McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 2007

In robot design, the selection of the best alternative among various candidates, generated at the conceptual stage, is a challenging problem. The information available at the conceptual stage of a robot-design job cannot be used in raw form to rank the concepts for design criteria that are typically used in robotics. Traditionally, these rankings are provided by the design expert, based on her or his judgment. The objective of this work is to provide a setting, in the realm of robot design, within which the performance measures are computable using the information that is available at the conceptual stage, hence …  Read more

This thesis examines judicial approaches to cell-plant interrogations in Canada and the United States. These are surreptitious interrogations whereby the police inject an undercover state agent into the detention environment with the object of eliciting inculpatory statements from an accused. This thesis examines and compares the strengths and weaknesses of Canadian and United States judicial approaches to cell-plant interrogations, and their respective applications of section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights. In both countries, an accused can seek to have their incriminating statements excluded from evidence where …  Read more

Experiments to measure (i) the reactivity of lithium peroxide and lithium oxide in ambient air as a function of relative humidity and reactant particle size, (ii) the solubility of lithium hydroxide and lithium hydroxide monohydrate in three alcohols, namely methanol, ethanol and 1 and 2-propanol, as a function of time and temperature, (iii) the efficiency of the production of lithium peroxide in alcohol medium as a function of the concentration of LiOH.H 2O in methanol, the concentration of hydrogen peroxide, the kind of alcohol, the kind of feed material, and temperature and the time of mixing, (iv) the analysis of …  Read more

This thesis examines the problem of load flow feasibility, in other words, the conditions under which a power network characterized by the load flow equations has a steady-state solution. In this thesis, we are particularly interested in load flow feasibility in the presence of extreme contingencies such as the outage of several transmission lines. Denoting the load flow equations by z = f(x) where z is the vector of specified injections (the real and reactive bus demands, the specified real power bus generations and the specified bus voltage levels), the question addressed is whether there exists a real solution x …  Read more

This thesis presents and analyzes tools and experiments that aim at achieving multiple yet related goals in the exploration and manipulation of musical cyclic rhythms. The work presented in this thesis may be viewed as a preliminary study for the ultimate future goal of developing a general computational theory of rhythm. Given a family of rhythms, how does one reconstruct its ancestral rhythms? How should one change a rhythm's cycle length while preserving its musicologically salient properties, and hence be able to confirm or disprove popular or historical beliefs regarding its origins and evolution? How should one compare musical rhythms? …  Read more

Le premier but de mon projet de doctorat a ete la caracterisation moleculaire de l'interface entre les recepteurs activateurs des cellules Natural Killer (NK) et de leurs ligands exprimes dans les cellules infectees ainsi que l'implication de cette interaction sur la reponse a l'infection par le cytomegalovirus (MCMV). J'ai tire un avantage de la variation naturelle au sein des membres lies aux recepteurs Ly49C ainsi que de la disponibilite des structures cristallines des Ly49 afin de comprendre les determinants moleculaires des interactions Ly49H-m157 et egalement identifier les residus des acides amines qui permettent de discriminer entre les recepteurs qui se …  Read more

Rapid progress has been made toward understanding the significance of CDK inhibitor proteins (CKIs) in the regulation of cell cycle progression. The overall goal of this study has been targeted to further expand our knowledge of CKI function through the investigation of a previously uncharacterized CKI named cki-2 during development in C. elegans. The characterization of cki-2 using a reverse genetic approach called co-suppression has revealed a novel mechanism that cki-2 and its related cell cycle regulators are required for the appropriate elimination of centrioles during oogenesis. Loss of cki-2 in the germ line caused perdurance of centrioles into the …  Read more

Le dessin de graphe étudie le problème de produire des plans de structures relationnelles pouvant être représentées par des graphes combinatoires. Un dessin orthogonal est un graphe dont les arêtes sont des lignes polygonales parallèles aux axes de coordonnées. Les dessins orthogonaux sont utiles dans plusieurs applications de divers champs comme la visualisation d'information et la fabrication de plan pour l'intégration de circuits à très grande échelle (very large scale integration - VLSI). Une des meilleures méthodes pour générer des plans orthogonaux bidimensionnels de graphes est l'approche dite de «Topology-Shape-Metrics» [Topologie-Forme-Métrique], où la tâche de définir les formes combinatoires du …  Read more

