LIF and IL-6 resulted in highest proliferation at day 2 (220,000 cells), HGF and LIF (108,000 cells), and HGF and IL-6 (80,000 cells) both at 5 days. Viability at 37°C was maintained during the five days at 98-99%. The formulation was successful in myotube formation while maintaining a high purity of myoblasts in culture. The new formulation induced controlled release of growth factors and skeletal myoblasts delivery under favorable conditions while increasing the proliferation of myoblasts.

Effect of early release from intense competition within high density natural regeneration on the properties of the juvenile and mature wood of 40-year-old Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.)

Peer reviewed

The contribution of feminist biblical hermeneutics to a theology of ministries

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

Neuroprotection and regeneration of adult lesioned retinal ganglion cells by the modulation of fibroblast growth factor-2 and receptor tyrosine phosphatase-sigma

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

Zinc regeneration in rechargeable zinc-air fuel cells:a review

Zinc-air fuel cells (ZAFCs) present a promising energy source with a competing potential with the lithium-ion battery and even with proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) for applications in next generation electrified transport and energy storage. The regeneration of zinc is essential for developing the next-generation, i.e., electrochemically rechargeable ZAFCs. This review aims to provide a comprehensive view on both theoretical and industrial platforms already built hitherto, with focus on electrode materials, electrode and electrolyte additives, solution chemistry, zinc deposition reaction mechanisms and kinetics, and electrochemical zinc regeneration systems. The related technological challenges and their possible solutions are described and discussed. A summary of important R&D patents published within the recent 10 years is also presented.

Plato's Cretan Colony: Theology and Religion in the Political Philosophy of the Laws

The Laws is generally regarded as Plato’s attempt to engage with the practical realities of political life, as opposed to the more idealistic, or utopian, vision of the Republic. Yet modern scholars have often felt disquieted at the central role of religion in the Laws’ second-best city and regime. There are essentially the two dominant interpretations on offer today: either religion supports a repressive theocracy, which controls every aspect of the citizens’ lives to such an extent that even philosophy itself is discouraged, or religion is an example of the kind of noble lie, which the philosopher must deceive the citizens into believing—viz., that a god, not a man, is the author of the regime’s laws. I argue that neither of these interpretations do justice to the dialogue’s intricately dramatic structure, and therefore to Plato’s treatment of civil religion. What I propose is a third position in which Plato both takes seriously the social and political utility of religion, and views theology as a legitimate, and even necessary, subject of philosophical inquiry without going so far as to advocate theocracy as the second best form of regime.

I conclude that a proper focus on the dialogue form, combined with a careful historical analysis of Plato’s use of social and political institutions, reveals an innovative yet traditional form of civil religion, purified of the harmful influence of the poets, based on the authority of the oracle at Delphi, and grounded on a philosophical conception of god as the eternal source of order, wisdom, and all that is good. Through a union of traditional Delphic theology and Platonic natural theology, Plato gives the city of the Laws a common cult acceptable to philosopher and non-philosopher alike, and thus, not only bridges the gap between religion and philosophy, but also creates a sense of community, political identity, and social harmony—the prerequisites for political order and stability. The political theology of the Laws, therefore, provides a rational defense of the rule of law (νόμος) re-conceived as the application of divine Reason (νοῦς) to human affairs.

Virgin Territory: Theology, Purity, and the Rise of the Global Sex Trade

Sex sells. A lot. But who exactly is on the market?

What kinds of bodies are calibrated for traffic and consumption, and how exactly do they get there? When it comes to “sex” trafficking—which comprises a minority percentage of human trafficking, yet dominates the moral imagination as an “especially heinous” crime—the rise in predominantly white, evangelical Christian American interest in the trafficked subject galvanizes an ethical outrage that rarely observes critiques of race, ethnicity, sexuality or class as conditions of possibility. Though a nuanced mandate to fight trafficking is all but cemented in the contemporary American political and moral conscience, Virgin Territory accounts for the ways Christian ideas of purity annex both gender and sexuality inside the legacies of racialized colonial encounter, and foreground the market expansion of the global sex trade as it exists today.

In Part I, I argue that the narratives of virginity tied to Mary’s body simultaneously foregrounded the gendered, sexed Other as sparked disdain for the religious Other, for the Jewish body and for Mary’s Jewish identity. Through this analysis I explore the connections of racial identity to the Christian theological elision of Jewish election. I demonstrate how the questions of sexual ethics materialized at the site of the Virgin Mary, and align the moral attachments of sex and purity in the production of whiteness. These machinations, tied to the emerging European identity of empire, irrupt horrifically into the narrative ontology of dark flesh in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

In Part II, I highlight the function of these narratives inside of the moments of colonial encounter, demonstrating how the logics of purity and virginity were directly applied to manage dark female flesh. I map the visual iconography of the Black Madonna first through a Dutch painting entitled The Rape of the Negress. I read this image through the social theological imagination instantiating the idea of the reprobate body and white imperial gaze. This analysis foregrounds a theological reading of Sarah Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus,” as the center of a complex sex trafficking investigation, outlining the genealogy of race, as well as the ideologies of the racial, ethnic and national Other, as mitigating factors in the conditions of possibility of a global sex trade. By restoring these narratives and their theological undertones, I reiterate the ways Christian thought is imbricated in the global sex trade, and propose theological strategies for rethinking humanitarian responses to sex trafficking.