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Background: Diet and exercise have been recommended to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) in individuals with obesity. However, the effects of these interventions on muscle remodeling during CRC initiation in individuals who were previously obese is unknown. Since CRC is associated with a high-risk of cachexia, it is important to understand how diet and exercise interventions can impact muscle remodeling in populations at risk of developing CRC-induced cachexia. Our aim was to investigate the effects of weight loss, with or without exercise, on markers of muscle remodeling in a mouse model of CRC. We hypothesized that exercise plus weight loss would increase muscle mass, reduce muscle fibro/fatty tissue, and increase muscle stem/progenitor cell content compared to weight loss alone. Methods: Mice consumed a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce obesity or a control (CON) diet. Subsequently, mice received injections of azoxymethane (AOM) to induce CRC. Then, weight loss was induced in HFD mice by placing them on the CON diet and those mice either remained sedentary (HFD-SED) or completed a treadmill exercise intervention (HFD-EX). Results: After 40 weeks, mice were sacrificed and analyzed for markers of muscle remodeling. HFD-SED and HFD-EX showed weight loss and a loss in percent fat mass when looking at changes between sacrifice and before AOM injections (p<0.05 vs. CON). HFD-SED and HFD-EX had increased lean mass (p<0.05 vs. CON), and HFD-EX had increased tibialis anterior (TA) weight (p<0.05 vs. CON). The proportion of medium-sized fibers increased (p<0.05 vs. HFD-SED and CON) in HFD-EX, but there were no differences in overall cross-sectional area, myonuclei per fiber, or myonuclear domain. HFD-SED had increased fibrosis (p<0.05 vs. HFD-EX and CON) and adiposity (p<0.05 vs. CON). The number of committed (Pax7+MyoD+) satellite cells (SCs) and FAPs was greater in HFD-EX (p<0.05 vs. CON). There were no differences in uncommitted (Pax7+MyoD-) or differentiated (Pax7-MyoD+) SCs. Additionally, nuclear p-NF-κB was reduced following exercise (p<0.05), specifically in the interstitium with a significant decrease in the number of interstitial p-NF-κB cells in the HFD-EX group (p<0.05 vs. CON and HFD-SED). Conclusions: Findings suggest that a HFD, followed by weight loss with exercise, can reduce fibrotic and fatty degeneration of the muscle and improve markers of muscle remodeling. These findings provide the rationale to further examine exercise interventions for maintaining muscle quality during weight loss interventions to reduce CRC-induced cachexia.

Premature and ill infants are admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) for specialized medical and nursing care. Infants admitted to NICUs require the use of life sustaining technology and care from a multidisciplinary health care team. While in hospital, an infant’s prognosis and expected outcomes can dramatically change. Depending on the circumstances of their infant’s health, parents may choose to withdraw life sustaining treatment, or alternatively, face a future reality with the potential of long-term impact related to their infant’s diagnosis. Parents with an infant in the NICU experience many different types of losses which can generate a grief response. The purpose of this thesis is to explore parental loss and grief in the NICU. A systematic review of qualitative evidence modelled on the Joanna Briggs Institute method (2014) was completed. This approach included a systematic and rigorous approach to the searching, critical appraisal, and aggregation procedures. Four databases (CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO, Nursing and Allied Health) were systematically searched using pre-identified search criteria. Two reviewers were involved in the search and screening, and three additional reviewers were used to identify included articles. This search process resulted in five studies being included in the review. Five themes were identified from the original research studies: support, not knowing what to expect, hospital practices, communication, and coming through grief. The results of this systematic review of qualitative evidence demonstrate that loss and grief have been described by parents in the NICU, both in the presence and absence of neonatal death.

In this dissertation, I examine two research questions. In chapters 2 and 3, based on idea of reference value that was first proposed by Kahneman and Tversky, I look at a potential house seller’s pricing strategy when the reference value plays a role. In chapter 2, I focus on the reference-dependence and its implications on loss aversion behavior, and I compare model predictions with documented empirical findings in the literature. In particular, I show that the stylized empirical evidence in the literature has relatively limited power on testing loss aversion, and I provide new specifications that aim to correctly test the loss aversion effect. In chapter 3, I examine a reference-dependent seller’s pricing strategy in a less heterogeneous housing market such as the multi-unit residential market. Acknowledging the fact that units in the same building serve as close substitutes for each other, I show that the recent transaction price on a unit in the same building may generate two signaling effects. First, the average willingness to pay among buyers is positively correlated with the observed price, which generates a spatio-temporal autocorrelation effect; second, after observing the prior price, the heterogeneity of the potential buyer’s willingness to pay decreases, inducing house sellers to mark down their asking prices. In chapter 4, I examine the power of monitoring and forcing contract on improving the managerial efficiency of REITs. I put particular emphasis on its implications regarding the choice of advisor type in REITs. I show that, for both internal and external advisors, increasing levels of monitoring power will increase their equilibrium effort under a stochastic forcing contract. Furthermore, I show that a crucial driving force regarding advisor choice is the heterogeneity of monitoring power between internal and external advisors and across REIT firms. Provided that the gap of monitoring power is large enough between internal and external advisors, shareholders could make use of the heterogeneity, and induce higher effort from external advisors. Hence, I am able to provide a theoretical justification regarding the potential appeal of an external managerial structure, which is usually regarded as being inferior to an internal managerial structure. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