This dissertation questions conventions of Victorian narrative and gender by examining the character of the fallen man as an identifiable literary persona. Fallen men are characterized by their sexuality and conscienceless actions. Their fallenness is contingent on their perceived social standing and genteel expectations. Two popular assumptions about Victorian novels---the gendered specificity of the fallen woman and the propriety of narrative closure---are threatened by the presence of fallen men. While a fallen woman and her miserable fate warn women of the irrevocability of sexual mishaps, fallen men caution readers that the everyday vices to which they may succumb opium, gambling, …  Read more

Chan, Laurie H. M. (Supervisor2)  Read more

This study is a response to the need to support literacy development in an increasingly diverse and complex culture. Some school boards have identified early literacy as a priority for school improvement and there has been much debate about what constitutes effective literacy instruction. The Quebec Education Program (2001) recommends adopting a constructivist approach that embeds literacy instruction within interdisciplinary learning situations. Some teachers ask what a constructivist classroom looks like in practice. In light of teacher and school board concerns this study examines the literacy practices of a grade two/three elementary teacher in order to address the question, how …  Read more

We present searches for the leptonic decays B + → ℓ+nu and the lepton flavor violating decays B0 → ℓ+/-tau ∓, where ℓ = e, mu, with data collected by the BABAR experiment at SLAC. These searches utilize a technique in which we fully reconstruct the accompanying B¯ in Upsilon(4S) → BB¯ events, and look for a monoenergetic lepton in the signal B frame. The signal yield in the data is extracted from a fit to the signal lepton candidate momentum distribution in the signal B rest frame. Using a data sample of approximately 378 million BB¯ pairs (342 fb-1), …  Read more

In this thesis I examine the notion of ethical subjectivity as characterized by an original relationship to alterity. Drawing upon Derrida, Levinas and psychoanalytic theory, I give a picture of a subject who is fundamentally responsive and inexorably bound to others, and I discuss the ethical and political implications of this condition. I extend the discussion of 'others' to include technology, suggesting that our ethical responsibility to alterity has been radicalized through deconstruction.  Read more

As a relatively "new" genre, the short story has received little attention compared to other forms like the novel. Some attempts to define the genre approach it comparatively and systematically---an effort to distinguish the short story from other forms, or to distinguish between different kinds of short fiction. This essay instead proposes a "cluster" of elements that tend to characterize the short story, as derived from the romantic, impressionist, realist, modern, and postmodern traditions. Edgar Allan Poe's notion of "unity of effect" provides a critical standpoint to discuss these features. Poe's concept of unity also partakes in the essay's discussion …  Read more

Gross, Warren (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

The late 19th and early 20th century was a time of change for the Jewish people of Baghdad. Cultural influences from Europe and North America were making their presence felt and some Jewish Baghdadis actively sought to incorporate these into their personal and professional lives. To facilitate this process of acculturation, the Jewish community established schools that provided both a western education and a Jewish one. This essay studies these schools and considers the larger challenges that the community faced in seeking to be both western and Jewish while living in the Arab world. A brief history of the Jews …  Read more

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading cause of inherited mental retardation and developmental delay. In the vast majority of cases, this X-linked disorder is due to a CGG expansion in the 5' untranslated region of the fmr-1 gene and the resulting decreased expression of its associated protein, FMRP (Fragile X associated Mental Retardation Protein). FXS is characterized by a number of cognitive, behavioural, anatomical, and biological abnormalities. This monogenic disorder provides a unique opportunity to study the consequence of a mutation in a single gene on the development and proper functioning of the CNS. Histological work on FMRP expression …  Read more

In the literature on adults, there is an abundance of studies in which there are clear gender differences in the overt expression of vulnerability. Significantly more females than males have been found to express vulnerability. Similar findings have been reported in the adolescence literature, indicating that these gender differences begin much earlier than adulthood. However, the age at which these gender differences occur is not known because few studies have investigated these behaviors in early or middle childhood. The primary focus of this study was to determine if there are gender differences in young children's help-seeking behavior and at what …  Read more

