Few studies have explored emotion processing abilities in children following Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). This study develops previous research in this area by exploring emotion processing skills in children with focal ABI, using eye tracking technology. It was hypothesised that children with focal ABI would demonstrate impaired emotion recognition abilities relative to a control group and that, similar to adult eye tracking studies, they would show an atypical pattern of eye moments when viewing faces. Sixteen participants with focal ABI (10-16 years) and 27 healthy controls (10-16 years) completed one novel and one adapted visual emotion processing task, presented using a T120 Tobii eye-tracker. The eye-tracker measured eye-movement fixations in three areas of interest (AOIs; eyes, nose, mouth), as participants viewed the stimuli. Emotion perception accuracy was recorded. All participants from the ABI group also completed neuropsychological assessment of their immediate visual memory, visual attention, visuospatial abilities, and everyday executive function. The results of the study showed no significant difference in accuracy between the ABI and control groups. However, on average children with ABI appeared slightly less accurate than the control group in both emotion recognition tasks. Within-subjects analysis revealed no effect of lesion location and laterality or age at lesion onset upon emotion recognition accuracy. Eye tracking analysis showed that children within the ABI group presented with an atypical pattern of eye movements relative to the control group, demonstrating significantly greater fixation times within the eye region, when viewing disgusted, fearful angry and happy faces. The ABI group also showed reduced mean percentage fixation duration within the nose and mouth regions, relative to controls. Furthermore, it was observed that the ABI group took longer on average to give an accurate response to sad, disgusted, happy and surprised faces and this difference reached statistical significance for the accurate recognition of happy and surprised faces. It is suggested that the atypical fixation patterns noted within the ABI group, may represent a difficulty with dividing visual attention rapidly across the whole of the face. This slowing may have an impact upon functioning in everyday social situations, where rapid processing and appraisal of emotion is thought to be particularly important. It is therefore suggested that eye tracking technology may be a valuable method for the identification of subtle difficulties in facial emotion processing, following focal ABI in childhood, and may also have an application in the rehabilitation of these difficulties in future.

Finding equilibrium in forms, colour-form combinations and images has long been a concern of mine. I recognise a persistent manner of working within my art practice that utilises geometry, mathematics and colour to arrive at compositions that have a sense of beauty and equilibrium. Abstraction has been of significant interest to me and the three collections of work that I developed during my Master of Fine Arts studies - 'Colour:Form:Ratio', 'Photography-Free Zone' and 'Construction-Abstraction' - illustrate the different ways I have applied my interests in abstraction. Until the completion of the 'Colour:Form:Ratio' painting series my approach to abstraction was cerebral and self-reliant. While I was satisfied with results of my initial investigations and experimentation with abstract forms in painting I felt that the work lacked a social connection. I thus became interested in addressing what I perceived as this shortfall in my abstract painting. A new body of photographic work that had been evolving in parallel to my painting practice seemed to offer a solution. I realised that the photographs could be used to construct a new version of abstract composition. The images shared a similar colour and geometrical configuration to that illustrated in the 'Colour:Form:Ratio' Series. With this breakthrough, I began 'painting by eye', replacing my brush and palette with the camera and using it to capture and frame colours and geometric forms from my surrounding environment. In order to test my new methodology of arriving at abstract compositions extracted from the world around me, I selected two communally shared spaces - the gallery/museum and the construction site - as the sourcing ground for my photographs. The result of my experimentation has been two collections of work: 'Photography-Free Zone' and 'Construction-Abstraction'. Both series reflect my experience of the gallery/museum space and the construction site while illustrating the transferral of my painting process to the photographic medium. The most favourable realisation I made in the process of making these works was that the subject matter I captured with the camera possessed aesthetic and theoretical qualities in keeping with my former painted artistic vocabulary, despite being removed from the physical act of painting.

The purpose of the present study was to explore the ways that spouses of persons with ABI experience a process of change in roles, routine, and overall lifestyle and the subsequent implications for their support needs. The present study used a qualitative narrative inquiry methodology to examine the process of the experiences of this population of spouses. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 spouses, each of whom was engaged in a heterosexual relationship. There were 10 female and five male participants whose ages ranged from 40 to 61. Twelve of the participants were formally married, and three were in a common law relationship. In the interviews, the participants were asked about the changes in their lives after the onset of their spouses’ brain injuries. The data analysis was informed by narrative inquiry with attention paid to the structure of the participants’ stories. A three phase trajectory of caregiving emerged from the analysis which provided details regarding the process of change in the spousal caregiving role and how various role transitions within this role were intertwined with stressors and other feelings. The research highlighted three phases of caregiving including an Embryonic, Immersed and Modified Caregiver phase. The findings were theoretically important for identifying: how these spouses situate themselves within role transitions; coping strategies; various support needs; and future directions for research in this area.

