Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 12, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. S.)--Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: LaPlaca, Michelle; Committee Member: Backus, Deborah; Committee Member: Bellamkonda, Ravi; Committee Member: Lee, Robert; Committee Member: Prausnitz, Mark.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2005. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-101).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Irvine, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-125). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Irvine, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-125).

This PhD thesis explores the phenomenon of resilience in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). The purpose of this research is to understand how resilience is experienced and given meaning in people with SCI, as well how resilience is fostered, how it impacts upon health and well-being, and how it can be managed to achieve maximum benefits with regard to health and well-being. It is the first in depth narrative investigation of resilience in people with SCI. Using both life story interviews and the process of timelining, participants stories were collected. Following this they were then analysed using dialogical narrative analysis (Frank, 2010, 2012). This enabled participants stories to be examined with regard to their effects on resilience and health and well-being. The analysis shows that firstly, due to the intangible nature of resilience, participants had trouble in articulating exactly what resilience meant to them. Instead, resilience was shown through participants stories which could be grouped into four different narrative types: loss, adaptation, posttraumatic growth (PTG), and life-as-normal. Together, these narrative types constructed resilience, and as such, resilience in people with SCI has four facets or faces , like a four-sided dice. The process of resilience in people with SCI worked by participants drawing upon the different narrative types at different times depending upon the demands being placed upon them. The loss narrative was drawn upon immediately following injury, and was concerned with the narration of the physical, psychological and social losses participants incurred following SCI. The loss narrative fostered resilience by enabling participants to talk about their losses, enabling participants to survive the hardest time of their lives. The second narrative type was the adaptation narrative. This narrative type focussed upon rehabilitation in both the spinal unit and in the community. This narrative type built resilience via progression through rehabilitation towards a quality of life comparable to pre-injury levels. The PTG narrative was concerned with the ways in which participants had developed following SCI and built resilience by shifting the focus onto the positives to come out of participants experiences of SCI. The life-as-normal narrative was used by two participants across their entire life story and enabled participants to continue with their lives with minimal disruption. It built resilience by placing disability in the background and therefore making it unimportant. This thesis then concludes with the empirical, theoretical, methodological and practical implications arising from this research. The potential for resilience to help improve the health and well-being of people with SCI is discussed, as well as the ways in which resilience can have a maximum benefit on health and well-being of people with SCI.

Thesis (M.S.O.T.) PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / PURPOSE: Past research has shown discrepancy between parent and child report of health-related outcomes, leading to questions regarding the use of parents as proxy reporters for their children. It is not known whether similar discrepancies exist between child and parent views of the child’s participation following spinal cord injury. It is also unclear how perception of participation in youth after spinal cord injury compares to self-perception of participation for youth without disabilities. The current study investigated these questions. PROCEDURE: A secondary analysis was completed on data collected from children and youth with a spinal cord injury ages 8-21 years (n=381) and their parents using the Shriner’s Participation Scale. The young person’s self-perception ratings of participation were compared to his/her parent’s perception of their participation, and patterns of self-perception of participation among peers without disabilities . ICC’s were conducted to determine levels of consistency among parent-child dyad responses. Responses from a sample of children and youth without disabilities (n=2005) were compared by t-test to those of the youth with a spinal cord injury determine whether there were differences in how often each group reported they are unable to participate in certain activities. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: Overall low levels of agreement were found between parent and child perceptions of the child’s participation. The highest agreement (average ICC) between parent and child was found in the 14-17 year old age group. There was a significant difference in self-perception of ability to participate in certain activities between the youth with spinal cord injury and their peers without disabilities. / 2031-01-01