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are bone marrow-derived, non-hematopoietic progenitors that are amenable to genetic engineering, making them attractive delivery vehicles for therapeutic proteins. However, limited transplanted cell survival compromises the efficacy of MSC-based gene therapy. We hypothesized that co-implantation of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-I)-overexpressing MSC (MSC-IGF) would improve MSC-based therapy of anemia by providing paracrine support to erythropoietin (EPO)-secreting MSC (MSC-EPO). Murine MSC were found to express the IGF-I receptor and be responsive to IGF-I stimulation. IGF-I also improved MSC survival in vitro. MSC were admixed in a bovine collagen matrix and implanted by subcutaneous injection in a murine model …  Read more

The VHL disease is a multisystem tumor disorder resulting from inactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene. VHL tumors are highly vascularized and can metastasize in the case of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). VHL was shown to operate along at least two evolutionarily conserved pathways with the first involving binding and degradation of hypoxia inducible factor alpha (HIF-alpha) and downregulation of its target genes including transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-alpha) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This results in suppression of tumor growth and angiogenesis. The second less extensively studied pathway involves regulation of the extracellular matrix (ECM), …  Read more

Collaborative beamforming is a powerful technique to increase communication energy efficiency and range in an energy-constrained network. To achieve high performance, collaborative beamforming requires accurate knowledge of channel state information (CSI) at the transmitters (collaborative nodes). In practice, however, such exact knowledge of CSI is not available. A robust transmitter design based on partial CSI is required to mitigate the effects of CSI mismatches. This thesis focuses on the design and evaluation of a beamforming scheme that is robust to CSI mismatches for collaborative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) wireless systems. Using a max-min robust design approach, …  Read more

The aim of the present thesis is to study the theme of confinement in Michel Tremblay's Chroniques du Plateau Mont-Royal in regards of its subjacent dynamic. We start with the hypothesis according to which this dynamic, based on the succession "confinement-escape-return/re-creation of same", constitutes the frame of the text, giving it cohesion and structuring the narrative plot. Using thematic analysis tools, we attempt, first of all, to demonstrate the recurrent presence of the theme in the tremblayen text in line with two quite precise angles, that of spatial and family confinement in which the protagonists live. While underlining the different …  Read more

The quaking gene encodes a family of alternatively spliced RNA binding protein isoforms that differ in their C-terminal regions. All of the QUAKING (QKI) proteins contain a single stranded RNA binding domain, KH domain, and are part of the larger STAR (Signal Transduction and Activator of RNA) family. These isoforms have expression patterns that differ spatially and temporally and coincide with development of both central and peripheral nervous systems. The QKI proteins have been implicated in several post-transcriptional mechanisms such as pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA export, mRNA stability and protein translation. Although the QKI protein is known to exist as homo- …  Read more

This dissertation presents a new metadata design, as part of a large digitization management system being developed, to assist in the consistent creation of digital libraries of phonograph records. The Metadata provides digital libraries with an effective tool for the description, discovery, management, control, delivery, and sharing of digital objects of phonograph record. The metadata design is the outcome of two pilot projects for the digitization of phonograph records that took place at the Marvin Duchow Music Library at McGill University. The new design offers an approach to maintaining and using digital sound and ensures the long-term viability of digital …  Read more

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic remitting-relapsing diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Psychological stress has long been suspected to play a role in the pathogenesis and symptom exacerbation of IBD. The goal of this study was to examine whether or not there exist any differences in the stress reactivity in patients with IBD when compared to healthy controls. Salivary cortisol was employed as a biomarker to assess the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis---normally activated upon the perception of a psychological stressor---in IBD patients and healthy controls. Ten quiescent IBD patients were recruited and each was asked to identify a …  Read more

It has long been known that there is a critical period of development during which neurons in area V1 adopt their final wiring patterns. How this is achieved is a poorly understood but important question as failure to make appropriate connections is associated with irreversible impairments in visual function. Studies presented in this thesis intend to better understand developmental differences in regulation and downstream genomic targets of cAMP Response Element-Binding (CREB) protein in the monkey primary visual neocortex (area V1) in response to monocular enucleation (ME). CREB signaling in neural cells has been extensively studied and is known to be …  Read more