D.Phil. / The world we live in is characterised by daily trauma, crisis and tragedy. The media, which are everywhere nowadays, expose us to the hurt and suffering of thousands of people, as well as to our own, and too often this creates the impression that only negative events are taking place. One cannot help but wonder whether the human race has not lost control over itself and the environment it has created. Are we victims of external events, or can we still make a difference or a positive contribution to our lives and those of others? This kind of question makes us curious about the human condition, and at the same time makes us aware of the different ways in which people deal with similar situations. Some people cannot function under difficult circumstances, while others cope quite well, and some even flourish! This gives rise to questions such as: What causes people to react so differently under equal circumstances? Why do some people become conquerors and others go to pieces? What can we learn from victors or survivors? Is it possible to teach people to become victors, instead of victims, in testing times? The researcher’s search for answers to these and other questions gave rise to this study. The focus of this study was to determine the possible key factors which led to the researcher’s friend becoming a survivor in the face of a life-threatening disease, breast cancer, and how the researcher herself managed to cope with the trauma of the disintegration of her marriage. More particularly the researcher wanted to explore how the ordeals they had gone through influenced their lives. How did their experience of trauma influence them, and what have they learned from these experiences? Questions which came to the fore at the outset of the study were the following: • How did the two women deal with loss? • Did the trauma influence their sense of purpose and meaning? • What role did their relationships with friends and family play in dealing with the traumatic events? • How did their ordeals affect their careers, and what was their employers’ reaction towards them? • How did trauma affect the various dimensions of their lives? • What advice could they as survivors offer to other people who are going through such traumatic experiences?

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This study asserts that loss has been primarily focused on in terms of a set of reactions whose goals and content tend to be externally orientated. The thesis presented here states that the consideration of reaction to loss is incomplete without a detailed understanding of how the phenomenological self, on the intrapsychic level, is effected by loss. Consequently, this study takes a comprehensive look at how loss can effect this level of the phenomenological self, as well as the types of losses it can experience. An attempt is made to demonstrate that these losses to the phenomenological self can be identified and defined as a generic set of experiences, or, class of psychological events, which when taken together, this study considers as the loss of self. Given this class of psychological events, it is further claimed that mourning the loss of self, in different forms, is a universal change process. When dealt with in therapy this change process of mourning the loss of self is considered as a class of therapeutic event. An extensive literature review examines the basis for these claims, and provides the foundations for the presentation of a clinical model for mourning the loss of self. In this model, self, types of loss of self, and the process of mourning the loss of self, as relevant to this study, are defined. Utilization of this model for therapeutic purposes is demonstrated in case studies, and implications for research, as well as areas of application, are suggested. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Because there can be serious health and social consequences to obesity, the need for effective treatment programs is great. So far researchers in the field have been more successful in improving the short-term effectiveness of treatment programs for weight loss than the likelihood of long-term maintenance. This study investigated the effects of a 4-week non-diet maintenance intervention program for 59 female participants who had successfully reached a target goal weight, maintained their loss for at least six months, and had moderately high levels of concern about future maintenance. Two treatment conditions were compared, a maintenance intervention (MI) and a relapse prevention intervention (RPI) with a waiting list serving as a control group. Measures of self-efficacy and coping were taken before and after treatment, and by mail at a 6-week follow-up for the 2 treatment conditions; the waiting list was tested at corresponding time intervals without intervening treatment. It was expected that levels of self-efficacy and the relative use of problem-focused coping would increase from pretest to posttest for both treatment conditions compared with the waiting list and that only the relapse prevention intervention group would maintain these increases from posttest to follow-up. No such significant differences were found among the groups on the dependent measures, however, as hypothesized, problem-focused coping at posttest was positively correlated with levels of self-efficacy at follow-up. When clinical significance was assessed, individual participants in both treatment conditions showed improvement in self-efficacy (MI, 36%; RPI, 28%), and relative use of problem-focused coping (MI, 22%; RPI, 33%). In addition, correlational findings were similar to those of other maintenance studies (i.e., smaller weight regains were associated with higher levels of exercise and regular monitoring of weight). It was concluded that the relapse prevention treatment had not produced the desired effect of raising levels of self-efficacy and increasing the relative use of problem-focused coping, but also that the program's objectives had been too ambitious for a 4-week program. The relationship between self-efficacy and problem-focused coping found in this study indicates that this is a fruitful area for further investigation in the development of effective intervention programs for successful dieters at risk of relapse. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Community Psychology), Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2013. / In recent years, significant attention has been given in the popular and academic press to an ‘obesity crisis’ that supposedly, is both ever increasing and sweeping across the world. The study was undertaken to explore the influence of wellness in weight loss. Although it is not known why the prevalence of obesity has increased so suddenly and markedly specifically in the past twenty years, experts agree that the rise is unlikely to be related to a sudden shift in genetic or biological factors within the individual. The causes are largely environmental or a consequence of the mismatch between our physiology and an environment where food is abundant and physical activity unnecessary. Moreover, there seems to be an increasing belief that psychological instability and childhood experiences play a great role in this epidemic. The present study focused on the influence of wellness in weight loss. The holistic approach to deal with this study was undertaken looking at mental, physical and spiritual wellness. Specifically the study looked at food or diet (healthy food and nutrition as important in promotion of good health), fitness or exercise, meditation (helps reduce stress), mental or emotional health and community (social isolation leads to severe stress, which in turn may result in unhealthy behaviour). The results were interesting in that, there was a significant loss of weight amongst the participants at the end of the study; participants demonstrated a positive change and displayed willingness to take better care of their selves to stay well. Qualitatively, participants reported an increase in daily physical activities, healthier dietary choices, feelings of optimism and greater self acceptance. Thus wellness shows promise as a weight loss intervention.

In this thesis an approach to CDO tranche valuation is described. This approach allows to check market quotes for arbitrage opportunities, to obtain expected portfolio losses from the market quotes and to price CDO tranches with non-standard maturities and attachment/ detachment points. A significant advantage of this approach is the possibility to avoid the necessity of construction of a correlation structure between names in the reference basket. Standard approaches to CDO valuation, based on copula functions are also considered.