The purpose of the present study was to explore the ways that spouses of persons with ABI experience a process of change in roles, routine, and overall lifestyle and the subsequent implications for their support needs. The present study used a qualitative narrative inquiry methodology to examine the process of the experiences of this population of spouses. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 spouses, each of whom was engaged in a heterosexual relationship. There were 10 female and five male participants whose ages ranged from 40 to 61. Twelve of the participants were formally married, and three were in a common law relationship. In the interviews, the participants were asked about the changes in their lives after the onset of their spouses’ brain injuries. The data analysis was informed by narrative inquiry with attention paid to the structure of the participants’ stories. A three phase trajectory of caregiving emerged from the analysis which provided details regarding the process of change in the spousal caregiving role and how various role transitions within this role were intertwined with stressors and other feelings. The research highlighted three phases of caregiving including an Embryonic, Immersed and Modified Caregiver phase. The findings were theoretically important for identifying: how these spouses situate themselves within role transitions; coping strategies; various support needs; and future directions for research in this area.

Historically, there has been limited empirical study of children whose parents have suffered an acquired brain injury. This is despite the fact that both clinical opinion and qualitative study suggest that these children may represent a population at risk for a variety of emotional and behavioral problems. The current study set out to evaluate the overall psychosocial functioning of a small subset of children whose parents had suffered an acquired brain injury (TBI, stroke) and who were in the more chronic phase of recovery (average time post-injury = 3.3 years). Factors that have been proposed to impact child psychosocial functioning in this population were assessed including the neurobehavioral profile of the parent with an injury, parental depression, and the child’s report of the parental relationship. In all, ten children (average age = 13 years) from seven families with parental ABI were evaluated both on a comprehensive measure of child psychosocial functioning (BASC-2) and a series of qualitative measures. As compared to a normative sample, results of quantitative analyses suggest a group of children not experiencing general clinical distress. In fact, statistical analyses suggest resiliency in the current sample as compared to normative data. At the individual level, two of the children in the sample evidenced behavior that warrants further clinical evaluation, though this finding may be on par with the base rates of clinical distress seen in the general population. Qualitative analyses provide a richer understanding of the experiences of these children and their families and suggest avenues for further empirical evaluation. Results are presented in the context of other studies to date. Recommendations for clinicians and researchers based on current findings are provided. / Graduate / 0622 / rlillie@uvic.ca

Finding equilibrium in forms, colour-form combinations and images has long been a concern of mine. I recognise a persistent manner of working within my art practice that utilises geometry, mathematics and colour to arrive at compositions that have a sense of beauty and equilibrium. Abstraction has been of significant interest to me and the three collections of work that I developed during my Master of Fine Arts studies - 'Colour:Form:Ratio', 'Photography-Free Zone' and 'Construction-Abstraction' - illustrate the different ways I have applied my interests in abstraction. Until the completion of the 'Colour:Form:Ratio' painting series my approach to abstraction was cerebral and self-reliant. While I was satisfied with results of my initial investigations and experimentation with abstract forms in painting I felt that the work lacked a social connection. I thus became interested in addressing what I perceived as this shortfall in my abstract painting. A new body of photographic work that had been evolving in parallel to my painting practice seemed to offer a solution. I realised that the photographs could be used to construct a new version of abstract composition. The images shared a similar colour and geometrical configuration to that illustrated in the 'Colour:Form:Ratio' Series. With this breakthrough, I began 'painting by eye', replacing my brush and palette with the camera and using it to capture and frame colours and geometric forms from my surrounding environment. In order to test my new methodology of arriving at abstract compositions extracted from the world around me, I selected two communally shared spaces - the gallery/museum and the construction site - as the sourcing ground for my photographs. The result of my experimentation has been two collections of work: 'Photography-Free Zone' and 'Construction-Abstraction'. Both series reflect my experience of the gallery/museum space and the construction site while illustrating the transferral of my painting process to the photographic medium. The most favourable realisation I made in the process of making these works was that the subject matter I captured with the camera possessed aesthetic and theoretical qualities in keeping with my former painted artistic vocabulary, despite being removed from the physical act of painting.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Next generation sequencing (NGS) technology platforms have accelerated ability to produce completed genome assemblies. Recently, collaborators at Tygerberg Medical School outsourced the sequencing of Oryx bacillus, a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC). A total of 31,271,059 short reads were generated and required filtering, assembly and annotation using bioinformatics algorithms. In this project, an NGS assembly pipeline was implemented, tailored specifically for SOLiD sequence data. The raw reads were aligned to seven fully sequenced and annotated MTC members, namely, Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, H37Ra, CDC1551, F11, KZN 1435, Mycobacterium bovis AF2122/97 and Mycobacterium bovis BCG str. Pasteur 1173P2 using NovoalignCS. Depth and breadth of sequence coverage across each base of the reference genome was calculated using BEDTools, and structural variation. Structural variation at the nucleotide level including deletions, insertions and single nucleotidepolymorphisms (SNPs) were called using three tools, GATK, SAMtools and Nesoni. These variations were further filtered using in-house PERL scripts. Putative functional roles for the alterations at the DNA level were extrapolated from the overlap with essential genes present in annotated MTC members. Approximately 20,730,631 short reads (59.78%) out of a total of 31,271,059 reads aligned to the seven reference genomes. The per base sequence coverage calculations revealed an average of 1,243 unaligned regions. These unaligned regions overlapped with mycobacterial regions of difference (RD) and genetic phage elements acquired by the MTC through horizontal gene transfer and are genes prevalent in the clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. A total of 2,680 genetic variations were identified and categorised into 845 synonymous and 1,724 non-synonymous SNPs together with 44 insertions and 67 deletions. Some of the variant alleles overlapped known genes to be involved in TB drug resistance. While the biological significance of our findings remain to be elucidated, it nonetheless deserves further attention, because SNPs have the potential to impact on strain phenotype by gene disruption. Therefore, any hypotheses generated from these large-scale analyses will be tested by our collaborators at Tygerberg medical school.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the changes to family dynamics that result from invisible symptoms of acquired brain injury The perspective put forth is that of individuals living with invisible symptoms of acquired brain injury. This study is based on a thematic analysis of the findings from nine semi-structured interviews with individuals (aged 24-64 yrs.; 6 men, 3 women) who have been formally diagnosed with an acquired brain injury. The data is interpreted and discussed using a critical framework, specifically, Critical Disability Theory. The findings from this analysis illustrate how invisible symptoms such as cognitive impairments, memory loss, mood changes etc., of acquired brain injury affect family dynamics in relation to emotional roles, domestic roles, financial roles, and perception and treatment of the affected individual. These changes were either exacerbated or minimized by the assumptions, misconceptions and knowledge level of the individual’s family in relation to understanding brain injury and the ways in which disability can manifest. Also important to family relations are the perceptions of participants that they must prove that they do have a disability; the roles healthcare professionals play in the validation of the injuries, both to the individual and the family; and how powerfully dominant constructions of disability – and invisible acquired brain injury in particular – are ingrained in social discourse and impact upon family dynamics for people living with invisible acquired brain injury. Lastly, an important part of this research is a compilation of recommendations put forth by the participants for healthcare professionals to keep in mind when working with individuals who either are suspected of having or have an acquired brain injury. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

