Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Biomedicine'
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Arnaudo, Elisa <1985>. "Biomedicine and pain." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2013. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/5876/1/Arnaudo_Elisa_thesis.pdf.
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The focus of my research is on contemporary biomedical construction of pain as an object, i.e. the different ways in which pain has been conceptualized and approached as a specific site of investigation in biomedicine.
A significant shift in the scientific conception of pain occured in the second half of XXth century. In 1965, Ronald Melzack and Patrick D. Wall propose the Gate Control theory of pain mechanism. This theory denies a fixed and direct relationship between stimulus and pain perception, and emphazises the role played by psychological factors in pain. The IASP utilizes this perspective on the phenomenon, describing pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated to an actual or potential tissue damage or described in the terms of such a damage.”
The relationship between pain and damage is pivotal in the definition of pain as a pathological entity. In particular, the biomedical approach to pain appears to be strongly characterized by a dualistic view of its aetiology. Disease conceptions such as “psychogenic pain” and chronic pain are deeply influenced by the ways in which psychological factors have been interpreted as components, or as causes of pain.
In the second part of my dissertation, I focus on fibromyalgia, which is emblematic of the problematic acknowledgment of chronic pain as a disease. Even if fibromyalgia is actually treated in Rheumatology, its status as a disease is blurred, mainly because of its complex symptomatology including both physiological manifestations and psychological ones.
In the conclusion, I present a scenario of the different ways in which this disease is dealt with in biomedical knowledge, through medical literature, clinical practice, and patients’ accounts. The findings of an ethnographic enquiry in the Rheumatology Division of a local clinic and a visual research on patients’ experiences are analyzed and discussed.
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Arnaudo, Elisa <1985>. "Biomedicine and pain." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2013. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/5876/.
Full textAbstract:
The focus of my research is on contemporary biomedical construction of pain as an object, i.e. the different ways in which pain has been conceptualized and approached as a specific site of investigation in biomedicine.
A significant shift in the scientific conception of pain occured in the second half of XXth century. In 1965, Ronald Melzack and Patrick D. Wall propose the Gate Control theory of pain mechanism. This theory denies a fixed and direct relationship between stimulus and pain perception, and emphazises the role played by psychological factors in pain. The IASP utilizes this perspective on the phenomenon, describing pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated to an actual or potential tissue damage or described in the terms of such a damage.”
The relationship between pain and damage is pivotal in the definition of pain as a pathological entity. In particular, the biomedical approach to pain appears to be strongly characterized by a dualistic view of its aetiology. Disease conceptions such as “psychogenic pain” and chronic pain are deeply influenced by the ways in which psychological factors have been interpreted as components, or as causes of pain.
In the second part of my dissertation, I focus on fibromyalgia, which is emblematic of the problematic acknowledgment of chronic pain as a disease. Even if fibromyalgia is actually treated in Rheumatology, its status as a disease is blurred, mainly because of its complex symptomatology including both physiological manifestations and psychological ones.
In the conclusion, I present a scenario of the different ways in which this disease is dealt with in biomedical knowledge, through medical literature, clinical practice, and patients’ accounts. The findings of an ethnographic enquiry in the Rheumatology Division of a local clinic and a visual research on patients’ experiences are analyzed and discussed.
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Maggiori, Claudia. "Mathematical models in biomedicine." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2020. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/21247/.
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In questa tesi vengono innanzitutto presentati due metodi matematici per lo studio di modelli biomedici e comportamentali. I modelli presentati sono tre: un modello per lo studio dell'evoluzione della malattia di Alzheimer, uno per lo studio dello sviluppo dei tumori e uno per la diffusione del Covid-19. Si riportano anche alcuni codici utilizzati per lo studio e lo sviluppo dei modelli trattati. Le conclusioni contengono alcuni possibili sviluppi degli argomenti trattati.
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Silva, Mônica Freitas da. "Engenharia de superfície de nanopartículas magnéticas para biomedicina: recobrimentos com macromoléculas visando estabilização e compatibilidade em meio fisiológico." Universidade de São Paulo, 2013. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/75/75134/tde-23042013-105323/.
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Nanoparticulas magnéticas de óxido de ferro tem sido amplamente utilizadas em diversas áreas da biotecnologia e biomedicina, tais como no tratamento de câncer, marcação de célula e como agentes de contraste em imagem por ressonância magnética. O intuito deste trabalho foi sintetizar as nanopartículas magnéticas com magnetização de saturação intensificadas via processo do poliol modificado, e usando agentes de superfície para melhorar as propriedades de superfície. Carboximetildextrana, metilpolietilenoglicol (MPEG), quitosana, sílica e 3-aminopropiltrimetoxisilano (APTMS) foram utilizados para a modificação da superfície. Através da microscopia eletrônica de transmissão (TEM), foi obtido que as nanopartículas magnéticas de magnetita obtiveram um diâmetro médio de 5nm, em uma estreita distribuição de tamanho. A difração de raios-X (DRX) indicou a formação de magnetita em todos os sistemas em que o método do poliol modificado foi utilizado. As medidas de espectroscopia no infravermelho (FTIR) evidenciaram a presença de modos de vibração relacionados às macromoléculas e compostos inorgânicos utilizados na modificação de superfície das nanopartículas magnéticas. A TEM das diferentes modificações de superfície mostram a formação de aglomerados dependendo do modificador utilizado. As nanopartículas recobertas com APTMS foram funcionalizadas com ácido fólico, mostrando resultados satisfatórios, porém serão necessárias outras técnicas de caracterização. Para a funcionalização foi determinada a quantidade de amina livre na superfície da nanopartícula recoberta com APTMS e a técnica de UV-Vis determinou um bom resultado. A magnetometria de amostra vibrante (VSM) mostrou comportamentos semelhantes para todas as amostras recobertas em comparação a amostra sem recobrimento. Estes resultados evidenciam que a modificação de superfície foi realizada satisfatoriamente. Os métodos utilizados para realizar a mudança para hidrofóbica a superfície inicialmente hidrofílica se mostraram efetivos, porém a quantidade de agentes modificadores deve ser melhor estudada. Portanto, as nanopartículas magnéticas funcionalizadas com diferentes superfícies foram obtidas e possuem um alto potencial para serem utilizadas em aplicações em biomedicina.Superparamagnetic iron oxides nanoparticles (SPION) have been highlighted in several areas of biotechnology and biomedicine, for example in cancer treatment, in labeling of cells and as contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The purpose of this study was synthesizing SPION with intensified saturation magnetization by modified polyol process, and using surface agents to enhance the surface properties. Carboxymethildextran, metylpolietileneglycol, chitosan, silica and 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) were utilized as surface modifiers. By transmission electron microscopy (TEM), SPION showed narrow particle size distribution, with an average diameter around 5 nm. The X-ray diffraction studies indicated the formation of magnetite in all synthesized systems in which the modified polyol process was utilized. FTIR measurements showed the presence of vibration modes related to the macromolecules and inorganic compounds used to SPION surface modifications. TEM of the different surface modifications showed the agglomerate formation, which depends on the used surface modifier. SPION coated with APTMS was functionalized with folic acid, showing satisfactory results. However other characterization techniques will be necessary for study this modification. Quantity of free amine groups was determinate in the amount coated with APTMS for functionalization, and UV-Vis spectroscopy determinates a good result. Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) indicates similar behaviors in all cases against SPION without surface modifiers. These results suggest that the surface modifications were performed satisfactorily. Utilized methods for changing the hydrophobic to hydrophilic surface showed effectives, however, the quantity of surface modifiers should be better studied. Therefore, SPION functionalized with different hydrophilic surfaces were obtained, which possess high potential to be used as devices in biomedical applications.
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Nyonator, John Paul. "Informal Knowledge and Biomedicine: Ghanaian Assemblages." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28666.
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The field study took place in Dzodze, Ghana, over a period of 4 months in 2009. The data was collected through semi directed interviews and ethnography. The aim of this study was to investigate how localized practices provide a lens to gain larger insights into national and transnational politics of healing and knowledge. Precisely, how are current relationships between informal healers and biomedical practitioners performed in the everyday life of Dzodze, Ghana? The results of the study indicate no direct or institutionalized collaboration between biomedical practitioners and healers, however there is some form of relationships between informal birth attendants and public midwives. It is also apparent that the power relations linked with formal practices decrease possibilities for collaboration with informal medicine and also have a negative influence on any possible medium of innovation. The study also shows that people continue to use informal medicine because it works for them yet government reaction towards integration of informal medicine into national health system remains slow.
Keywords: informal medicine, biomedicine, relationships
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Плохута, Тетяна Миколаївна, Татьяна Николаевна Плохута, Tetiana Mykolaivna Plokhuta, and O. V. Orel. "Application of magnetic nanoparticles in biomedicine." Thesis, Вид-во СумДУ, 2011. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/22727.
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McCord, Jennifer Phipps. "Protein Engineering for Biomedicine and Beyond." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/90787.
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Many applications in biomedicine, research, and industry require recognition agents with specificity and selectivity for their target. Protein engineering enables the design of scaffolds that can bind targets of interest while increasing their stability, and expanding the scope of applications in which these scaffolds will be useful.
Repeat proteins are instrumental in a wide variety of biological processes, including the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns by the immune system. A number of successes using alternative immune system repeat protein scaffolds have expanded the scope of recognition agents available for targeting glycans and glycoproteins in particular. We have analyzed the innate immune genes of a freshwater polyp and found that they contained particularly long contiguous domains with high sequence similarity between repeats in these domains. We undertook statistical design to create a binding protein based on the H. magnipapillata innate immune TPR proteins.
