Gastrointestinal microflora has been shown to have a bi-directional relationship with the host immune system. A variety of fermentable carbohydrate polymers largely pass through the small intestine, providing fermentable substrates for gut microflora. Dietary fibre supplementation may provide a strategy for manipulating the intestinal bacterial profile, changing the interaction with the mucosal immune system, thereby modulating the host immune system. We used a BBc rat animal model to evaluate the effects of oat bran and wheat bran dietary fibre on the immune system. Previous collaborative efforts have shown that these dietary fibres can change the intestinal microflora, with wheat bran fibre showing a greater ability to influence colonic microbial community diversity. We have shown that dietary wheat bran fibre led to reduced IL-4 levels in the liver and T lymphocyte numbers in the Mesenteric Lymph Node and may be involved in reduced IgA levels in the cecal contents. In addition, IgA in the cecal contents was decreased while MLN B cell numbers increased in response to dietary wheat bran fibre. It was observed that neither wheat bran or oat bran treatments exerted any pro-inflammatory effects, with oat bran actually improving antioxidant status. These results suggest that both oat and wheat bran fibre treatments induce changes in the intestinal microflora, and that the microflora changes due to wheat fibre are associated with immunomodulatory effects on the host. This type of dietary fibre supplementation could ultimately provide a potential strategy for promoting health through microflora-associated effects on the immune system.

This study is about conception in the evaluation of financial assistance within the social services. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how social workers reason about variation, conception and local norms and its significance in the evaluation process. To reach this purpose we have conducted semi-structured interviews with eight social workers in which different themes were discussed and reasoned about. In order to understand and analyze our results we have studied/used the knowledge about tacit knowledge and street-level bureaucracy. Our results showed, as previous research states, that social workers do have conceptions about clients. Beyond that it also showed that they were well aware of the presence of the conception and that it is consistently processed with the help of colleagues. In addition to the help of colleagues the use of self-reflection was valuable to increase the awareness about conception. Furthermore the study showed that social workers believe that the conceptions are established through ones qualities and experiences. Social workers also suggest that these two variables contribute to their gut feeling, which they mean to be inevitable in the evaluation process. The study concluded that there is an ongoing reasoning about conception in the evaluation process of financial assistance among social workers and that social workers found it to be important to continuously discuss and deal with this issue.

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Calif., Univ., Dep. of Economics, Diss.--Stanford, 2005. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich. - Enth. 3 Beitr.

Pa., Univ. of Pennsylvania, Diss.--Philadelphia, 2004. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich. - Enth. 2 Beitr.

No description available.

No description available.

Radiotherapy is the second most important treatment modality after surgery in the treatment of cancer. Recent technical advancements, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), combined with new targeted drugs have significant promise for therapeutic outcome. However radiation treatment could result in disabling normal tissue injury and in the development of progressive fibrosis in a subset of sensitive patients and in long-term cancer survivors. The main feature of tissue fibrosis is excessive accumulation of abnormal and cross-linked collagen mainly composed of fibrillar and immature extracellular matrix (ECM) components.The organs that can be affected by this phenomenon are liver, skin, intestine, kidneys and lungs. From a clinical point of view, fibrosis can be seen as an irreversible condition, without solution. We and others recently showed that beside the activation of the canonical TGF-β/Smad pathway, other intracellular signaling cascades including the Rho/ROCK pathway are switched on in fibrotic tissues. Interestingly, the Rho/ROCK pathway seems differentially activated in radiation-induced intestinal fibrosis, thereby providing a rationale for a specific, targeted anti-fibrotic strategy. Pharmacological inhibition of Rho using statins indeed prevent and even reverse intestinal radiation fibrosis.In our studies, we showed the role of Statin (Pravastatin e Simvastatin) and a specific inhibitor ROCK inhibitors (Y-27632) in a mice model of pulmonary induced-fibrosis obtained by a pharmacological approach (Bleomycin - BLM). Indeed, we developed a model of lung fibrosis by complete irradiation of chest and tested Pravastatin action. Confirmation of the involvement of Rho/ROCK/CTGF pathway in lung fibrosis are shown by immunohistochemistry: Pravastatin-treament normalized the expression of three markers: RhoB, TGF-RII and CTGF.Then, in models of radiation induced gut and lung fibrosis, we analysed, from a immunohistological point of view, the underlying mechanisms of the antifibrotic action of Pravastatin via MMP2-TIMP2 axis. Interestingly we found a different impact on fibrolysis when Pravastatin was administered preventively or curatively.Finally, in vitro, we investigate by zymography the expression of Gelatinases (MMP2 and MMP9) in primary lung fibroblasts cultures exposure at the different radiation and Pravastatin doses. Metalloproteases would appear to be in turn involved in pro-fibrolytic mechanisms induced by statin.The multiplicity of actors involved in the pathogenesis of fibrotic lesions explains why the definition of an effective therapeutic strategy is so complex.Researches in mechanistic processes of normal tissue damage paved the way for new therapeutic approaches. These new targets include reduction of vascular activation, inflammation and thrombosis and new molecular targets definition. Effective strategies are multiple on preclinical models, but numerous efforts have to be made to achieve the complicated goal of protection of normal tissues from the side effects of radiation therapy.

Human biotherapy (HBT) or fecal transplants have been shown to be an effective treatment for patients with recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). This study examines the microbial populations present in CDI patients pre- and post-HBT by extracting bacterial DNA from stool samples and performing pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. We then compared these microbial populations to those of the donors. We examined 19 pairs of patient samples, of which 14 were clinically cured of CDI, and 5 patients were failures. The successful treatment of CDI was associated with an increase in diversity and richness of the patient's fecal microbiome. The majority of those cured showed an increase in the proportion of Firmicutes and decrease in the proportion of Proteobacteria, although varying antibiotic exposure and innate variability between patients was observed. / MSc thesis / NSERC, CIHR, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton

Bien que l'on ne sache pas (encore) quel phénomène unitarise la diffusion WLWL à l'échelle du TeV, les données indirecte actuelles favorise le boson de Higgs. Etant donné que cette particule scalaire pourrait être aussi lourde que la masse de Planck, comment peut-on expliquer sa légèreté ? La supersymmétrie (SUSY), brisée à l'échelle du TeV, peut effectuer cette stabilisation, et permettre du même coup l'existence de Théories de Grande Unifications (GUTs). Ces SUSY GUTs réalisées dans une dimension supplémentaire compactifiée, peuvent être particulièrement simples. De plus, elles peuvent être prises comme limite basse énergie d'une théorie de cordes. Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de tels modèles de SUSY GUTs. Nous avons étudié, développé et étendu certains aspects de la classe de modèle d'Unification Jauge-Higgs, et de la classe de modèle d'Unification Holographique. Différents aspects de la physique basse-énergie ont été étudiés, incluant spectre de masses, physique des saveur, matière noire, et phénoménologie au LHC.