Background: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is an enigma that has become synonymous with combat sports over the past few decades. Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a combat sport that is growing in popularity world-wide. The objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with head trauma among MMA athletes. Methods: Logistic regression analyses using SPSS 20 was employed to model putative covariates against the dichotomous outcomes of unconsciousness (for the full dataset) and diagnosed concussion (for the enriched subset of fighters who were rendered unconscious). Results: Increasing age, black or African-American ethnicity, shorter rest periods between fights, increasing numbers of significant clinch strikes landed, significant distance body strikes landed and power strikes landed to the body at distance are all factors associated with being diagnosed with a concussion among the fighters rendered unconscious. Conclusion: If bolstered by confirming laboratory and clinical evidence, policies should be developed for implementation by MMA governing bodies to help reduce incidences of head trauma and concussion, built around fighters’ demographic and behavioural characteristics. In particular, enforcing a mandatory rest period between fights and placing an upper limit on fighters’ age are ideas worth exploring.

The incidence of concussive injury has continued to arise annually with up to 3.8 million concussions reported per year (Thurman 1999) and 15% of these injuries occurring with persistent symptoms (Kraus and Chu, 2005). Few studies have examined the differences between youth and adult concussion (Yeates et al, 2012; Gosselin et al, 2010) therefore it is unknown whether youth and adults pose a similar risk of sustaining a concussion following impact. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to determine if differences exist in the dynamic response of the head and brain tissue deformation characteristics between children and adolescents for falls in comparison to adult data which have resulted in concussive injuries. Patient data was collected from emergency room hospitals across Canada. After exclusion criterion was applied, 11 child and 10 adolescent falls were reconstructed using mathematical (MADYMO) model, physical model (Hybrid III Headforms) and finite element modelling. Both groups were compared to each other as well as an adult group collected by Post et al (2014b) using a one-way ANOVA and Welsh test. The results of this study show that the children produced the lowest values for all variables when compared to the adolescents and adults whereas the adolescents produced the largest (with the exception of MPS where the adolescent and adult MPS was the same). Although all results were above the suggested thresholds for risk of concussive injury, the youth produced the lowest brain tissue strain yet still suffered a concussion. This is important to note as it may suggest that children are at an increased risk of injury at a lower brain tissue strain level. Understanding the differences in parameters influencing concussive injury may aid researchers in comprehending the unique risk for youth at difference ages. This information would be useful in terms of protective equipment design, promoting safe play in games and management of patients following injury.

Concussions are a problem in competitive sports with growing concern over the acute and long-term consequences of repetitive head trauma. Participation in sport increases risk of concussion, particularly contact sports including rugby, hockey and football (Harmon et al., 2013). In rugby league, there are between 8.0-17.5 concussions/1000 player hours, representing roughly 10-15% of all injuries in the sport (Gardner et al., 2015). Shoulder, head, hip and knee are reported to be the most common regions that impact the head and are responsible for the greatest number of concussive injuries in rugby (Cusimano et al., 2013; Fuller et al., 2010; Gardner et al., 2014; Toth, Mcneil, & Feasby, 2005). In each of the common injury events reported in elite men’s rugby, there are unique combinations of impact conditions which include effective mass, compliance, velocity and location of impact. The head-to-head event represents a low mass, low compliance event, whereby the hip and shoulder-to-head collisions represents high mass, high compliance events. Scientists have conducted research in an effort to describe incidence and mechanisms of concussive injury in rugby, however, little is known about the biomechanics of head injury in the sport (Fréchède & Mcintosh, 2009; Fréchède & McIntosh, 2007; McIntosh et al., 2000). The purpose of this thesis is to characterize dynamic response and brain tissue deformation for (1) hip-to-head, (2) shoulder-to-head, (3) knee-to-head, and (4) head-to-head concussion events in men’s rugby. Twenty-nine (29) impact videos of diagnosed concussive injuries associated with the four common injury events were reconstructed in the Neurotrauma Impact Science Lab. Head-to-head impacts were reconstructed in this study using a pendulum system, while hip, shoulder and knee to head impacts were reconstructed using the pneumatic linear impactor. Results of this study demonstrate that the common injury events resulting in concussion in elite men’s rugby have different dynamic response characteristics. Head-to-head events produced significantly greater peak linear and peak rotational acceleration, however no significant differences in maximum principal strain between the injury events. Results of this study can be useful in reducing rates and severity of concussive injury in rugby.

