This portfolio presents a schema of publication outputs developed from different stages of a journey of research framed by supporting commentary. Collectively these provide a portfolio of study that explores the learning potential of simulation in undergraduate nurse education. A brief history and overview provides context and background into the positioning of simulation within undergraduate nurse education that influenced the design and implementation of this research enquiry. Exploration of the literature base revealed a lack of consensus and understanding of simulation at that time. A concept analysis to search for common use and meaning of simulation as a learning strategy provided initial clarity, a foundation for further research and the first publication within this portfolio. This further informed the research aims and subsequent publications which focus on fundamental aspects of simulation which offer different perspectives for exploring and understanding this educational choice. A qualitative methodology was adopted as the optimum research design to establish a theoretical analysis of how simulation contributes to learning from the perspectives of undergraduate adult nursing students. An adapted form of classic grounded theory (Glaser, 1978) maintaining close association with the original approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) enabled data to be collected contemporaneously with student performance and reflection. Deep understanding developed from the multiple methods of dynamic data collection and analysis that captured the interactions of individual as they engaged in the simulation experience. Data was analysed through multiple lenses, including context and through the lens of both the researcher and learner. Findings suggest that immersive simulation engages and enables students to actively participate in professional context resulting in reflection and a motivation to learn. Simulation in this study has been found to enable curiosity and intellect engendered through activity which is enhanced through social collaboration and assists in embedding and contextualising theory. Ultimately students need to make identity shifts and evidence from this study would indicate that simulation enables students to think like a nurse as they make connections between theory and practice illuminated through activity and working together. The collective publications, findings and supporting commentary within this portfolio, serve to strengthen the existing evidence base for educators to consider when designing and developing simulation-based learning opportunities.

For over 30 years, the assessment of the clinical competence of student nurses has been the subject of much theoretical debate, yet the definition of criteria based on observable indicators of competence remains problematic. In practice, however, different assessors will judge and agree, relatively quickly, whether a student is competent or not; whether they have got ‘it’. Articulating what ‘it’ is, is difficult; although ‘it’ appears to be collectively, yet tacitly, understood. These judgements provide the key to the definition of competence. This research solves the dilemma of revealing and investigating these tacit understandings through the video analysis of students in simulated practice. The findings of four initial exploratory studies confirmed that competence is an example of tacitly understood behaviour and identified the limitations of traditional research methods in this context. The practical challenges of analysing video were highlighted, leading to the development of Video-View-Point to solve these problems and to reveal the tacitly understood behaviours. This innovative hybrid research method combines analysis of multiple ‘Think Aloud’ commentaries with the ability to ‘point’ at the subject of interest. The analysis is presented as a time-stamped multimedia dialectic, a visually simple yet sophisticated collage of data which reveals relevant behaviours, including those which are tacitly understood. A bespoke software tool (BigSister) was designed to facilitate the data collection, and was tested against the most similar commercially available technology, an eye tracker. The test of Video-View-Point successfully revealed four tacitly understood indicators of competence: communication, processing clinical information, being in the right place, and being proactive. Video-View-Point offers huge potential for behavioural analysis in other domains.

This study is a result of one not-for-profit organization’s aim to develop and evaluate a new approach to intermediate care (IC) by drawing together three separate enterprises; a not-for-profit charitable organization, a primary health care trust and local referring hospitals and social care providers in order to design a new service. This research describes and examines the factors that influenced the success (or not) of this IC service during its first two years of functioning. Using a single descriptive case study a detailed account of the innovation journey that a multidisciplinary team (MDT) underwent as they developed and implemented their own unique model of person-centred intermediate care (PCIC) within a community based nursing home facility is provided. The study describes the workings of the unit and details the service users’ outcomes and their perceptions of the care that they received on this unit. Through the use of a mixed methods, concurrent triangulation, design quantitative data (i.e. assessments of functional ability and length of stay (n= 94)) and qualitative data (i.e. semi-structured interviews-staff (n=12), service users (n=94)) were collected in order to generate thick description which allowed for an in-depth explanation of how a new event (PCIC in a nursing home) was integrated into the culture of the facility. This design allowed the data, once analysed, to be discussed from different viewpoints in order to simultaneously address the confirmatory and exploratory aims of the study. The results of this research provide the field of IC and the practice community with a detailed account of the successes and challenges that one MDT’s experiences during their innovation journey whilst crafting and successfully implementing PCIC within a community based nursing home facility. This study also exposed the staff’s use of emotional labour in order to successfully deliver their model of PCIC.

No description available.