My second research project focused on creating a protein to bind cellulose, as it is the most abundant and inexpensive source of biomass and therefore is widely considered a possible source for liquid fuel. However, processing costs have kept lignocellulosic fuels from competing commercially with starch-based biofuels. In recent years a strategy to protect processing enzymes with synergistic proteins emerged to reduce the amount of enzyme necessary for lignocellulosic biofuel production. Simultaneously, protein engineering approaches have been developed to optimize proteins for function and stability enabling the use of proteins under non-native conditions and the unique conditions required for any necessary application. We designed a consensus protein based on the carbohydrate-binding protein domain CBM1 that will bind to cellulosic materials. The resulting designed protein is a stable monomeric protein that binds to both microcrystalline cellulose and amorphous regenerated cellulose thin films. By studying small changes to the binding site, we can better understand how these proteins bind to different cellulose-based materials in nature and how to apply their use to industrial applications such as enhancing the saccharification of lignocellulosic feedstock for biofuel production.
Biomaterials made from natural human hair keratin have mechanical and biochemical properties that make them ideal scaffolds for tissue engineering and wound healing. However, the extraction process leads to protein degradation and brings with it byproducts from hair, which can cause unfavorable immune responses. Recombinant keratin biomaterials are free from these disadvantages, while heterologous expression of these proteins allows us to manipulate the primary sequence. We endeavored to add an RGD sequence to facilitate cell adhesion to the recombinant keratin proteins, to demonstrate an example of useful sequence modification.Doctor of Philosophy
Many applications in medicine and research require molecular sensors that bind their target tightly and selectively, even in complex mixtures. Mammalian antibodies are the best-studied examples of these sensors, but problems with the stability, expense, and selectivity of these antibodies have led to the development of alternatives. In the search for better sensors, repeat proteins have emerged as one promising class, as repeat proteins are relatively simple to design while being able to bind specifically and selectively to their targets. However, a drawback of commonly used designed repeat proteins is that their targets are typically restricted to proteins, while many targets of biomedical interest are sugars, such as those that are responsible for blood types. Repeat proteins from the immune system, on the other hand, bind targets of many different types. We looked at the unusual immune system of a freshwater polyp as inspiration to design a new repeat protein to recognize nonprotein targets. My second research project focused on binding cellulose, as it is the most abundant and inexpensive source of biological matter and therefore is widely considered a possible source for liquid fuel. However, processing costs have kept cellulose-based fuels from competing commercially with biofuel made from corn and other starchy plants. One strategy to lower costs relies on using helper proteins to reduce the amount of enzyme needed to break down the cellulose, as enzymes are the most expensive part of processing. We designed such a protein for this function to be more stable than natural proteins currently used. The resulting designed protein binds to multiple cellulose structures. Designing a protein from scratch also allows us to study small changes to the binding site, allowing us to better understand how these proteins bind to different cellulose-based materials in nature and how to apply their use to industrial applications. Biomaterials made from natural human hair keratin have mechanical and biochemical properties that make them ideal for tissue engineering and wound healing applications. However, the process by which these proteins are extracted from hair leads to some protein degradation and brings with it byproducts from hair, which can cause unfavorable immune responses. Making these proteins synthetically allows us to have pure starting material, and lets us add new features to the proteins, which translates into materials better tailored for their applications. We discuss here one example, in which we added a cell-binding motif to a keratin protein sequence.
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Dieninis, Žydrūnas. "Biomedicininės informacinės sistemos realizacija internete." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2004. http://vddb.library.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2004~D_20040922_110909-16825.
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The business of healthcare management is changing rapidly, heading in the direction of managed care, capitation, and integrated delivery systems. Information management is crucial to the success and competitiveness of these new care delivery systems. A major goal of this work is to develop a model for a computer-based patient medical record system which could be accessed through the world wide web. The fundamental function of such system is to record, monitor, retrieve all events associated with an encounter between the patient and the healthcare system. This document presents a description of informational system in the field of biomedicine which is appointed to patients, with coronary heart disease. First of all, urgency, applicability and functions of such informative system are presented. Further the main points of the problem, which consists of system realization and publishing on the web, and its solutions are analyzed in details.
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Prokopyev, Oleg A. "Nonlinear integer optimization and applications in biomedicine." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2006. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0015226.
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Balinskiy, M., Тетяна Миколаївна Плохута, Татьяна Николаевна Плохута, and Tetiana Mykolaivna Plokhuta. "Apatite-biopolymer materials and coatings for biomedicine." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2020. https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/77838.
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The use of materials with osteointegrating and bactericidal properties is an important dental strategy. For this purpose, methods for the manufacture of composite material in the form of a film based on hydroxyapatite and natural polymer (alginate) with the addition of inorganic ions and the subsequent saturation of drugs and active substances were developed and investigated. The main theoretical prerequisite for the use of dental implants is the fact of tissue integration with the incorporation of biologically inert materials into the jawbone.
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Forsberg, Susann. "Ayurveda versus Biomedicine - Competition, Cooperation or Integration?" Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för hälsa och samhälle (HS), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-26261.
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Kroniska sjukdomar ökar världen över, i både utvecklings- och industrialiserade länder. Mäniskor som lider av kroniska sjukdomar finner ofta den västerländska medicinen oförmögen att behandla deras sjukdommar, och vänder sig istället till traditionell, komplementär och alternativ medicin [TM/CAM]. TM/CAM har visat sig vara effektiv vid prevention och behandling av kroniska sjukdomar, varför det är av stort intresse att undersöka möjligheten för ökad integration av TM/CAM inom de nationella sjukvårdssystemen. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka de krafter som främjar respektive förhindrar kommunikation och samarbete mellan utövare av ayurveda, västerländsk och traditionell medicin, samt att se hur detta påverkar integrationen av de medicinska subsystemen på Sri Lanka. Fokus för studien är ett specifikt samarbetsprojekt, “The outcome oriented, evidence informed community health promotion program”, vars mål är att integrera ayurveda och västerländsk medicin inom primärvården. En kvalitativ studie genomfördes under tre månader på Sri Lanka med hjälp av semi-strukturerade intervjuer, deltagande observation samt analys av dokument. Paul Unschulds teori om strukturerad konkurrens, samarbete eller integration användes vid tolkningen av resultaten. Resultaten tyder på att den huvudsakliga formen för samexistens mellan ayurveda och västerländsk medicin på Sri Lanka är strukturerad konkurrens, medan samarbetsprojektet siktar mot att uppnå strukturerat samarbete. Det parallella politiska system som styr samexistenseen mellan ayurveda och västerländsk medicin tycks förhindra integration, medan en ökad professionalisering genom nationella regleringar skapar ökat samarbete och integration. Brist på kunskap om ayurveda bland medicinstudenter förhindrar samarbete. Samtidigt kan inflytandet från västerländsk medicin i den auyurvediska universitetsutbildningen till synes både främja och förhindra samarbete och integration. Genom att höja kompetensen omkring forskningsmetodik och hälsovårdsystem hos ayurvediska läkare kan samarbete främjas. Likaså är forskning utformad med hänsyn till ayurvediska grundprinciper samt närvaro av nyckelpersoner med kompetens inom både ayurveda och västerländsk medicin främjande faktorer för samarbete och integration.Non-communicable diseases [NCDs] are increasing in both developing and developed countries. Western medicine is not able to offer satisfying solutions and treatments for people suffering from NCDs. TM/CAM have shown promise of effectiveness in the prevention and treatment of NCDs and many people now turn to TM/CAM. Hence it is of great interest to investigate the possibilities of increased integration of TM/CAM in national health care systems. This study was carried out in Sri Lanka, with the aim to investigate the main forces promoting and obstructing cooperation and communication between practitioners of Ayurvedic, Western and traditional medicine, in order to see how this affects integration of the medical subsystems. The focus of this qualitative study was the “Outcome oriented, evidence informed Ayurvedic Community Health Promotion Program”; a collaboration project aiming to integrate Ayurveda and Western medicine in primary health care. Semi-structured interviews, participatory observation and document analysis were carried out during three months in Sri Lanka and the results were analysed using Paul Unschuld’s theory on structured competition, cooperation or integration. The results indicate that the overall coexistence of Ayurveda and Western medicine in Sri Lanka is structured competition, while the collaboration project is aiming for structured cooperation. The results further show that the Sri Lankan parallel political approach to integration can be argued to obstruct integration, while the regulation of Ayurvedic practitioners increases cooperation through professionalization. Education is a main influencing factor for cooperation; lack of CAM-knowledge in medical students obstructs cooperation while westernization of Ayurvedic doctors both promotes and obstructs cooperation and integration. Capacity building, research based on Ayurvedic fundamentals and keypersons with knowledge of both sectors are of importance for increased cooperation and integration to come about.
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Rozinek, Michal. "Aplikace shlukové analýzy při zpracování biomedicínských dat." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta elektrotechniky a komunikačních technologií, 2009. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-218223.
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The goal of this study is to learn about methods in object classification in medicine and find out what are these methods about. Focusing on functionality and reliability of these methods whith datafile from the medicine compartment after making the algorithm in MATLAB. In form of siple tests, put the touch everyone of classification procedure and find out in which they excel and in which they lags. The choice of input data parametres is very important, this will be tested and noted in conclusions.
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Wainer, Rafael E. "Permeable bodies : children, cancer, and biomedicine in Argentina." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/55636.
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The vast improvement in survival rates in childhood cancer, especially in childhood leukemia, has expanded expectations of survival. Surviving cancer is the result of invasive and life- disrupting treatments. To understand the long and taxing medical journeys of these children living with cancer this study traces children and families’ experiences at Hospital Infantil (public Children’s Hospital) in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It examines how children and families as well as hematologists, communicable disease specialists, and palliativists struggle with the treatments and care for these children. This thesis asks: How does a “sick child” overcome a life-threatening illness such as a cancer and its painful treatments to become a “cancer survivor” living “life without illness” in the global south, particularly in a country like Argentina? This question leads to an anthropological reflection on the role of the body, especially children’s bodies, in cancer treatment, palliative care, and cure. It pays careful attention to issues of corporeality and subjectivity. The thesis examines how bodies work interactively while being the object of invasive and painful biomedical interventions. These interventions not only affect children but also their families and the professionals themselves.