In 220 rabbits (65 mature and 155 immature) the effects of dislocation, persistant dislocation and reduction at varying intervals (immediately, 12, 24 and 48 hours after dislocation) of the left hip were studied by microangiographic, histological and radiographic examination. Dislocation of the left hip was induced manually under anaesthesia by a doraally applied force with the hip held adducted and internally rotated. Reduction was effected by ventral traction with the hip in the same position. The right hip was untouched and used as a control in all cases. In 135 animals, a tracer dye was infused into the abdominal aorta proximal to its bifurcation under standard conditions of temperature and pressure. This infusion was done at 10 minutes, and at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after dislocation or reduction. The femoral heads were then processed and studied under stereomicroscopy. Histological and radiographic studies were made in the remaining 85 animals at intervals between 3 and 10 weeks after dislocation or reduction. In immature animals, severe dye perfusion defecit was observed in all cases within 10 minutes of dislocation. This was maximal in the antero-medial half of the femoral head. The defecit was increased at 24 hours and persisted until 5 days after dislocation. At the seventh day recovery had commenced. A profound perfusion defecit was also noted within 10 minutes of immediate reduction, however, recovery was observed at 24 hours and was almost complete at 5 - 7 days. The rate of recovery in those animals in which the dislocation was reduced at 12, 24 and 48 hours did not differ from that observed in unreduced animals. In adult animals, significant circulatory disturbance was infrequently observed after dislocation and persistant dislocation. Consequently, the beneficial effects of reduction, if any, were obscured. The epiphyseo-metaphyseal vascular anastomoses across the epiphyseo scar were filled with dye in all mature rabbits and seemed to act as a route of blood supply and drainage in adult animals.. Extensive histological avascular necrosis of the femoral head was observed in the majority of animals, but was significantly more common in immature rabbits. Less extensive and less common avascular necrosis was observed in immature animals after immediate reduction. However, reduction delayed to 12 hours or later was not associated with a lower incidence of bone death. Abnormal radiological findings were common and varied. Specific alteration in density and outline of the femoral head was however infrequently observed, but corelated well with the histological findings. Decreased biodensity was associated with inbalanced bone resorption and hyperaemia, and increased radiodensity with bone death and new bone apposition. It is concluded that traumatic dislocation causes embarassment and sequential changes in the circulation within the femoral head in rabbits. The perfusion defecit is more severe in immature animals as the intra-osseous epiphyseo-metaphyseal vessels minimize this circulatory disturbance in adult animals. Early reduction enhances early and complete recovery of blood supply in immature animals. Varying degrees of avascular necrosis of the femoral head occur in both adult and immature animals with and without reduction, but is more common and extensive in immature animals. Abnormal radiological features within the femoral head are infrequently observed up to ten weeks after dislocation but correlate well with the histological findings when present. / Surgery, Department of / Medicine, Faculty of / Graduate

Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK) inhibitors, such as erlotinib/tarceva, have been introduced in the past decade as a promising therapeutic option in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC), however, they lack significant efficacy as single agents. As a result, RTK inhibitors require a combination based therapeutic approach with other treatment modalities. To uncover such a combination of agents, we performed a high throughput Prestwick library screen that included 1200 compounds approved by the FDA on HNSCC cell lines and found that monensin, a coccidial antibiotic, synergistically enhanced the cytotoxicity of erlotinib. RT-PCR revealed that monensin induced the expression of Activation of Transcription Factor (ATF) 3 and its downstream target C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) which are key regulators of apoptosis. Furthermore, RNA-Seq analysis suggests that monensin augments erlotinib cytotoxicity by disturbing lipid and sterol biosynthesis. Therefore, identifying the mechanism of action exerted by monensin may open alternative avenues of cancer treatment.

This thesis introduces an efficient and robust approach for 3D reconstruction of complete head models with consistent parameterization and personalized shapes from several possible inputs. The system input consists of Cyberware laser-scanned data where we perform scanning task as well as publically available face data where (i) facial expression may or may not exist and (ii) only partial information of head may exist, for instance only front face part without back part of the head. Our method starts with a surface reconstruction approach to either transfer point clouds to a mesh structure or to fill missing points on a triangular mesh. Then, it is followed by a registration process which unifies the representation of all meshes. Afterward, a photo-cloning method is used to extract an adequate set of features in a semi-automatic way on snapshots taken from front and left views of provided range data. We modify Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) deformation so that it would be based on not only distance, but also regional information. Using feature point sets and modified RBFs deformation, a generic mesh can be manipulated in a way that closed eyes and mouth movements like separating upper lip and lower lip can be properly handled. In other word, such mesh modification method makes construction of various facial expressions possible. Moreover, new functions are added where a generic model can be manipulated based on feature point sets to consequently recover missing parts such as ears, back of the head and neck in the input face. After feature-based deformation using modified radial basis functions, a fine mesh modification method based on model points follows to extract the fine details from the available range data. Then, some post refinement procedures employing RBFs deformation and averaging neighboring points are carried out to make the surface of reconstructed 3D head smoother and uniform. Due to existence of flaws and defects on the mesh surface such as flipped triangles, self-intersections or degenerate faces, an automatic repairing approach is leveraged to clean up the entire surface of the mesh. The experiments which are performed on various models show that our method is robust and efficient in terms of accurate full head reconstruction from input data and execution time, respectively. In our method, it is also aimed to use minimum user interaction as much as possible.