Samples of different varieties grapevine from Małopolska and Podkarpacie collected on spring 2016 were tested for Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) by RT-PCR. 16 out of 65 plants were found positive for GPGV. Two set of primers were used for detection, targeting partial movement protein and coat protein, and RdRp domain, both of those regions were sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses settled the Polish isolates to described before asymptotic group. Also GPGV positive samples were tested by multiplex and simplex RT- PCR for multiple infections, and 18,5% of all samples were GPGV and GFkV positive. This was first survey of GPGV in Poland.

Climate change and thermal stress poses a problem for sustainable agriculture. Research in the adaptation and acclimation of plants to the elevated temperature is therefore one of the current scientific issues. Plants are exposed to different ambient temperatures during their life. The response to adverse temperatures includes a number of signalling pathways affecting development and growth processes in plants. Coordination of develomental processes under elevated temperature and other external factors is primarily controlled by plant hormones. Here effect of cytokinins on plant morphology, growth kinetics, gene expression and quanification in combination with increased temperature was observed. By determination of the hypocotyl growth during increased temperature, cytokinins were found to play important role in this process. Cytokinins were found to inhibit temperature induced hypocotyl growth and inversly seedlings treated with higher temperatutre showed decreased level of cytokinins which was confirmed on the level of marker gene expression and determination of levels of cytokinins.

This work will study intelligent systems for traffic control and will design an application which will control existing traffic junction. From formal specification to an implementation. It will be a real time application. That means it will work in real time. We will also study real time operating systems and we will choose the most suitable for our application and we will implement our application on this operating system.

Corn (Zea mays) is frequently infected by a soil fungal pathogen Aspergillus flavus. The fungus produces aflatoxins, which cause liver cancer. Maize inbred lines that are resistant to infection by A. flavus have been developed, and these inbred lines provide excellent models for studying molecular mechanisms of maize resistance to the fungus. MicroRNA-like RNAs (milRNAs) recently identified in A. flavus had been found to be correlated with aflatoxin production conditions, suggesting that the milRNAs might play a role in the regulation of aflatoxin production. In this research, small RNAs were isolated from kernels of maize (resistant Mp719 and susceptible Va35) inoculated with A. flavus NRRL 3357 (aflatoxigenic) and NRRL 21882 (nonaflatoxigenic) and then subjected to RNA sequencing. Sequencing had identified 69 A. flavus milRNAs and 691 Z. mays miRNAs. The differential expression of some maize miRNAs revealed their potential role in response to inoculation, A. flavus growth, and aflatoxin production.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The genus Aspergillus possesses broad functionality and occupation of ecological niches. Underpinning this are changes in the transcriptome of these species. Transcriptional changes are clinically relevant with respect to understanding triazole resistant isolates of Aspergillus fumigatus. Reverse-transcription quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) is a highly specific means of measuring changes in gene expression. The most common method of which requires normalization to experimentally validated, stably expressed reference genes. Ideal reference genes are unaffected by differences in the experimental conditions or strains/isolates and are expressed at levels near the target gene(s). The first study reviewed current practices for reference gene selection and validation for RT-qPCR gene expression analysis of the genus, Aspergillus. Information on the species examined, experimental conditions, sample type, normalization strategy, reference gene(s) and their state of validation was obtained from 90 primary studies. Twenty reference genes were used, with the most popular reference genes used encoding beta-tubulin, actin, 18S rRNA and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Seventeen of the 90 studies experimentally validated the expression stability of the reference genes used, out of which eight used more than one reference gene. The results of three studies conflicted with others described in the literature, with no experimental validation of the reference genes available to aid in interpreting the conflicting findings. In the Genome-Wide Association Study, genes noted to increase in expression in response to itraconazole and/or voriconazole treatment of A. fumigatus were extracted from published RNA-sequencing or RT-qPCR studies. Ten ATP-binding cassette transporters, four major facilitator superfamily transporters and 16 transcription factors were identified. Collectively, the findings of this thesis show a large disparity in experimentally validated reference genes as well as future targets of gene expression analysis in triazole resistant isolates of A. fumigatus. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Aspergillus is a globally distributed genus of fungi, with some species threatening opportunistic human infection. To combat infection with the opportunistic species, Aspergillus fumigatus, antifungal drugs including: itraconazole, voriconazole and amphotericin B are used. Recent years have seen a rise in antifungal resistance in A. fumigatus. To understand this and other mechanisms in Aspergillus, changes in gene expression must be examined. My thesis aimed to determine how reference genes are selected for reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, a method applied to measure gene expression changes in Aspergillus. It was discovered that very few studies between the years 2001 and 2020 experimentally validated that the reference genes used were stably expressed, with only 17 out of 90 studies providing validation. In part two of my thesis, genes overexpressed in A. fumigatus when exposed to antifungal drugs, from formerly published articles, were summarized to better understand the role of gene expression in antifungal drug resistance.