This ethnography investigates the potentials and perils of pediatric cancer treatment in its specific Argentinean context and the importance of carefully looking at the body to understand children, families, and professionals’ practices that aim for a life without cancer. By focusing on the production of “permeable bodies” this study argues that cancer treatment turns children’s bodies into permeable bodies, bodies painfully turned inside out, as a way of producing knowledge and an urgent therapeutic relation that stretches in multiple dimensions. Children become the embodied objects of cancer treatment.Arts, Faculty of
Anthropology, Department of
Graduate
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Will, III Willard Wilson. "Making hospital chaplains in an age of biomedicine." Thesis, McGill University, 2010. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=92199.
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In this dissertation, I explore the training and work of chaplain residents in a large, inner-city university hospital in the eastern United States as a participant in a two-year Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program, a culturally unique religious apprenticeship that combines (1) pastoral care on assigned hospital units with patients, family, and medical staff with (2) classroom reflection and analysis in a small student cohort with an experienced supervisor-practitioner. I utilize this experience both as a privileged lens onto issues of suffering, reflexivity, and the body and to introduce a significant yet largely overlooked component of the therapeutic enterprise to scholars of the social and philosophical aspects of medicine.I set out to accomplish several tasks with this work. First, I seek to broaden anthropological depictions of religion in biomedical settings, particularly those that present it as an eccentricity, weakly rational coping mechanism, psychopathology, and/or import from non-Western cultures. Second, I challenge interpretations of decision- and meaning-making in clinical settings that focus narrowly on biomedical practitioner/patient relations. I do this by analyzing narrative interactions between chaplains and patients in order to highlight the distinctive role of religious practitioners in reflexive and semiotic aspects of the inpatient experience. Third, I attempt to broaden anthropological understandings of the formation of religious leaders by examining processes of role ascription and role attainment in the face of a medical system that is increasingly hegemonic in its scope, both psychologically and morally. I do this through (1) a phenomenological analysis of residents' exposure to clinical difference and strangeness; (2) a thick description of their development of an altruistic, non-judgmental presence and their demarcation of therapeutically appropriate emotional, spiritual, and somatic boundaries; and (3) a typology of the ways in which the doctrine-experience dialectic leads to the gradual emergence of individual philosophies of pastoral care. Fourth, this research offers novel insights about solidarity and authority to the growing sub-discipline of the anthropology of Christianity, an emerging specialty which has shed light on social relationships in ecclesiastical and community settings, as well as on symbolic healing rituals, but has had relatively little to say about the role of religious specialists in healing vis-à-vis Western clinical science.
Dans cette thèse, j'explore la formation et le travail de résidents aumôniers (chaplain) dans un hôpital universitaire situé dans un grand centre urbain de l'Est des États-Unis. Je me base ici sur ma participation à un programme d'Éducation pastorale clinique (CPE), un apprentissage religieux unique sur le plan culturel, qui combine (1) un service pastoral sur des unités assignées avec des patients, des familles et le personnel médical, et (2) un travail de réflexion et d'analyse effectué au sein d'une petite cohorte d'étudiants placés sous la direction d'un superviseur-praticien d'expérience. J'utilise cette expérience à la fois comme un point de vue privilégié sur les questions de souffrance, de réflexivité et de corporéité, et comme une manière d'ouvrir sur une composante de l'entreprise thérapeutique encore largement négligée par ceux qui s'intéressent aux aspects sociaux et philosophiques de la médecine. fr
Ce travail se donne différents objectifs. D'abord, je vise à élargir la manière dont l'anthropologie se représente la place de la religion dans des contextes biomédicaux, en interpellant particulièrement les descriptions qui la présentent comme une excentricité, un moyen peu rationnel d'affronter les problèmes, un signe de psychopathologie et/ou quelque chose d'importé à partir de cultures non occidentales. En deuxième lieu, je questionne les interprétations des processus de décision et de recherche de sens en contexte clinique, qui se centrent de manière étroite sur les relations entre patients et praticiens biomédicaux. Je le fais à partir d'une analyse des interactions narratives entre aumôniers et patients, en vue de mettre en relief le rôle distinctif des praticiens religieux par rapport aux aspects réflexifs et sémiotiques de l'expérience de l'hospitalisation. En troisième lieu, je cherche à élargir les façons dont l'anthropologie approche la formation des leaders religieux, en examinant les processus d'assignation et d'acquisition de rôle face à un système médical qui se révèle de plus en plus hégémonique dans sa visée, à la fois psychologique et morale. Pour y arriver, je procède ici (1) à une analyse phénoménologique de l'exposition des résidents à la différence culturelle et à l'étrangeté; (2) à une description riche de la manière dont ils développent une présence altruiste et dépourvue de jugement et celle dont ils établissent des frontières appropriées sur les plans émotionnel, spirituel et somatique; (3) et à l'élaboration d'une typologie des façons dont la dialectique doctrine - expérience conduit à l'émergence graduelle de philosophies individuelles de service pastoral. En quatrième lieu, cette recherche offre de nouveaux éclairages sur les notions de solidarité et d'autonomie et contribue ainsi à un champ en expansion, celui de l'anthropologie de la chrétienté, une spécialité
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Angel, K. "Psychosomatic histories and the causes of contemporary biomedicine." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.596124.
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This thesis considers shifts in twentieth-century American psychiatry and their impact in three sites of contemporary biomedical discourse. Between the 1930s and the 1960s, American psychiatry was strongly psychoanalytic in orientation. A mounting scientific and cultural criticism, from the 1950s, of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and psychiatry culminated in the third Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, published in 1980. This document asserted that psychiatry was to be predominantly biological in flavour, and bracketed a focus on psychological causes of mental illness, thus both reflecting and solidifying a rejection of psychodynamic psychiatry. Etiological understanding of peptic ulcer, long associated with acid and with psychological and emotional factors, has shifted in the last twenty years with the discovery of a relationship to the Helicobacter pylori bacterium. Scientific and popular discourse about ulcer reveal a tendency illegitimately to infer, from the bacterial findings, that H. pylori is the sole cause of ulcer. A desire for a ‘magic bullet’ that will cleanly target the condition, combined with a desire to distance the field from psychogenic hypotheses of the past, makes possible the problematic etiological inferences I discuss. Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD) has emerged as a highly visible diagnostic category. The ‘medicalisation’ of female sexual problems by medico-pharmaceutical interests has been much invoked and criticised. A conceptual and historical analysis of ‘medicalisation’ reveals equivocations which speak richly of the contested status of the psychological in disease causation. In a key medical text, the histories of medicalisation and of psychiatry are invoked so as to assert the legitimacy of a medical but non-psychiatric ownership of sexual problems. Psychiatry, despite the DSM’s efforts, figures in FSD as an intensely problematic endeavour.
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Lülf, Henning. "Zeolites as key-components for electronics and biomedicine." Phd thesis, Université de Strasbourg, 2013. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01058578.
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The aim of this thesis titled "Zeolites as key-components for electronics and biomedicine" is the synthesis, functionalization and applications of zeolite-L particles for applications in electronics and biomedicine. This thesis is organized into 8 chapters, starting in chapter 1 with giving a general overview about nanotechnology and biomedicine. After that the concept of using nanocontainer in biomedicine are briefly discussed. In the following the nanocontainer zeolite-L is introduced and a summary of zeolite- L for applications in nanomedicine is given. Finally, the self-assembly of zeolites in monolayers and their further functionalization is discussed. Chapter 2 describes the zeolite-L synthesis, functionalization and their assembly into functional materials in detail. Three different types of zeolite-L have been used in this thesis: Nanozeolite-L particles with a size of just a few tenths of nanometers, disc-shaped zeolite-L with a diameter of around 200 nm and micrometer sized crystals with a length of about 1000 nm. Then different methods to functionalize the crystals with the desired groups and to obtain specific properties of the crystals are reported. In detail, the exchange with different counter cations, the insertion of guest molecules and the functionalization of the external crystal surface are reported. Finally the assembly into monolayers and their further functionalization by soft lithography is discussed. [...]
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Rendell, Joanne. "Decoding AIDS biomedicine : the possibilities of writing suffering." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.251520.
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Guck, Jochen Reinhold. "Optical deformability micromechanics from cell research to biomedicine /." Access restricted to users with UT Austin EID Full text (PDF) from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3037014.
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Madlock-Brown, Charisse Renee. "A framework for emerging topic detection in biomedicine." Diss., University of Iowa, 2014. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1483.
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Emerging topic detection algorithms have the potential to assist researchers in maintaining awareness of current trends in biomedical fields--a feat not easily achieved with existing methods. Though topic detection algorithms for news-cycles exist, several aspects of this particular area make applying them directly to scientific literature problematic.
This dissertation offers a framework for emerging topic detection in biomedicine. The framework includes a novel set of weightings based on the historical importance of each topic identified. Features such as journal impact factor and funding data are used to develop a fitness score to identify which topics are likely to burst in the future. Characterization of bursts over an extended planning horizon by discipline was performed to understand what a typical burst trend looks like in this space to better understand how to identify important or emerging trends. Cluster analysis was used to create an overlapping hierarchical structure of scientific literature at the discipline level. This allows for granularity adjustment (e.g. discipline level or research area level) in emerging topic detection for different users. Using cluster analysis allows for the identification of terms that may not be included in annotated taxonomies, as they are new or not considered as relevant at the time the taxonomy was last updated. Weighting topics by historical frequency allows for better identification of bursts that are associated with less well-known areas, and therefore more surprising. The fitness score allows for the early identification of bursty terms. This framework will benefit policy makers, clinicians and researchers.
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Senna, Regina Amélia de Magalhães. "Passagens de idade: uma análise antropológica sobre as articulações entre o saber biomédico e o saber leigo no discurso de mulheres de camadas médias." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2009. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=5507.
