Class of 2011 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To assess the current perceptions of patients with type II diabetes regarding the impact of lifestyle changes (diet and exercise), in particular, their relative impact on their disease state as it compares to that of their medication. METHODS: This was a descriptive study using a survey questionnaire. The primary dependent variable were the rating of the importance of diet and exercise, and a descriptive variables include medication use, amount of exercise, importance of medications, beliefs related to lifestyle and demographic variables. Questionnaires were passed out to eligible participant at the Walmart Pharmacy located on 7150 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson Arizona. RESULTS: 56 survey questionnaires were completed. 18 men (mean age = 55.6) and 31 women (mean age = 43.8). Seven of the survey questionnaire did not indicate sex. Overall, lifestyle modification was rated favorably by all participants. On a scale of 1 through 5 (1 being least important, 5 being most important), the mean ratings were 3.5 and 3.6 for diet and exercise respectively. Confidence in medication use was rated a mean of 2.15. Attitude of study population with regards to obesity and diabetes was highly skewed toward obesity contributing diabetes (mean = 4.5). Finally, only 26.7% of participant get more than three hours a week of regular exercise. CONCLUSION: Based on the result from this study, patients with type II diabetes have a stronger inclination towards a belief in lifestyle changes (diet and exercise) to improve their disease state than medication alone.

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The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions and meanings of type II diabetes among Mexican American farmworking women working in California’s Northern San Joaquin Valley. Perceptions of type II diabetes play a major role in how Mexican American farmworking women feel about diabetes and these perceptions influence diabetes treatment strategies and health care decisions. Yet, little is known about the perceptions and meanings that farmworking women attribute to type II diabetes. A qualitative interdisciplinary research methodology (integrating knowledge from social work and nursing) involving open-ended, in-depth interviews with a nonprobabilistic sample of 17 Mexican American farmworking women was used to gain an understanding of how farmworking women make meaning of type II diabetes. Based on Kleinman’s (1980) explanatory model, salient themes in the areas of illness, causation, treatment and perceptions were identified. The study showed that farmworking women have a predominantly cultural perspective of diabetes. A large majority of women applied cultural beliefs and traditional home remedies to the treatment of diabetes; although many were not opposed to incorporating western medicine into cultural treatment strategies. Causation of diabetes was attributed to a transformation of blood and destabilization of the pancreas as a result of Susto (fright), an ethno-specific illness. Home remedy and dosing strategies were categorized and farmworking women revealed subjective definitions of high blood glucose and heredity that are dissimilar to western biomedicine. Understanding how farmworking women conceptualize and make meaning of type II diabetes and including these important culturally influenced beliefs and treatment strategies into interdisciplinary health care practices and service delivery systems can serve as a basis for modifying current medical theoretical orientations about diabetes education, treatment and maintenance strategies and service provision for this particularly vulnerable population. Additionally, the inclusion of cultural beliefs and treatment strategies can engender trust and facilitate meaningful, reciprocal relationships between patients and health care providers, which are considered essential for developing culturally meaningful, effective treatment, and competent and responsible service provision. / text

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In these experiments, we primarily investigate the role and source of nerve growth factor (NGF) in peripheral tissues undergoing chronic inflammation. It has been previously determined that there is a significant increase in the levels of NGF following prolonged inflammation of the urinary bladder or the colon, and the first of two projects discussed here mimics this increase with transgenic mice which ectopically produce NGF under control of the smooth muscle alpha-actin promoter. It was determined by this increase that a p75-sensitive increase in sympathetic innervation occurs when an abundance of NGF is produced locally in the descending colon. Sensory innervation in the colon was found to come from two unique populations, one of which increased following heightened NGF levels. The urinary bladders of NGF overexpressing mice were determined to have an increase in sensory axonal density. The second project described here features chemically induced colonic inflammation and observes the nervous and growth factor changes as a response. Transgenic reporter mice are used to observe the cellular source of NGF in the descending colon, which unexpectedly was determined to be Dogiel type II (DgII neurons) based on morphological and chemical characteristics. We report the increase in NGF mRNA and protein observed following a brief 5-day colonic inflammation, and note that there is no increase in axonal density observed. The chemical inflammation did, however, induce an increase in axonal varicosities, used as a measure of axon damage. Finally, a heterozygous null-mutation of NGF was made in a line of transgenic mice to observe changes in local sensory neurons, sympathetic innervation or NGF protein production, but no differences between the heterozygous null mutants and age-matched wild-type siblings were observed. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-05 12:08:44.326