Considerable interest has been expressed regarding the issue of recovery of language following head injury in childhood. The two questions most frequently addressed are: 1) Do children recover linguistic abilities faster and better than adults after suffering a head Injury? 2) Is the linguistic disorder, if evident, mainly syntactic or lexical in nature? We have examined 8 children from 6;10-17; 0 who suffered traumatic head injury and who are in varying stages of recovery. Each child has been matched with a normal child of the same age. Despite reports of complete recovery from childhood aphasia, our results indicate persistent word finding problems, with otherwise normal language abilities. There was no correlation between severity of deficit and age at injury or length of coma. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

Social Skills Training for Head Injured Adults Research has demonstrated numerous personality and behavioral disturbances resulting from head injury (Lezak,1978). It is these changes rather than the physical disabilities that create the stress, in the long term for the relatives of the head injured (MeKinley,1981). Therefore, social skills training is a important part of intervention with this population. This study evaluates a social skills training program "Stacking the Deck" (Braunling-McMorrow et al 1986) which has been modified to include structured learning assignments. This is a single case evaluation (A - Baseline, B - Treatment) with replication. The subjects are four males with severe head injuries, ages 19,22,34,and 36. Social skills were described as requiring an action or reaction within six skill areas: compliments, social interaction, politeness, criticism, social confrontation, and questions/answers. Measures include the baseline developed in the "Stacking the Deck" program, Staff Questionnaire on Social Behavior (Spence,1979) and the Social Skills Assessment Chart (Spence,1980). Results indicate that this is an effective program for social skills training with the adult head injured population. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Concerns about safety in youth hockey have been openly expressed in public and in academic circles. Sports injury literature continue to report that the prevalence of injury in hockey remains high at both the grassroots and elite levels. Much of this injury reporting, however, utilize injury reporting methods that provide very little about how and why these injuries are occurring. The comprehensive prospective observational approach utilized in this thesis proved most effective in understanding not only injury events and head contact events, but how and why they are taking place throughout the course of a hockey game. Knowing the contextual factors surrounding such events are important in building injury prevention strategies and to minimize all types of head contact. As evidenced in this research, the type of head contact being experienced differs according to age level, which means measures to reduce head contact must be targeted at specific age levels. With this said, given the amount of head contact that was documented throughout all levels of hockey, it does warrant further monitoring of the sport to ascertain the extent to which head trauma is impacting player brain development and to strive further in eliminating head contact altogether.

The gun barrel is one of the most important parts of the whole artillery system. During firing, the wear leads to reduced performance and availability. Wear in gun barrels has different types of erosion mechanisms, in particular chemical-, thermal- and mechanical erosion. This takes place in the internal ballistic process when the projectile is fired from the gun barrel and it will affect the external ballistic parameters. Therefore, an equipment is needed to monitor and measure the wear inside different calibre gun barrels. Wear in gun barrels takes place under extreme conditions during firing due tohigh gas pressures and high temperatures arise as propellant burns. The present thesis aims to develop a type of measuring equipment that should be able to measure and monitor wear inside gun barrels between the diameter ranges of A-C mm. In this master thesis, the product development process has been adapted in order to reach the following goal which is to accomplish a technical solution for the problem associated with wear in gun barrels. The product development process is a systematical approach of developing new products. The different steps that have been evaluated are the product specification, generation of concepts, selection of concepts and layout- and detail design. Before these steps where performed, a project plan was done in order to organize the project. This was then followed by a literature review to obtain information about the problems in the project and to find inspiration from similar applications. The results of the product development process led to a concept of a moveable measure-head which uses a crawler to move inside the gun barrel and adapters to be able to use inside different calibre gun barrels. Then a rotating 3D-laser scanner to measure the change in diameter of the bore. A laser distance sensor and a receiver in order to measure the straightness and to be able to know the position of the moving measure-head in the gun barrel. At last, a wireless camera to monitor the wear inside the gun barrel. The selected concept has been developed and potential solutions for the problem have been described and formed. For the next phase of the project, the concept needs to be developed into a complete model. The next phase of the project is the prototype testing phase.