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Este trabalho se propõe ao estudo das articulações entre o saber biomédico e o saber leigo no discurso de mulheres de camadas médias urbanas da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, com
idades compreendidas entre 40 e 60 anos. Toma como referência a produção sócioantropológica sobre gênero, corpo, menopausa, envelhecimento, bem como a que analisa a construção do fato científico. Atualmente é notável a crescente preeminência do discurso da biologia na determinação daquilo que seria da ordem do corpo feminino ou do masculino, o que certamente é perpassado por relações de gênero. A partir de uma perspectiva construcionista investiga o destaque conferido ao papel dos hormônios pela biomedicina, não apenas no funcionamento e na regulação do organismo da mulher, mas também no que diz respeito à forma pela qual ela irá vivenciar seu cotidiano. Além disso, busca apontar pistas na direção de problematizar a pregnância de certos dualismos como o que opõe o biológico ao social. Dualismos que revelam uma forma de organização binária hierárquica de pensamento, característica de nossa sociedade ocidental moderna. A noção de rede é um balizador importante para a compreensão mais ampla do pano de fundo do que informa as leituras vigentes acerca das ocorrências fisiológicas de mulheres e homens. Embora o campo
investigado se apresente fluido e matizado, a intensidade do discurso hormonal biomédico se faz notar de modo potente nas narrativas, no que diz respeito aos corpos e às vidas das
mulheres entrevistadas.This paper is designed to study the association between the biomedical knowledge and the lay knowledge in the discourse of the average urban female between 40 and 60 years of age in the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is based on the socio-anthropological production about gender, body, menopause and aging, and the analysis of the construction of the scientific fact as well. Today, there is an increasing prevalence of the biological discourse in determining what pertains to the female and to the male body, which is certainly crossed by gender relations. From a constructionist standpoint, it surveys the significance assigned by biomedicine to the role of the hormones, not only regarding the functioning and the regulation of the female body, but also regarding how women will live their daily life. Furthermore, it looks for clues with a view to the problematization of the power of certain dualities, like the biological versus the social. These dualities expose a form of binary hierarchical organization of thought so typical of our modern western society. The notion of network is an important mark-out for a better understanding of the background of the current knowledge with respect to the male and female physiological events. Despite the fluid and diversified quality of the subject under discussion, the intensity of the biomedical hormonal discourse can be strongly perceived in the accounts regarding the body and the life of the respondent females.
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Pinho, Paula Andréa [UNIFESP]. "ITINERÁRIOS TERAPÊUTICOS EM CONSTRUÇÃO: Aids, Biomedicina e Religião." Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), 2010. http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/9777.
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Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:50:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0
Previous issue date: 2010-02-24O texto que se segue é uma etnografia dos itinerários terapêuticos de pessoas com HIV/Aids. O objetivo é efetuar uma aproximação das relações entre saúde/doença e religião a partir da apreciação desses itinerários construídos e experienciados. A idéia que norteará o estudo é a de que, embora a biomedicina detenha o monopólio legitimado das soluções curativas referentes às questões de enfermidade, ela não se constitui como referência única para pensá-las. Por isso, admitindo a existência de numerosas terapias, intenta-se aqui mapear as articulações que se estabelecem entre as soluções biomédicas e religiosas no contexto da epidemia. A etnografia realizada no Centro de Referência em DST/Aids da cidade de São Paulo – centro que atende pacientes soropositivos – permitiu verificar itinerários complexos nas quais os sujeitos recorrem a diversas terapias e mesclam os tratamentos biomédicos oficiais a terapias religiosas. O empreendimento etnográfico procurou seguir essas trajetórias e verificar como essas pessoas representam, articulam e vivenciam essas terapias. Pondero que na acepção dos soropositivos ouvidos, a relação que se anuncia entre as categorias da doença e tratamento não separa a terapia biomédica da religiosa: ao invés disso, foi possível observar um continuum entre as duas práticas curativas. E aqueles que por elas circulam promovem a articulação dos universos simbólicos de cada qual, compondo-os em seu itinerário terapêutico sempre passível de transformação.
The following text is an ethnography of the therapeutic itineraries of people with HIV/Aids. The goal is to make an approximation of the relationship between health/illness and religion, from the assessment of therapeutic constructed and experienced. The idea that guides the study is that, although biomedicine holds the legitimate monopoly of therapeutic solutions, it does not constitute a single reference for thinking about them. Therefore, assuming the existence of numerous therapies, the objective is to map the joints that are established between the biomedical and religious solutions in context of the epidemic. The ethnography at the Centro de Referência e Treinamento in STD/Aids in São Paulo – a center that serves HIV-infected patients – has shown complex itineraries in which the subjects use a range of therapies and blend biomedical treatments and religious therapies. The ethnographic enterprise tried to follow these paths and verify how these people represent, articulate and experience these therapies. For the patients from this study, the relationship announced between the categories of disease and treatment does not separate the religious and biomedical therapies: instead, it was observed a continuum between the two healing practices. And those who circulate among them by promoting the articulation of their symbols make them in their therapeutic itinerary always suitable for further transformation.
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Angel, Katherine. "Causality and psychosomatic histories in contemporary Anglo-American biomedicine." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2008. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/252110.
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Lippincott, Thomas. "Unsupervised approaches to syntactic verb frame acquisition for biomedicine." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708513.
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Di, Fede Corella Ann. "Bio-logics of bodily transformation| Biomedicine and makeover TV." Thesis, University of California, Irvine, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10246999.
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This dissertation began as an attempt to understand how biomedical concepts and practices, which undermine the salience of norms drawn from the ?natural order? are relayed through mass media and inform self-understanding, social being, self-care, and practices of everyday life. The project tracks makeover TV?s valorization of the metamorphic or transformative body as an ideal that emerges through, and across, various contexts in science and popular culture. This genre of programming is one of the few sites at which the aesthetics of biotechnology are made visible in non-fiction representations and are depicted as part of everyday life. Each of this dissertation?s televisual case studies is exemplary of how popular culture absorbs and makes visible ideas from biomedicine, and how this relates to public policy, economic conditions, and developments in biomedicine. Harnessing biomedicine has aided in television?s recreation of itself as an essential element of ?new? media. It has done so by presenting itself as a technology for managed health care at a distance, and by presenting the body as a primary medium of self-expression. Television encourages ideas about the body as ?transmedial continuity? or form of media, both physical and symbolic, represented through and across variable sites, objects and platforms. Under the aegis of ?health,? medical makeover programs establish a direct relationship between body-based visual identity and life, promote biomedicine as a ubiquitous means of conceiving of the self and body, and posit biotechnology as a tool for transformation and self-care. In this context, health becomes a visual ideal and an organizing principle for self-care, which are framed as prerequisites for social, economic, and political legibility. Although biomedicine challenges essentialist models of ?natural order? through which misogynist and racist norms have been justified in modern culture, its appearances in narratives of self-transformation are overwhelmingly framed by politically retrogressive ideals of embodiment, which it aids in achieving. Given the pervasiveness of visual media and its centrality in refiguring norms that have social, biological and political significance, media literacy and critical acuity are crucial to preserving both cultural and bio diversity.
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Rafailov, Ilya. "The development of novel photonics based techniques for biomedicine." Thesis, Aston University, 2017. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/33423/.
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The advances in technology capable of measuring various optical properties within organic materials and tissues have paved way for potentially revolutionary methods of detecting and diagnosing diseases as well as generally monitoring health. Thus, this thesis provides a background on a number of key optical properties crucial in organic tissues and describes how such properties can currently be detected and observed. The thesis looks at a diverse selection of conditions and health-monitoring challenges to determine the effectiveness of non- and minimally invasive diagnostics. Urinary bladder cancer and a computational Monte Carlo model are described in an effort to predict the effectiveness of such diagnostics tools as well as aid in the overall detection of cancer within the organ. Beginning from porcine bladder, the model is advanced to function with human biopsy samples. Furthermore, the thesis covers cardiovascular disease (CVD), specifically pre-eclampsia. Tools used for human analysis are tested on animal CVD models and ultimately employed to display their effectiveness at monitoring diseased mice from an established murine model. The thesis also presents potential parameters vital for diagnostics purposes. Using the established parameters of interest from the above work, the thesis describes measurement of physiological (photonics based diagnostics) and psychological (reaction time assessment) effects resulting from short-term light exposure. Due to the frequency at which non natural light interacts with people on a day-to-day basis, the thesis provides a basis to further expand health-monitoring research. Finally, potential methods for assessing ocular health in the form of contact lens induced discomfort is assessed through objective analysis by photonics based techniques. The thesis also establishes a validation for the proposed approach. Ultimately, the work presented in the thesis describes how novel photonics based technologies can be effectively employed in a wide variety of biomedical diagnostics and monitoring applications, whether used alone or in conjunction with other forms of diagnostics.
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Guidotti, Giulia <1989>. "Design of new biopolymers for biomedicine and food-packaging." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2019. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/8892/2/Guidotti_Giulia_Tesi.pdf.
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The limited fossil fuels reserves, as well as serious pollution problems, have led to a continuously growing interest in the use of sustainable materials obtained from renewable sources for many different applications. Among these materials, biopolymers, and in particular the class of biopolyesters, could potentially replace traditional plastics. Their versatility and their ability to undergo degradation in the environment where they are disposed, is of particular interest both for food packaging (when recycling is not possible due to organic matter contamination as well as multi-layered structures) and for biomedicine, in case of temporary applications, such as controlled drug release or tissue engineering. If these materials hydrolyse in the human body, it is possible to avoid the removal of the implant through surgery.
In this framework, aim of the present research project was the synthesis and characterization of new bio-based and biodegradable polyesters and copolyesters, with tailored properties in relation to the intended use, in the fields of food packaging, which is one of the most demanding in terms of plastic sources, and regenerative medicine, as it represents the new frontier of biomedicine. The synthetic routes adopted (i.e. two-step melt polycondensation, ring opening polymerization and chain extension) are solvent-free, simple and economic, and can be easily used for industrial scale-up. Monomers from renewable sources were preferred over the ones obtained from fossil fuels.