African easterly waves (AEWs) are known precursors to tropical cyclone (TC) formation, although it is not always clear which AEWs will develop and which AEWs will not. To investigate AEW evolution, this study examines novel observations from the geostationary Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) during July-September 2019. Case studies are conducted for two AEWs: one that became Hurricane Dorian, the strongest and most devastating hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, and a long-lived September AEW that did not become a TC. Lower-level moisture and flow, and the strength and spatial distribution of convective activity, differed between these two waves. By then exploring these characteristics for additional developing and non-developing AEWs, ABI observations show that developing AEWs are associated with low-level moist air ahead of the wave combined with enhanced convective activity, while non-developing AEWs tend to encounter drier air and exhibit a persistently broader structure with less-organized convection.

Acquired brain injury (ABI) and long-term neurological conditions (such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease), are major causes of disability in the UK, and can lead to significant physical, cognitive, neuro-behavioural, psychological and social difficulties for sufferers. Individuals affected by an ABI or neurological conditions commonly report difficulties around emotional adjustment, reduced attention, mental control, and self-efficacy and their health-related quality of life also often appears to be much reduced. Whilst conventional neuro-rehabilitation has tended to address physical and cognitive impairments and deficits rather than psychological sequelae, recently a growing trend for more holistic approaches appears to have emerged (e.g., Wilson et al., 2000, 2013). Amongst these approaches, mindfulness-based interventions (collectively known as MBIs) have sought to address this gap in terms of therapeutic intervention. There is a growing body of research evidence pointing to the utility of MBIs in the rehabilitation and support of these populations in improving perceived quality of life and increasing self-management of these conditions. However, the research still remains limited and debate persists in terms of the conceptual and theoretical framework of mindfulness. The present study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of an adapted, short-form MBI group programme for a mixed population of patients (n = 22) currently offered in a local neuro-rehabilitation service. A specific pre-post control group design was adopted in order to investigate whether the intervention produced improvements in mindfulness skills, and whether these would in turn lead to improvements in measures associated with self-efficacy and perceived quality of life. Results indicated participants completing the MBI group programme showed significantly higher mean scores across measures of mindfulness. The results also indicated that these improvements were predictive of improvements across self-efficacy and quality of life measures, with large effect sizes observed. The findings would appear to support the research hypothesis that a suitably modified MBI is beneficial for a mixed ABI population. Findings, study limitations, clinical relevance and implications, as well as methodological and theoretical considerations and directions for future research are discussed in light of the main research questions.