The lamprey is a basal vertebrate that achieves spontaneous functional recovery after complete spinal cord transection over a stereotypical period of 12 weeks. Despite anatomical, physiological, and behavioral data on spinal cord regeneration in lamprey, the molecular mechanisms underlying this capacity are largely unknown. In this study, next generation RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) of the brain and injury site within the spinal cord was used to determine and compare transcriptional profiles of uninjured and recovered lampreys at 12 weeks after spinal cord injury (SCI), when normal swimming behavior is achieved. The objective of this study was to determine if recovered animals had a significantly different transcriptional program than uninjured animals. Significant differences in gene expression were observed, with 1468 and 1033 differentially expressed genes in the spinal cord and brain respectively. Leveraging functional data for mammalian homologs of differentially expressed genes, several conserved transcription factors and molecular pathways in both uninjured and injured animals were identified. Gene expression patterns associated with functional recovery in lampreys may be useful in guiding studies aimed at modulating mammalian responses to spinal cord injury, and promoting functional recovery in species with less spontaneous regenerative potential. / 2019-07-11T00:00:00Z

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: The goal of this project was to evaluate the use of a preparation of the brainstem and spinal cord of neonatal rats that has been widely used for observing and quantifying central nervous activity, as well as the response to pharmacological manipulation. To achieve this, we specifically aimed to remove the intact brainstem and spinal cord of newborn rats, and develop a preparation that would maintain physiological function and allow for recording of electrical activity. Methods: Multiple dissections were performed on neonatal rats. Conditions during the dissections were controlled to maintain physiological function. Once removed, the intact brainstem and spinal cord was placed in a preparation that allowed for manipulation and access to nerve rootlets. Finally, glass suction electrodes were used to record electrical activity directly from the nerve rootlets. Once recorded, the data were stored on a hard drive for further analysis. Main Results: We were successful in isolating the intact brainstem and spinal cord in neonatal rats while maintaining physiological conditions and nervous activity. The preparation allowed for easy access to nerve roots as well as customization for different experiments. We were also successful in recording nerve activity in the preparation and collection of data for use in future experiments Conclusions: We conclude that the brainstem spinal cord preparation described in this study is a valuable tool that allows for recording and analysis of nerve activity, and specifically for measurement of respiratory motor output. This is a preparation that can be used in a variety of experiments that attempt to observe or quantify the activity of central nerve cells and allows for pharmacological interventions that could be applied in various experiments.

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) techniques may be used to restore motor function lost or impaired through spinal cord injury. In order to use these techniques to restore complex tasks such as walking, it is necessary to provide sensory feedback to regulate the output of the FES controller. It has been suggested that multi-microelectrode probes (microprobes) implanted into the peripheral nervous system can be used to detect signals originating from the body's own sensors. These signals could be decoded and used to regulate the output of the FES controller. Prior to the present work, however, microprobes had primary been used to study neural activity in the brain, not peripheral nerves. In the present work, locust peripheral nerve has been used as an animal model for experimental and computer modelling work. The experimental work was directed at discerning the detail of information that can be obtained using microprobes to record from peripheral nerves (ie, the selectivity of the probes). In the computer modelling work, the effects of filtering the recorded signal were studied using an electrical circuit simulator programme (SPICE). Finite element analysis software (ANSYS) was used to model the electrical potential distribution in the nerve trunk, and to determine the effects of the probe substrate on the recorded signal. The results of the experimental work indicated that it may be possible to achieve higher selectivity in recording with microprobes than predicted by some models. It is concluded that future models need to represent the situation in greater detail in order to make more realistic predictions regarding the practical work. This will require further data on the electrical properties of the structures modelled within the nerve trunk. The SPICE modelling work successfully predicted the shape of the neural signals that would be recorded in the practical work. The partial differentiating effect of high pass filtering neural signals was also demonstrated. The results of the finite element modelling work demonstrated that the probe substrate would be expected to amplify signals from fibres directly in front of it, and attenuate signals from fibres behind it. This was shown to be significant for probe substrates with dimensions much smaller than the longitudinal spread of the action potential along the fibre. It was also found that these effects can be influenced by the position of the microprobe substrate relative to other structures within the nerve trunk; not just relative to the fibre. The significance of these results as they relate to mammalian nerve is discussed. Improved experimentation techniques and models are outlined, based on the results of this work. These include the requirement for improved facilities to determine the limits of selectivity in recording from peripheral nerves, and also the inclusion of inhomogeneities in models of the nerve trunk to make more realistic predictions regarding practical work. Finally, the development of active probes is discussed, including requirements for particularly novel circuitry, and the integration of many devices into a system to control FES.