Moreover, copolymerization turned out to be a winning strategy to modify the polymers of interest. Starting from polyesters, the aliphatic (i.e. polylactic acid, poly(butylene succinate), polymers containing cyclohexane ring) and aromatic ones (i.e. polymers containing furan and thiophene rings), all characterized by high stiffness and low degradation rates, it was possible to obtain more flexible materials with higher biodegradation rates, particularly suitable for soft tissue engineering and for the realization of flexible food packaging films.
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Magro, Massimiliano. "Development of novel nanotechnologies in food, water and biomedicine." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3425775.
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The aim of the present research project was the exploitation of peculiar iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), named surface active maghemite nanoparticles (SAMNs), to develop novel challenging applications for food industry, water remediation and biomedicine. The potential of SAMNs as a
promising, low cost, platform for building different drug vehicles, assays for bacteria determination and diagnostic tools was substantiated by eighteen scientific publications in ISI scored international journals. In particular, novel diagnostic platforms and novel pathogen detection strategies were
created by the combination of SAMNs with mass spectrometry, quartz crystal microbalance and colorimetric assays. Furthermore, SAMNs were used as nanocarriers for biomolecules and drugs. A successful gene delivery system was proposed for cell transfection with SAMNs as nanovector, and a drug delivery system was studied in vivo using zebrafish as animal model. Further biotechnological solutions based on SAMNs were proposed as competitive options to current methodologies, techniques and processes for food industry and aquaculture. The presented body of work highlights the opportunity of innovation represented by the development of nanotechnology-based systems, providing affordable, robust and reproducible tools for the next generation of world scenarios.
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Fuentes, Sempere Isabel. "Aplicaciones de los metalacarboranos en el campo de la biomedicina y de la energía." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/667896.
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El trabajo presentado en esta tesis se basa principalmente en utilizar distintos metalacarboranos para su uso en aplicaciones en el campo de la biomedicina y de la energía. Esta tesis está dividida en 5 capítulos. En el primer capítulo se explican los diferentes tipos de clústeres de boro (boranos, carboranos y metalacarboranos) y las propiedades más importantes (autoensamblaje y propiedades redox) y aplicaciones (biomedicina, ciencia de los materiales y energía) de los metalacarboranos para entender la investigación realizada en la tesis.
El segundo y tercer capítulo están relacionados con el uso de metalacarboranos en diferentes bioaplicaciones. La investigación realizada en el segundo capítulo se divide en tres partes: 1) estudio de la interacción entre los metalacarboranos Na[COSANE], Na[FESANE] y Na[Cl6-FESANE] y el ADN utilizando las técnicas: curva de desnaturalización, dicroísmo circular, UV-Visible, DLS, CryoTEM, TEM, IR, raman y microscopio óptico. 2) Estudio de la distribución y citotoxicidad del Na[COSANE] en las células glioblastoma U87 y melanoma A375, y la distribución de boro en la sangre de caballo y en los órganos de ratones. Y 3) estudio de Na[FESANE] y el Na[Cl6-FESANE] como marcadores electroquímicos en sensores de ADN para detectar mutaciones. Y la investigación realizada en el tercer capítulo se divide en dos partes: 1) estudio de la interacción entre la BSA y el metalacarborano Na[COSANE] utilizando las técnicas: DLS, TEM, RMN, dicroísmo circular, fluorescencia, ξ-potencial, IR, SEM-EDX y análisis elemental. Y 2) estudio de la estabilidad de la BSA frente a su desnaturalización térmica y química en ausencia y en presencia de Na[COSANE].
El cuarto y quinto capítulo están relacionados con el uso de metalacarboranos en diferentes aplicaciones de energía. La investigación realizada en el cuarto capítulo se divide en dos partes: 1) estudio de las propiedades fisicoquímicas y térmicas y de conductividad iónica del polímero PBI dopado con diferentes sales de metalacarboranos y tetrafenilborato para ser usados en pilas de combustibles y baterías. Y 2) estudio de las propiedades electroquímicas (capacidad específica y límite de resistencia a la sobreoxidación), SEM-EDX, conductividad eléctrica y propiedades térmicas del polímero PEDOT dopado con diferentes sales y derivados de metalacarboranos para ser usados en supercondensadores. Y la investigación realizada en el último capítulo se basa principalmente en el uso del metalacarborano Na[Cl4-COSANE] como aditivo en el carbón activado comercial YP50F, y utilizarlo en un supercondensador acuoso asimétrico para mejorar la densidad de energía del dispositivo.The work presented in this thesis has been focused mainly on the use of metallacarboranes in different applications in the field of biomedicine and energy. The thesis has been divided in 5 chapters. The first chapter explains the different types of boron clusters (boranes, carboranes and metallacarboranes) and the most important properties (self-assembly and redox properties) and applications (biomedicine, materials science and energy) of metallacarboranes to understand the research done in the thesis. The second and third chapters are related to the use of metallacarboranes in different bioapplications. The research done in the second chapter is divided in three parts: 1) the study of interaction between DNA and the metallacarboranes Na[COSANE], Na[FESANE] and Na[Cl6-FESANE] using the techniques: melting curve, circular dichroism, UV-Visible, DLS, Cryo-TEM, TEM, IR, raman and optical microscope. 2) The study of the cellular viability, the cellular uptake and distribution of Na[COSANE] in glioblastoma U87 and melanoma A375 cells, the cellular uptake and distribution of boron in horse blood and the biodistribution of boron in normal mice. And 3) the study of Na[FESANE] and Na[Cl6-FESANE] as redox mediators in DNA sensors to detect mutations. And the research done in the third chapter is divided in two parts: 1) the study of interaction between BSA and the metallacarborane Na[COSANE] using the techniques: DLS, TEM, RMN, circular dichroism, fluorescence, ξ-potential, IR, SEM-EDX and elemental analysis. And 2) the study of the stability of BSA in presence and absence of Na[COSANE] upon thermal and chemical induced denaturation. The fourth and fifth chapters are related to the use of metallacarboranes in different energy applications. The research done in the fourth chapter is divided in two parts: 1) the study of the physicochemical and thermal properties and the ionic conductivity of the polymer PBI doped with different salts of metallacarboranes and tetraphenylborate to be used in fuel cells and batteries. And 2) the study of electrochemical properties (specific capacitance and overoxidation limit resistance), SEM-EDX, electrical conductivity and thermal properties of the polymer PEDOT doped with different salts and derivatives of metallacarboranes to be used in supercapacitors. And the research done in the last chapter is mainly focused on the use of the metallacarborane Na[Cl4-COSANE] as additive in YP50F commercial activated carbon in asymmetric aqueous supercapacitor to enhance the stability.
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Jess, Phillip Ronald Thomas. "Advanced techniques in Raman tweezers microspectroscopy for applications in biomedicine /." St Andrews, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/410.
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Robertson, William J. "Queering biomedicine| Culture and (in)visibility in a medical school." Thesis, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1545332.
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What can the experiences of queer medical students tell us about the existence of homophobia and heteronormativity in medical environments? This thesis focuses on the experiences of queer medical students and physicians as they are enculturated into biomedical theory and practice. I begin by laying out the historical and theoretical trends in the study of sex/gender and sexuality, with a particular focus on how these trends have affected the anthropological study of sex/gender and sexuality. Next, I review the literature on queer health and medical education in order to situate the results of the research within the broader medical education and queer health disparities literatures. After detailing the methods used to gather and analyze the data that makes up this thesis, I explore my informants' experiences with their medical education and training with particular focus on medical case studies as an example of the ways that heteronormativity becomes internalized by informants in medical environments. Next, I examine the interaction between my informants' ideas about (in)visibility in medical environments, and I introduce the concept of the irrelevance narrative as a means of making sense of how informants view the role of their queerness in their practice of medicine. I conclude with a discussion of the limitations of this research and provide a list of best practices for medical education, training, and practice on queer health issues informed by the literature and my discussions with informants.
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Jess, Phillip R. T. "Advanced techniques in Raman tweezers microspectroscopy for applications in biomedicine." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/410.
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This thesis investigates the use of Raman tweezers microspectroscopy to interrogate the biochemistry of single biological cells. Raman tweezers microspectroscopy is a powerful technique, which combines traditional Raman microspectroscopy and optical trapping, allowing the manipulation and environmental isolation of a biological cell of interest whilst simultaneously probing its biochemistry gleaning a wealth of pertinent information. The studies carried out in this thesis can be split into two broad categories: firstly, the exploitation of Raman tweezers microspectroscopy to study biological cells and secondly developments to the Raman tweezers microspectroscopy technique that extend its capabilities and the range of samples that can be studied. In the application of Raman tweezers, the stacking and interrogation of multiple cells is reported allowing a rapid representative Raman signal to be recorded from a small cell population with improved signal to noise. Also demonstrated is the ability of Raman spectroscopy to identify and grade the development of Human Papillomavirus induced cervical neoplasia with sensitivities of up to 96 %. These studies demonstrate the potential of Raman spectroscopy to study biological cells but it was noted that the traditional Raman tweezers system struggled to manipulate large cells thus a decoupled Raman tweezers microspectroscopy system is presented where a dual beam fibre optical trap is used to perform the trapping function and a separate Raman probe is introduced to probe the biochemical nature of the trapped cell. This development allowed the trapping and examination of very large cells whilst opening up the possibility of creating Raman maps of trapped objects. Raman tweezers microspectroscopy could potentially become an important clinical diagnostic and biological monitoring tool but is held back by the long signal integration times required due to the weak nature of Raman scattering. The final study presented in this thesis examines the potential of wavelength modulated Raman spectroscopy to improve signal to noise ratios and reduce integration times. All these studies aim to demonstrate the potential and extend the performance of Raman tweezers microspectroscopy.
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Mills, Elizabeth Anne. "Embodied precarity : the biopolitics of AIDS biomedicine in South Africa." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48911/.