Suicide continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide each year, in spite of the significant progress of research efforts aimed at understanding the complexity of this tragic behaviour. Data accumulated over the last decades suggest a certain biological predisposition to suicidal behaviour. Among the possible biological risk factors, cholesterol has frequently been cited. Several lines of evidence support the relationship between altered lipid metabolism, particularly low levels of serum cholesterol, and suicidal behaviour, yet the possible mechanisms governing the relationship remain to be elucidated. Three separate strategies were employed in order to explore the link between lipid metabolism …  Read more

Humans routinely make movements to targets that have different accuracy requirements in different directions. Examples extend from everyday occurrences such as grasping the handle of a coffee cup to the more refined instance of a surgeon positioning a scalpel. The attainment of accuracy in situations such as these might rest upon the nervous system's capacity to regulate the limb's resistance to displacement, or impedance. To test this idea, subjects made movements from random starting locations to targets that had shape dependant accuracy requirements. A robotic device was used to assess both limb impedance and patterns of movement variability just as …  Read more

Fas (CD95), a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNF-R) superfamily, has been extensively studied as a death-inducing receptor in immune cells. However Fas is also widely expressed in a number of other cell-types, including in neurons. We have found that defects in the Fas/Fas Ligand system render mice highly susceptible to neural degeneration in models of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Fas-deficient lpr mice develop a dramatic phenotype resembling clinical PD (i.e., characterized by extensive nigrostriatal degeneration accompanied by tremor, hypokinesia, and loss of motor coordination) upon treatment with the neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) at a dose which causes no neural …  Read more

Wind loading considered in the design of overhead transmission lines is based on extreme values of synoptic wind, i.e. boundary layer wind originating from largescale meteorological pressure systems. Localized high intensity wind (HIW) storms such as tornadoes and downbursts are a different type of extreme wind frequently causing failures of overhead lines. This thesis covers the design aspects of overhead transmission lines when subject to localized HIW storms. A comprehensive review of the literature is included on the effects of such wind storms on lines and on mitigation measures. Furthermore, several options for the design of self-supporting transmission towers against …  Read more

Objective. to determine how patterns of respiratory symptom change, patient behavior, and health status are related among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and a history of exacerbations. Methods. The study population was 421 community-dwelling adults with moderate to severe COPD. Symptom-based events (exacerbations) were defined to be any increase in at least one key symptom (dyspnea, sputum amount, sputum color) recorded in the daily diary on at least two consecutive days. An event was reported if it resulted in an exacerbation phone call or documented health-care utilization. Predictors of reporting were assessed using a Cox proportional hazards model. …  Read more

The accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) triggers the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), an intracellular signaling network aimed at alleviating stress through the coordinated inhibition of mRNA translation and the transcriptional induction of ER chaperone genes. A few years ago, we identified an interaction between Nck signaling adaptors and the beta-subunit of the eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2beta). We ascertained that overexpression of Nck1 antagonizes ER stress-mediated inhibition of translation by decreasing phosphorylation of eIF2beta on Ser51 by the PERK ser/thr protein kinase. In this thesis, I determined that Nck overexpression prevents the induction of ATF4 and …  Read more

In an era of globalisation, often described as the era of mobility and of the decline of the relevance of territory, the Roma and the Travellers embody a transnational and non-territorial society. Yet this minority group experiences deplorable living conditions and the survival of its culture is endangered. A study of minority protection mechanisms in international law reveals that the grasp of territory and "sedentarism" has far from disappeared from this branch of law. Territory (or the absence thereof) and movement are the main challenges faced by international law in the development of solutions to the situation of the Roma …  Read more

Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumours found in adults. The median survival of patients diagnosed with the most malignant form, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is 9-12 months and has changed little over the years despite advances in medical technology. Gene therapy may offer new solutions to treat this resistant disease. Hence, we tested three different gene therapy strategies. In our first study, we tested the efficacy of targeted therapy to correct common aberrations found in gliomas including amplification/mutation of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and loss of PTEN, which result in an overactive PI3K/Akt pathway. Without PTEN, FOXO transcription factors …  Read more