Endocytosis is the process in which a cell engulfs extracellular cargo by creating invaginations within its plasma membrane. The cargo that has entered the cell enters an endosome and then is delivered to either the trans-Golgi network for recycling to the plasma membrane or to the lysosome for its degradation (Trousdale & Kim, 2015). Retromer is a peripheral membrane protein complex that plays a key role in sorting of these cargo molecules (Collins, 2008). More specifically, retromer deliver cargo from the endosome to the trans-Golgi Network, the process which is called retrograde transport of cargo molecules. Retromer dysfunction is strongly linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. However, recent Genome Wide Association Studies suggest that a mutation in retromer subunit VPS26a, has been linked to Type II Diabetes (Trousdale & Kim, 2015). A 2016 study published in The Faseb Journal attempts to characterize the role of retromer in adipocyte differentiation and insulin-stimulated uptake of glucose through transporter GLUT4 (Yang et al., 2016). The aim of this study is to further investigate the role of retromer in adipogenesis and to determine whether retromer plays a role at the transcriptional level or translational level. In this study, retromer’s VPS35 subunit was knocked down in four mouse 3T3-L1 fibroblast cell lines using the CRISPR-Cas9 approach. These cell lines were differentiated into mature adipocytes and analyzed by Oil-Red O staining, Western Blotting and quantitative PCR. The knockdown of retromer produced varying effects on adipocyte differentiation. In two of the knockdown cell lines, adipocyte differentiation was downregulated whereas adipocyte differentiation was upregulated in the other two cell lines. Although the results from Oil-Red O staining and Western Blot analyses complemented each other, results obtained from qPCR were not as straightforward and further analysis is needed to fully comprehend how retromer acts at the transcriptional level of cell differentiation. Based on the results of this study, retromer is involved in adipogenesis at both the transcriptional and translational level, however it’s mechanism of action remains unclear as both cases of impaired differentiation and upregulated differentiation were observed. Further studies are necessary to determine retromer’s exact role in adipogenesis.

In large molecular systems such as DNA, supramolecular complexes and dendrimers, functional groups located at different parts of the molecular structure can act as charge donors or acceptors, and photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer can occur. An analogous scenario can be found in colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, most evident in type-II heterostructures, where the relative band-alignment of the constituent materials are in a stagger configuration. Such a configuration, provides an energetically favourable situation for an photo-generated electron to be transferred from one material to the other, confining the electron and the hole in different domains of the nanostructure. A less obvious scenario in nanocrystals is when the core is thought of as the donor group, and the surface as the acceptor group. In such a scenario, the localization of electron or hole at surface defect sites, a process that occurs in every nanocrystal, can be thought of as an ``intramolecular" charge transfer. The studies presented in this dissertation are an attempt to further understand charge transfer processes in semiconductor nanostructures, in particular, those occurring within the same nanocrystals. This is carried out by a combination of spectroscopic techniques and modelling. First, time-resolved fluorescence measurements are used to investigated surface trapping/de-trapping dynamics in CdSe and CdSe/CdS/ZnS core/shell/shell quantum dots. A kinetic model, in which trapping/de-trapping is described with Marcus' classical electron transfer theory, is used to analyzed our results, yielding excellent agreement between model and experiment. Second, the influence of temperature and solvent environment in the optical spectra of CdSe/CdTe nanorods are examined. Solvatochromic shifts in these heterostructures are found to be larger than those observed in core-only quantum dots. Finally, ultrafast dynamics and biexciton states in CdSe/CdTe quantum dots are probed using two-dimensional optical spectroscopy. The fine structure of the lowest exciton and biexciton states are calculated for a model system with type-II band-alignment and simulations of 2D spectra are performed.