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This thesis centres on the lives of women who live in Khayelitsha and who receive AIDS biomedicines through South Africa's public health system. It is tiered across five ethnographic chapters to elucidate a single overarching argument: biopolitical precarity is networked into the permeable body. This argument is based on ethnographic research and seeks to challenge the discursive construction of distance that divorces women's lives and bodies from the governance of AIDS biomedicines as life-giving technologies. The multi-sited ethnography underpinning this thesis was configured to follow the networked threads that weave women's embodied precarity into the governance of technologies and the technologies of governance. To this end, fieldwork was conducted in South Africa from October 2010 – July 2011 in order to understand the embodied and political dimensions of access to AIDS biomedicine. Thereafter, fieldwork was conducted in Brazil from August 2011 – September 2011 to explore the networked connections spanning activist organisations, government coalitions and economic blocs to move out from the intimate spaces of women's lives and bodies to locate them in the regional and global spaces of biomedical developments and health policy dynamics. This thesis argues that although it is crucial to anchor technologies in people's lives, it is also analytically and politically necessary to link people's lives - and the technologies that sustain them - back into the global assemblage that is networked around the governance of medicine. Therefore, I locate biomedical technologies in social and political contexts of lives of the people with whom I worked in Khayelitsha, and I argue further that their lives also need to be understood as part of a complex network of actors (spanning international organisations, regional coalitions and national governments) and actants (HIV and ARVs) that assemble in dynamic configurations and that are woven into and through the body.
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Smus, Justyna Paulina. "Application of enhanced Raman techniques in life sciences and biomedicine." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2016. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/409721/.
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Current understanding of complex biological processes and structures relies entirely on available imaging and sensing techniques. As many of these investigation tools suffer from severe limitations, the need for methods which can provide new insight is growing rapidly. Enhanced Raman techniques are becoming increasingly important research tools in biosciences thanks to their unique non-destructive, non-invasive and label-free nature. This work aimed to demonstrate the capabilities of enhanced Raman techniques in life sciences and biomedicine research. The techniques used in this work were surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS). While SERS uses the enhancement of Raman signals by utilising nanoparticles CARS utilises non-linear optical effects to increase signals. Furthermore, SERS is utilised as an analytical technique using spectral information while CARS is used for chemically selective imaging at a vibrational frequency of molecular bond. The studies in this thesis explore the broad scope of applications of both these enhanced Raman techniques. SERS was used for detection of different bacterial strains, where it was shown that using nanopatterned surfaces resulted in improved distinction compared to use of nanoparticles. SERS was also applied to monitor of intracellular metabolic processes. The effect of different treatments to differentiate SHSY-5Y cells was studied and the changes observed were correlated with biochemical analysis. Additionally, novel SERS nanoparticle probes and their potential in life sciences was also investigated. CARS was used to study stem cell differentiation and food deprivation in nematodes. In both the cases the effect of chemical modulators and treatments was also studied. The results showed that label-free imaging using CARS is a viable and superior alternative to conventional staining used to study these processes in biological sciences. Overall, the work in this thesis establishes the use of SERS and CARS as potent tools in the life sciences.
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Kielar, Charlotte [Verfasser]. "DNA origami nanostructures in biomedicine: Beyond drug delivery / Charlotte Kielar." Paderborn : Universitätsbibliothek, 2020. http://d-nb.info/1215177186/34.
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Zaballos, Samper Alejandro. "La molecularización del estrés crónico. El ciudadano VIH como proceso de subjetivación contemporáneo." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/666056.
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Durante las últimas cuatro décadas se ha producido una transformación de la medicina en tanto conocimiento científico, que apunta hacia un intenso y novedoso interés por el fundamento biológico de los fenómenos vitales, basados en los nuevos procedimientos de la práctica clínica y de laboratorio y el progresivo realineamiento entre biología y medicina, que denominamos Biomedicina.
A partir de una aproximación metodológica cualitativa a la epidemia del VIH (virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana) y tomando elementos de los STS (Science and Technology Studies) y de CMH (Critical Medical Humanities) esta Tesis explora la materialidad del VIH y analiza la conformación de una forma de (bio)ciudadanía característica de la sociedad occidental contemporánea: el ciudadano crónico VIH, como un caso de biomedicalización del gobierno de la vida.
Considerando una nueva ontología de la salud y del organismo vital, reflexionamos sobre los recientes hallazgos que señalan una relación directa entre salud, estrés psicológico e Interleucinas-6, un tipo de células del sistema inmune que promueven el estado de inflamación crónico con el que se define actualmente la infección por VIH.
A la luz de estos nuevos acercamientos entre salud y estrés, entre lo social y lo molecular, se reflexiona sobre procesos de subjetivación que trasciendan la comprensión biológica de la existencia.Over past four decades there has been a mutation of medicine as scientific knowledge that addresses to an intense and novel interest for the biological basis of vital phenomena, based on new procedures in laboratory and clinic practices and the progressive realignment between biology and medicine, namely Biomedicine. From a qualitative methodological approach to the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) epidemic and taking STS (science and technology studies) and CMH (Critical Medical Humanities) elements, this Thesis explores HIV materiality and analyses the formation of a (bio)citizenship distinctive of contemporary Western society: the HIV chronic citizen, as a case of life´s government biomedicalization. Considering a new ontology of health and vital organisms, a reflection is made about the new findings on the HIV field, which point out a direct link between health, psychological stress and Interleukins-6, a sort of immune system cells that promote the chronic inflammation which defines currently HIV. It is from these new approaches between health and stress, between the social and the molecular, that the processes of subjectivation that transcend the biological understanding of existence will be here considered.
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Wikman, Maria. "Rational and combinatorial protein engineering for vaccine delivery and drug targeting." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm : Department of Biotechnology, Royal Insitute of Technology, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-231.
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Nordberg, Erika. "EGFR and HER2 Targeting for Radionuclide-Based Imaging and Therapy : Preclinical Studies." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis : Univ.-bibl. [distributör], 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-8721.
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Gellein, Kristin. "High resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry: Some applications in biomedicine." Doctoral thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-2233.
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Even though trace elements are present at minute amounts in the human body, they have a considerable impact on human health, either as essential elements in biochemical functions indispensable for life, or on the contrary, interfering with vital processes. Knowledge of the optimal concentrations of trace elements in the human body is therefore of great importance. Since the first systematic determinations of trace elements in human body fluids started in the 1940s there has been an incredible development in analytical instrumentation. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate successful applications of HR-ICP-MS (high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) in biomedicine.
Research on trace elements in humans is challenging because of very low levels and many different types of matrices. The first important issue regarding trace element analysis is sampling and sample storage. It is essential to control all possible sources of contamination and other factors that can influence the concentrations. Preservation of biological samples is often required, and effects of the frequently used preservation and storage of biological tissue in formalin have been examined in this work. The concentrations of 20 trace elements were determined in formalin where brain samples had been stored at different time intervals ranging from few weeks to several years. The results show that storage of biological tissue in formalin may result in losses of trace elements from the tissue to the formalin, and that the leakage is time-dependent. This emphasizes the importance of controlling all steps from sample collection to analysis.
With its low detection limits, high resolution and multielement capability, HR-ICP-MS offers a considerable potential for further understanding the role of trace elements in biological material. These features were used to develop a method to study protein-bound metals in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). CSF samples from eight healthy persons were separated by size exclusion HPLC and the resulting fractions were analyzed using HR-ICPMS. The major challenge in this work was the very low concentrations as only 100 μl CSF was injected to the column resulting in 35 fractions of 0.75 ml. It was possible to determine more than 10 elements of clinical interest in the CSF fractions and the method provides an opportunity to study MT and other metal binding proteins in CSF.
Further, the potential to study exposure and intake of trace elements by HRICP- MS was explored by analyzing hair strands of five occupationally unexposed subjects. The trace element profiles of single hair strands were determined by analyzing 1 cm long segments. The challenge in this study was again the extremely small sample size, as the samples had an average weight of 0.05 mg. It was possible however to obtain results for 12 elements in these minute samples and valuable information about intake and exposure for Hg, Se and Sr was obtained.
HR-ICP-MS has the potential to be an excellent tool for obtaining information about disease development and progress. A rare and relatively unexplored neurodegenerative disease (Skogholt’s disease) was studied. The trace element concentrations in whole blood, plasma and CSF were determined in Skogholt patients, multiple sclerosis patients and controls. Increased levels of Cu, Fe, Zn, Se and S in CSF were found in CSF from Skogholt patients. These increased levels were not reflected in blood, and it is quite obvious that the increased levels are not caused by increased environmental exposure. The results suggest that the increased levels of these elements in CSF are due to a leakage of metal binding proteins from blood to the CSF.
Trace elements have been implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD), and a study was performed on trace elements in serum from Parkinson patients collected in 1995-97, 4-12 years before they were diagnosed with the disease. New samples from more than half of these patients were collected in 2007. No significant differences were found between preclinical levels and controls, except for a lower level of Hg in the patient group. However, when trace element serum levels in patients from before and after they were diagnosed were compared, significant differences for several elements were found. This suggests that trace element imbalances found in PD patients may be a result of disease development rather than a causal factor.
HR-ICP-MS offers a considerable potential for further understanding the role of trace elements in humans. Biological material is often available for analysis only in small amounts. HR-ICP-MS gives the opportunity of simultaneous quantification of many trace elements even in very small samples and with very low detection limits. This promotes new research in the field of trace elements in biological material. HR-ICP-MS also reduces the time and cost per analysis and broadens the amount of information available from a single specimen.
Paper II,III and V are reprinted with kind permission from Elsevier, sciencedirect.com
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Lander, Bryn. "Mapping interorganisational collaboration within biomedicine : collaboration in infection and immunity research." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/44837.
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Background: Collaborations between and within sectors facilitate research and development by transferring knowledge among individuals; but it is often unclear who is involved, with whom they are collaborating, and why they are collaborating. I studied the collaborations of Vancouver-based infection and immunity researchers both with local and non-local collaborators, combining innovation systems with economic geography, neo-institutional theory, Bourdieu’s concept of fields, and a social network perspective. My objectives were to determine how different types of proximity affect collaboration, investigate what motivates collaboration, and to explore how institutions affect collaboration.