Let <a1,..., a m | wn> be a presentation of a group G, where w is freely and cyclically reduced and n ≥ 2 is maximal. We define a system of codimension-1 subspaces in the universal cover, and invoke a construction essentially due to Sageev to define an action of G on a CAT(0) cube complex. By proving easily formulated geometric properties of the codimension-1 subspaces we show that when n ≥ 4 the action is proper and cocompact, and that the cube complex is finite dimensional and locally finite. We also prove partial results when n = 2 or …  Read more

To assess the effect of estrogen (E2) on memory deficits in very old mice, a delayed matching-to-position test was employed in a Water T-maze. First, normal mice were tested at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 21 months, and 25 months of age. The 6-12-18 mo old performed at 80% correct while the 21 and 25 mo performed at chance level. Memory deficits occurred in normal aging mice between 18 to 21 months of age. Second, mice ovariectomized (OVX) at 14 months were divided into 3 treatment groups and 3 age groups (21 months, 23 months and 24 months). One …  Read more

This thesis explores three object tracking algorithms for image sequences. These algorithms include the ensemble tracker, the EM-like mean-shift colour-histogram tracker, and the wandering-stable-lost scale-invariant feature transform (WSL-SIFT) tracker. The algorithms are radically different from one another. Despite their differences, they are evaluated on the same publicly available, moderately sized, research data sets which include 129 test cases in 13 different scenes. The results aid in fostering an understanding of their respective behaviours and in highlighting their flaws and failures. Lastly, an implementation setup is described that is suited to large-scale, grid computing, batch testing of these algorithms. Results clearly …  Read more

The relationship between colorectal cancer (CRC) and folate metabolism is complex. Dietary folate, depending on the timing and dose, may either prevent or enhance tumour initiation and/or growth, and polymorphisms in the genes encoding folate-metabolising enzymes may also modulate risk. In this thesis, the Apcmin/+ mouse model of CRC was used to investigate the effect of nutritional and genetic disturbances in folate metabolism on tumourigenesis and to examine various mechanisms. The reduced folate carrier I (RFC1) is responsible for the cellular uptake and intestinal absorption of folate, primarily the 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-methylTHF) derivative. Methionine synthase (MTR) uses 5-methylTHF to remethylate homocysteine …  Read more

The scope of this thesis is the study (synthesis, characterization and stability evaluation) of poorly-crystalline iron arsenate (Fe/As = 1) and several crystalline metal (Fe, Al, Ga, In, La) arsenates. Scorodite is used as reference materials in both cases. The study of the crystalline materials is approached from the standpoint of determining the relationship between their structure and chemical stability and their potential as arsenic immobilizing carriers. On the other hand the study of the poorly-crystalline iron (III)---arsenate (Fe/As = 1) phases seeks to elucidate their structural development as a function of pH and the mechanism of their crystallization. The …  Read more

Panangaden, Prakash (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

For Escherichia coli, uptake of iron into the cells require FhuA, a TonB-dependent outer membrane receptor. The periplasmic protein FhuD then binds TonB and transfers iron to the cytoplasmic membrane-associated permease FhuB/C. Phage display results predict complementary binding sites on both TonB and FhuD, advocating the need for direct evidence of these interactions. Analytical ultracentrifugation results indicated that both FhuD and TonB were predominantly monomeric in Hepes-NaCl buffer. SEDFIT analysis agreed with their theoretical molecular weights of 32 kDa and 25 kDa, respectively. TonB sedimented at 1.7 S and FhuD at 2.2 S. Frictional ratios confirmed that TonB is elongated …  Read more

Studying the biosynthesis, utilization and transport of cholesterol as well as the balance between these pathways may allow us to understand better how to keep its harmful deposition in arteries to a minimum. The goal of my thesis was to identify a novel player, namely the acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), in cellular and plasma cholesterol metabolism by elucidating its regulatory and mechanistic functions. In our families with high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) deficiency, one kindred was found to have mutations for the sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase-1 (SMPD-1). This gene codes for lysosomal and secretory ASM and its mutations cause the recessive disorder of Niemann-Pick type …  Read more