Methods: I used a mixed methods approach that drew on infection and immunity co-authorships, interviews with infection and immunity researchers, and policy documents. I quantitatively analysed co-authorship trends to explore the impact of institutional and geographic proximity on global co-authorship patterns of Vancouver-based infection and immunity researchers through sociograms, proximity variables, and a quasi-Poisson random effects regression. I investigated collaboration rates between and within sectors through relational contingency table and ANOVA network analysis. I mapped the major organisations and regulative institutions involved in Vancouver’s local infection and immunity network by combining interviews, policy documents, and co-authorship data. Based on interviews, I examined how sectoral and organisational institutions and capital influenced action.
Results: I found that Vancouver’s infection and immunity network was dominated by the non-commercial sector, particularly universities. The private sector presence was weak. Geographic and institutional proximity increased the proclivity to co-author papers. Hospitals and universities co-authored more papers together than statistically expected. Vancouver-based infection and immunity researchers collaborated to gain capital to further goals, a process shaped by institutions.
Conclusion: This study has important implications for science and innovation theory as well as science policy. For both, my primary contribution is to further the understanding that interactions between non-commercial actors play in knowledge translation and innovation, a role that is often underemphasized in both theory and policy.
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Chaiyaratana, Nachol. "Neuro-genetic based hybrid frameworks with applications in biomedicine and robotics." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.298963.
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Nelson, Tayler L. "Biomedicine, "Body-Writing," and Identity Management: The Case of Christian Science." Thesis, Boston College, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1835.
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Thesis advisor: Eva M. GarroutteBiomedicine has become a gatekeeper to numerous social opportunities and has gained power through the ritual inscription of individual bodies. Bodies serve as intermediaries between personal identities and biomedicine; individuals can reclaim bodies as sites of "identity projects" (Giddens 1991) to resist biomedical power. This project examines the intersection of the societal preoccupations with biomedicine, bodies, and identity through the lens of the religious and healing tradition of Christian Science. Christian Science theologically rejects biomedicine in favor of spiritual healing treatment. Christian Science is an especially appropriate venue for exploring relationships between biomedicine, bodies, and identities because its teachings require not only belief in the ineffectiveness of biomedicine but also embodied resistance to it. Drawing on the work of Foucault (1977), Giddens (1991), and Frank (1995) and using information gleaned from semi-structured interviews--averaging 1.5 hours in length--with 12 Christian Scientists, I argue that Christian Scientists use religious identities to (1) evade biomedical risk society, (2) resist external authority and reclaim bodies as sites of knowledge and power, and (3) build spiritual community
Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2011
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Sociology
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Rolfsnes, Hans O. "Sonoptics : applications of light and sound in the context of biomedicine." Thesis, University of Dundee, 2011. https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/d4619c09-a1c5-4fc0-86f6-a1b95ff6b6a8.
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Ultrasound, applied in combination with microbubbles, has potential as a means to enhance the uptake of therapeutic agents, which could include drugs and nucleic acids, into biological cells. This process is commonly referred to as 'sonoporation', and the enhanced uptake can be caused through the incident ultrasonic pressure fi eld causing radial oscillations (cavitation) in the microbubbles, amongst other possibilities. However, the mechanisms responsible for any resultant increase in cell membrane permeability are not yet fully understood. This project focussed on achieving a more fundamental understanding of these salient processes by building on a platform of previous work within the group. One strand of the project involved a complete characterisation of the performance of a rotating mirror high speed camera (Cordin 550-62) that was previously used by our group [and others] to investigate microbubble cavitation phenomena and interactions with proximal cell membranes. Speci cally, I present herein an investigation into the image formation process with this type of camera, the essence of which stymied previous data interpretations. I demonstrate that an inherent asynchrony in the exposure of pixels within individual image frames leads to a temporal anomaly. This was achieved using low cost, flashing LED lights and resulted in the extraction of an algorithm to correct for the temporal anomaly. In a slightly diff erent context, the delivery of suitable ultrasonic fields is necessary to achieve a uniform treatment across a therapeutic target. This thesis also reports on a study on the design of ultrasonic lenses to alter the focal region of a focussed ultrasound transducer with the aim of producing focal regions that can enable sonoporation of tumours of varying sizes. We show that the use of lenses can be an inexpensive alternative to more complex systems such as phased array transducers. Design modelling and experimental testing of lens prototypes are presented along with preliminary results with tissue mimicking polyacrylamide gel phantoms. The target environment in which the process of sonoporation will be clinically useful (i.e. in the physiological circulation) can be simpli ed as a microfluidic system. One strategy for bubble mediated therapy involves the use of a pro-drug approach, that is, when two otherwise benign ingredients are loaded onto separate microbubble populations, but can become mixed at the anatomical target site by the action of focussed ultrasound whereupon a potent drug is produced. The required mixing can be achieved by the violent coalescence of nearby cavitating bubbles, their reaction product then being released and di ffused into the interiour of nearby cells through sonoporation. A study related to this field is presented here where laser induced thermocapillary flows are shown to cause mixing of the content of a drop in a microfluidic channel in a bid to understand the mixing process at a level that may assist future microbubble engineering strategy. To summarise then, the work presented in this thesis has consolidated earlier unpublished data sets achieved by the group, providing new and exacting experimental evidence and an accurate algorithm that will facilitate post-processing of that earlier data (Chapters 2-3). Moreover, group aspirations to translate earlier in-vitro work on sonoporation towards next phase medical-phantom exposures have been boosted through the provision of a new direction involving acoustic lensing, the experimental data from which was used to completely validate existing models for our own design scenarios (Chapter 4). Finally, previous unpublished observations on microbubble coalescence undertaken by the group suggested a means to implement pro-drug delivery with direct in-situ mixing. Such suggestions were explored within microfluidic contexts using lasers to control and visualise the mixing processes that might arise in such situations (Chapter 5). All of these new insights have served to consolidate the group's previous and as yet unpublished data, opening the way for dissemination with confidence in the integrity of that data, and have also extended group capability and expertise in the areas of MHz-rate high speed framing cameras, the fabrication of acoustic lenses, and with microfluidic mixing.
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McReynolds, Naomi. "Advanced multimodal methods in biomedicine : Raman spectroscopy and digital holographic microscopy." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12129.
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Moving towards label-free technologies is essential for many clinical and research applications. Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool in the field of biomedicine for label-free cell characterisation and disease diagnosis, owing to its high chemical specificity. However, Raman scattering is a relatively weak process and can require long acquisition times, thus hampering its integration to clinical technologies. Multimodal analysis is currently pushing the boundaries in biomedicine, obtaining more information than would be possible using a single mode and overcoming any limitations specific to a single technique. Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is a rapid and label-free quantitative phase imaging modality, providing complementary information to Raman spectroscopy, and is thus an ideal candidate for combination in a multimodal system. Firstly, this thesis explores the use of wavelength modulated Raman spectroscopy (WMRS), for the classification of immune cell subsets. Following this a multimodal approach, combining Raman spectroscopy and DHM, is demonstrated, where each technique is considered individually and in combination. The complementary modalities provide a wealth of information (both chemical and morphological) for cell characterisation, which is a step towards achieving a label-free technology for the identification of human immune cells. The suitability of WMRS to discriminate between closely related neuronal cell types is also explored. Furthermore optical spectroscopic techniques are useful for the analysis of food and beverages. The use of Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy to successfully discriminate between various whisky and extra-virgin olive oil brands is demonstrated, which may aid the detection of counterfeit or adulterated samples. The use of a compact Raman device is utilised, demonstrating the potential for in-field analysis. Finally, monodisperse and highly spherical nanoparticles are synthesised. A short study demonstrates the potential for these nanoparticles to benefit the techniques of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and optical trapping, by way of minimising variability.
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Tabi, Chama-James Tabenyang. "An investigation into the role of Traditional medicine in an era of biomedicine: Case of Qokolweni Location (KSDM), Eastern Cape, Republic of South Africa." Thesis, Walter Sisulu University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11260/d1007165.
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In most African communities, the concept of disease goes beyond physical and mental pain. To many, societal imbalance, bad-luck, poverty and misery, misfortune, continuous unemployment and a host of others are treated as diseases. Despite biomedical attempts to explain and treat diseases, an ancient system of healing (traditional medicine) continues to thrive in Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) has since recognized and encouraged governments to accept traditional medicine as an alternative healthcare; to adopt healthcare policies that will promote traditional medicine. Despite this call for recognition, most governments are still reluctant to officially incorporate traditional healing into healthcare policies. Countries which have recognized the relevance of traditional medicine face greater challenges on modalities to control and include traditional medicine into mainstream healthcare. This study is concerned with the role and contribution of African traditional medicine to healthcare, in an era of biomedicine. It provides a public and self assessment of traditional healers. The study also raises concerns on the need for healthcare policies that will enhance cooperation between traditional healing and biomedicine. Information was obtained through the use of questionnaires, in depth and face-to-face interviews with respondents. The actual field research was conducted in Qokolweni location in the King Sabatha Dalindyebo (KSD) district municipality of Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. Findings reveal that traditional healers handle and manage complex hospital diagnosed health conditions. It also reveals that perceptions on disease aetiology influence health seeking behaviour. It is therefore necessary to understand the efforts of traditional healers in order to formulate healthcare policies that would officially involve them in the mainstream healthcare in South Africa. It is noticeable that traditional healing is not only limited to Qokolweni. It occurs mutatis mutandis else wherein the Eastern Cape and in the whole of South Africa.
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Granville, Gillian. "Developing a mature identity : a feminist exploration of the meaning of menopause." Thesis, Keele University, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.327699.
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Stoltsz, Werner Heinrich. "Comparison of resting state functional networks in HIV infected and uninfected children at age 9 years." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29582.
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Over 2.5 million children are infected with HIV, the majority of whom reside in Sub-Saharan Africa. Treatment coverage is steadily gaining momentum, reducing mortality and morbidity. Yet little is known about brain development in HIV-infected (HIV+) children who are on highly-active antiretroviral therapy (ART), with viral load suppression from a young age. Here, we use resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) to examine the impact of HIV and ART on the development of functional networks in 9-year-old vertically HIV-infected children compared to age-matched controls of similar socioeconomic status. We present analyses for a sample of 40 HIV+ (9.2 ± 0.20 years; 16 males) children from the Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral (CHER) clinical trial (Cotton et al. 2013; Violari et al. 2008) and 24 uninfected (12 exposed; 12 males; 9.6 ± 0.52 years) controls from an interlinking vaccine trial (Madhi et al. 2010). Scans were performed at the Cape Universities Body Imaging Centre (CUBIC) in Cape Town, South Africa. We investigated HIV-related differences in within- and between-network functional connectivity (FC) using independent component analysis(ICA) and seed-based correlation analysis (SCA). For SCA, seeds were placed in the structural core, in regions implicated in HIV-related between-group differences at age 7 years, and in regions associated with neuropsychological domains impaired in our cohort. In addition, we evaluated associations of past and present immune health measures with within-network connectivity using ICA. We found no HIV-related intra-network FC differences within any ICA-generated RSNs at age 9 years, perhaps as a result of within-network connectivity not being sufficiently robust at this age. We found a positive association of CD4%, both current and in infancy, with functional integration of left lobule 7 into the cerebellum network at age 9 years. Long-term impact of early immune health supports recently-revised policies of commencing ART immediately in HIV+ neonates. ii Compared to uninfected children, HIV+ children had increased FC to several seeds. Firstly, to seeds associated with the planning and visual perception neuropsychological domains. Secondly, to structural core seeds in the extrastriate visual cortex (of the medial visual network) and the right angular gyrus (of the temporoparietal network). Finally, to left paracentral (somatosensory network) and right precuneus (posterior DMN) seeds previously revealing between-group differences at age 7 years. The connections with greater FC in HIV+ children may variously indicate functional recruitment of additional brain capacity, immature excess of short-range connections, and/or immature excess of between-network connections. In conclusion, despite early ART and early virologic suppression, HIV+ children demonstrate instances of abnormal FC at age 9 years. Disruption to visual cortex is marked, consistent with indications from neuropsychological testing that visual perception is disrupted. The profile of HIV- and/or ART-related effects on FC differs considerably between the two ages of 7 and 9 years, but both show characteristics of immature functional organisation compared with age-matched controls.
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Thompson, Seth Mkhanyisi. "Optimisation of insertion point during latissimus dorsi tendon transfer." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29524.
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Problem and Motivation: Posterior rotator cuff injuries are common (Yamaguchi et al., 2006), (Neri et al., 2009) and often debilitating and irreparable (Sim et al., 2001). Latissimus dorsi (LD) tendon transfers have been shown to be an effective treatment for these massive or irreparable tears (Habermeyer, 2006), (De Casas et al., 2014). This procedure can have unpredictable outcomes (Ling et al., 2009). This is partially caused by discrepancies in the suggested insertion site for the LD tendon during transfers. The current literature is composed of in-silico studies which ignore the practicalities of the human body (Magermans et al., 2004), in-vivo studies which use subjective pain scores, and small scale cadaver trials. For these reasons, a study is needed that uses the power of in-silico modeling in a way that is verified using in-vitro testing on cadavers. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of varying the insertion point of the LD tendon on the humeral head to treat posterior rotator cuff tears in terms of the effects on strength, primarily in rotation and in flexion over a range of motion. The objectives are to use an in-silico model to define the effects of various insertion points and validate this model using a cadaver trial before presenting the final findings. Methods: In-silico Model The Upper Extremity Model (Holzbaur et al., 2005) was used to simulate tendon transfers. The moment arms in flexion and rotation were measured and recorded at angles of 0° and 90° of forward ix elevation. The moment arms at each point were then projected onto humeral maps to display the results. Cadaver Trial Four fresh frozen cadaver torsos (eight shoulders) were mounted into a specifically designed rig. The LD was transferred to 7 points illustrative of the humeral head. The strain generated by the humerus in rotation on the clamps was measured at 0° and 90° of forward flexion for each point. These were then compared. Results In-silico Model The in-silico moment arm maps were generated and analysed. The optimal point for external rotation at 0° of flexion was the lesser tuberosity. Moment arms to produce external rotation were found over the entire greater tuberosity. Flexion was only generated on the posterior edge of the greater tuberosity. At 90° of flexion, little to no rotation generating moment arms were found in the lesser tuberosity and the anterior ridge of the greater tuberosity. Rotation generating moment arms were not significantly different between the posterior edge and the face of the greater tuberosity. No areas generated flexion moment arms. Cadaver Trial At 0° of flexion, the lesser tuberosity (point 1) generated the most flexion, with the greater tuberosity (points 2-7) also generating external rotation, but at reduced levels. At 90° of flexion, the lesser tuberosity and the anterior ridges of the greater tuberosty (points 1-3) generated no significant rotation. The posterior ridge and face of the greater tuberosity generated similar amounts of flexion, greater than points 1-3 Conclusions: The in-silico model was validated in rotation by the cadaver trials and this validation was extended to flexion. For maximum rotation strength at 0° of flexion and no flexion strength, the x lesser tuberosity is the optimal point. For maximum rotation strength and no flexion throughout the motion of flexion, the middle of the face of the greater tuberosity is the optimal area. For maximum rotation throughout the motion of flexion, points 4 and 5 (the posterior edge of the greater tuberosity) represent the optimal area for insertion. This area represents the optimal compromise in terms of range of motion and strength.
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Bohl, Kullberg Erika. "Tumor Cell Targeting of Stabilized Liposome Conjugates : Experimental studies using boronated DNA-binding agents." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis : Univ.-bibl. [distributör], 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-3435.
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Mirasol, Sofia Paulo. "Optoelectronic properties of Quantum Dots for biomedicine and energy-to-light conversion." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/668348.
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En les últimes dècades, la nanociència ha sorgit com una nova tecnologia gràcies a la seva versatilitat per ser
emprada en diferents camps. Dins d’aquets grup, un dels nanomaterials més prometedors, els punts quàntics han
estat estudiats per la seva extraordinària propietats i la seva versatilitat per utilitzar-los en diferents camps.
La present tesis doctoral es centra en la síntesi de diferents punts quàntics, així com en el seu ús en LEDs, cèl·lules
solars perovskites i biosensors. S'han sintetitzat tres tipus de punts quàntics: cadmi, perovskites i punts quàntics de
carboni. Els dos primers presenten una banda d’emissió estreta i un rendiment quàntic elevat. No obstant, la seva alta
toxicitat és un inconvenient que s’ha de tenir en comte. Com alternativa al seu ús, hem sintetitzat punts quàntics fet de
carboni. La seva baixa toxicitat i biocompatibilitat és una bona alternativa als nanomaterials que contenen metalls
pesants. A més, el material basat en carboni es pot preparar amb productes comuns com ara glucosa o sucrosa i
poden ser dissolts en dissolvents no clorats com ara l’etanol o l’aigua.
El treball presentat en aquesta tesis es va dur a terme a l'Institut d'Investigació Química de Catalunya (ICIQ) i al centre
tecnològic Eurecat de Catalunya, entre març de 2015 i març de 2019.En la última década, la nanociencia se ha convertido en una tecnología novedosa debido a su versatilidad para ser empleada en muchas áreas de investigación. Uno de los nanomateriales más prometedores, los puntos cuánticos coloidales, han sido estudiados en profundidad por su extraordinario optoelectrónico y su versatilidad para usar en diferentes campos. La presente tesis se centra en la síntesis de diferentes puntos cuánticos, así como su uso en LED, células solares de perovskita y biosensores. Se han sintetizado tres puntos cuánticos diferentes: cadmio, perovskita y puntos cuánticos de carbono. Los dos primeros materiales presentan un alto rendimiento cuántico y banda de emisión estrecha. Sin embargo, su alta toxicidad es una inconveniente que se tiene que tener en cuenta. Como alternativa a su uso, sintetizamos puntos cuánticos de carbono. Su baja toxicidad y su biocompatibilidad es una buena alternativa a los nanomateriales que contienen metales pesados. Además, el material a base de carbono se puede preparar utilizando productos de uso diario como azúcar o jugo de naranja y se puede resolver en solventes que no sean de cloro, como etanol o agua. El trabajo presentado en esta tesis se llevó a cabo en el Instituto de Investigación Química de Cataluña (ICIQ) y en Eurecat, el centro tecnológico de Cataluña, entre marzo de 2015 y marzo de 2019.
In the last decades, nanoscience has emerged as a novel technology due to its versatility to be employed in many research areas. One of the most promising nanomaterials, colloidal quantum dots have been deeply studied for their extraordinary optoelectronic properties and their versatility in order to use in different fields. The present thesis is focused on the synthesis of different quantum dots as well as their use in LEDs, perovskites solar cells and biosensors. Three different Quantum Dots have been synthetized: cadmium, perovskites and carbon based quantum dots. The first two material present a high quantum yield and narrow emission band. However, their high toxicity is an important drawback. In order to avoid the use of those material we synthetized carbon quantum dots. Their low toxicity and biocompatibility is a good alternative to heavy metal-containing nanomaterials. In addition, carbon based material can be prepared using ordinary products as glucose or sucrose and solved in non-chloro solvents such as ethanol or water. The work discussed in this thesis was carried out at Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) and Eurecat the technological center of Catalonia, between March 2015 and March 2019.
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Beißwanger, Anna Elena [Verfasser], and Heiner [Akademischer Betreuer] Stuckenschmidt. "Developing Ontological Background Knowledge for Biomedicine / Anna Elena Beißwanger. Betreuer: Heiner Stuckenschmidt." Mannheim : Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim, 2013. http://d-nb.info/1045153125/34.
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