At the developing vertebrate neuromuscular junction (NMJ), the synaptic localization of the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) is regulated by a motoneuron-derived factor called agrin, and also requires an intracellular scaffolding protein called rapsyn. Rapsyn is thought to bind and cluster the AChR in the postsynaptic membrane; however, it is unclear where rapsyn binds on the AChR and if other proteins also contribute to receptor localization. To define the protein interactions that localize the AChR at the synapse, we utilized chimeric proteins consisting of CD4 fused to each of the AChR subunit large intracellular loops. First, by expressing the CD4-loop chimeras in …  Read more

Computing marginal likelihoods to perform Bayesian model selection is a challenging task, particularly when the models considered involve a large number of parameters. In this thesis, we propose the use of an adaptive quadrature algorithm to automate the selection of the grid in path sampling, an integration technique recognized as one of the most powerful Monte Carlo integration statistical methods for marginal likelihood estimation. We begin by examining the impact of two tuning parameters of path sampling, the choice of the importance density and the specification of the grid, which are both shown to be potentially very influential. We then …  Read more

La chrysomèle rayée du concombre (CRC) est le principal insecte ravageur des cucurbitacées. L'efficacité du kaolin pour contrôler la CRC (Acalymma vittatum) a été testée dans une culture de concombres. Un essai en champ de deux ans a comparé le kaolin (Surround WP) à un insecticide (carbaryl; Sevin XLR) et un témoin non traité. En 2005, la moyenne saisonnière de CRC était inférieure dans le kaolin. Le flétrissement bactérien (Erwinia tracheiphila) était plus abondant dans le témoin et le kaolin avait des rendements vendables significativement supérieurs aux autres traitements. En 2006, la moyenne de CRC dans le kaolin était comparable …  Read more

Do domestic variables matter in a context of bilateral cooperation? What factors positively influence the decision-making process in the case of a policy harmonization between two countries? By studying both countries' institutional differences and governmental and non-governmental actors' preferences in the energy sector, this research analyzes the bilateral cooperation between Canada and the United States regarding the creation of the Electric Reliability Organization. Although domestic institutional constraints are important to consider, I argue that both physical and economic market integration and the use of a non-governmental organization by central governments have facilitated the success of the cooperation process. Those factors …  Read more

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurological disease that leads to respiratory compromise and eventually death within two to five years. Even though people with ALS must make many treatment decisions, none has such a significant impact on quality of life and survival as the one pertaining to assisted ventilation. A qualitative research study was undertaken to elicit factors that are pertinent to this decision-making process. Ten individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals with ALS. Six main themes emerged from the interviews. These are: meaning of the intervention, the importance of context, values, and fears in decision-making, the …  Read more

This cross-cultural study examined the preferences of 137 Taiwanese EFL students and 97 ESL Quebecois students for specific types of corrective feedback, as well as their attitudes and beliefs about error correction, and those of 12 Taiwanese English instructors and 12 native English teachers in Quebec. All participants completed two questionnaires, the first eliciting overall preferences and attitudes for corrective feedback, and the second eliciting preferences for specific types of feedback aurally modeled through a digital recording designed for the purpose of this study. In addition, a subsample of participants was selected for follow-up interviews. Descriptive analysis of the initial …  Read more

First recognized in 1981, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) continues to foster considerable medical and ethical debate among physicians with regards to treatment options in reproductive medicine. During the first decade of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, fear of viral transmission prompted many physicians to refuse to treat non-HIV-related conditions in infected individuals. In the last decade, long-term prognosis for HIV-infected individuals has risen dramatically, fuelled by the development of potent antiretroviral therapies. Given their improved state of health, an increasing number of infected individuals, many of whom are heterosexual adults of reproductive age, are requesting the use of assisted reproductive …  Read more

Dysfunction of the vascular endothelium can initiate atherosclerosis. Mechanical forces, particularly wall shear stress (WSS) are believed to cause endothelial dysfunction. Present in vitro cell culture models are often simplified and thus, ignore the wall shear stress spatial gradients inherent in complex geometries. The aim of this project was to study endothelial cell response in an anatomically correct right coronary artery model (RCA) under more physiologically realistic flow conditions. Human Abdominal Aortic Endothelial Cells (HAAECs) were seeded in the lumen of a pre-treated faithful RCA and a straight tubular model. The cells were subjected to steady or non-reversing oscillatory flow …  Read more