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Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a modality of non-invasive brain stimulation involving the application of low amplitude direct current via surface electrodes on the scalp. tDCS has been studied in healthy populations and in multiple brain disorders and has the potential to be a treatment for several neuropsychiatric conditions by virtue of its capability of influencing cognitive, motor and behavioral processes. tDCS is a generally safe technique when performed within standardized protocols in research or clinical settings. Furthermore, tDCS portability, high acceptability and user-friendly interface makes it highly appealing for telemedicine practices. The term “telemedicine” refers to the procedures, educational strategies, and care services that are remotely administered by means of different communication technologies, with the final goal of increasing access to care for individuals and for improving public health. The use of telemedicine combined with tDCS protocols is increasing, although the safety of this approach in different clinical settings awaits further assessment. While “do-it-yourself” tDCS should be discouraged due to the unknown risk of adverse events, the implementation of tele-monitored tDCS (tele-tDCS) within standardized frameworks ensuring safety, tolerability, and reproducibility may allow this technology to reach larger clinical populations and bypass some of the common barriers preventing access to health services and clinical trials. This review will discuss the current evidence supporting the feasibility of tele-tDCS paradigms and their therapeutic potential, with particular emphasis on the implications for patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Background Oral fibroblast immunological responses to bacterial stimuli are well known. However, there are few studies about pulp fibroblasts from deciduous teeth (HDPF) responses, which are important for the treatment of pulp infections in children. The aim of this study was to evaluate expression and production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines by HDPF when challenged with bacterial antigens normally present in advanced caries lesions. Methods Triplicate HDPF from 4 children ( n  = 4; 2 boys and 2 girls) were cultured by explant technique and challenged or not with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide/1 μg/mL (EcLPS) or Enterococcus faecalis lipoteichoic acid/1 μg/mL (EfLTA) for 6 and 24 h. Most of published studies employed immortalized cells, i.e., without checking possible gender and genetic variables. mRNA expression and protein production were evaluated by RT-qPCR and ELISA MILLIPLEX®, respectively, for Interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-17, Chemokine C-C motif ligand 2/monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (CCL2/MCP-1), Chemokine C-C motif ligand 3/macrophage inflammatory protein 1-alpha (CCL3/MIP1-α), Chemokine C-C motif ligand 5/ regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (CCL5/RANTES), C-X-C motif chemokine 12/ stromal cell-derived factor 1 (CXCL12/SDF-1), Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α), Interferon-gamma (IFN γ), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), Colony stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) and Macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF). Results EcLPS increased IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-8, CCL2, CCL5, TNF-α and CSF-1 mRNA and protein levels while EfLTA was only able to positively regulate gene expression and protein production of IL-8. Conclusion The results of the present study confirmed our hypothesis, since pulp fibroblasts from deciduous teeth are capable of increasing gene expression and protein production after being stimulated with EcLPS and EfLTA.

Snow and ice-covered roads cause numerous issues from slippery pavement to severely reduced visibility and thus can hinder transportation services and impact public safety. Car crashes are one such common occurrence during wintry conditions. While the overall relationship between traffic accidents and adverse weather conditions has been studied by many, little research has been done to quantify the association between repeated small-scale winter weather events and motor vehicle accidents. Findings that have been reported about these accident hotspots have focused more on snow overall than its source or just lake-effect snow exclusively and not in comparison to synoptic-scale systems. This study aims to address the gap in knowledge about how different types of localized winter weather affect the distribution of motor vehicle accidents over space and time, as well as to expand upon past synoptic climatological research on lake-effect snow. Analyses of crashes in Northeast Ohio by winter season weather type concur with past work on the hierarchy of crash risk by precipitation type being, in order from the highest chance of causing an accident to the lowest, experienced during freezing rain, snow, and then rain. Further results reveal how the inconsistent nature of lake-effect snow influences motor vehicle accident frequency with the largest spatiotemporal indicators of elevated relative risk during lake-effect snow occurring when crash counts are broken down by county/county region, road type, and month. In certain scenarios, lake-effect snow may be associated with up to a 20 times greater likelihood of an accident occurring than in clear conditions. These conclusions can provide important information for local and regional transportation officials to improve winter weather roadway management.

The act of one person purposefully and attentively listening to another person can positively impact both individuals. Listening helps people find common ground, develop empathy, and meet another person’s instinctive, relational needs. However, as modern society increasingly uses technology designed to create connection between people, many individuals are actually becoming more lonely and isolated. Additionally, the amount of information shared each day through social media platforms, the internet, and smart phones has caused people to be more distracted and less attentive. Many individuals struggle giving the time, focus, and concentration needed to effectively listen to others. People who yearn for someone to listen often have difficulty finding a listening ear.The project director believes that within the context of a church small group setting, small group leaders can use listening as a fruitful avenue for ministry for small group members experiencing difficulties and struggles such as stress and anxiety. When leaders comprehend the role humility plays in listening and apply strategic and purposeful listening practices within their relationships with small group members, individuals experience the concern, care, and understanding they seek. However, individuals intent on practicing quality listening behaviors must learn, develop, and consistently sharpen their listening skills.By developing a training module to help small group leaders of Faith Bible Church understand the need to listen more effectively to care better for small group members, the project director provided trainees with a biblical understanding of listening and applicable listening behaviors to learn and develop. The project director expresses the objectives for his ministry project in chapter one. In chapter two, the project director explores listening in the Bible by exegeting passages from Gen 1–3 and John 4:1–26, and he applies biblical listening principles to small group contexts. Next, within chapter three, the project director approaches listening from a cultural standpoint and explains the reasons many people fail to regularly listen to others, the role of humility plays in effective listening, and how developing certain listening habits can lead to consistent listening practices and deeper care and understanding of others. Lastly, in chapters four and five, the project director explains how he developed and implemented the listening trainings and evaluates the effectiveness of his modules on training participants.

Autoimmune disorders occur when the immune system inappropriately reacts to self, causing the destruction of healthy tissue. Most polygenic autoimmune disorders share a common genetic architecture with strong associations in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region genes which are critical to antigen specific immunity. The recent widespread availability of affordable single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array genotyping has enabled large case-control genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of polygenic traits. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) utilising SNPs identified from GWAS have enabled discrimination and prediction of polygenic traits. However, the unique architecture of polygenic autoimmunity requires special consideration and there exists scope for new methodologies to improve prediction of autoimmunity. In this thesis I focus on Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) and Coeliac Disease (CD) where existing PRS have demonstrated potential to classify diabetes type, predict incident cases and provide insight into research questions.Challenges in modelling HLA region associated risk arise due to its highly polymorphic nature, long range linkage disequilibrium (LD) and epistatic effects further confounded by nomenclature predating modern genetic understanding. In Chapter 2, focusing on T1D and using case-control data from the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC) I develop a new method to accurately mark molecular HLA haplotypes at the DR/DQ locus by studying linkage disequilibrium between SNPs and HLA haplotypes. Using T1DGC cohort genetic data I then develop an improved PRS model (“T1D-GRS2”) by accounting for haplotype interactions at the DR/DQ locus. By standardising the PRS to the UK Biobank population cohort I demonstrate potential thresholds for population screening and prediction. However, these results were developed and validated in European ancestry samples only, thus I was unable to demonstrate applicability to other ancestry populations.Further to this work, in Chapter 3 I applied the same methodology using CD casecontrol genotyping data. CD occurs due an autoimmune reaction to the ingestion of gluten peptides and current genetic testing employed in clinic does not factor in polygenic risk and is not cost-effective. In contrast to the previous chapter, we limited selection of SNPs for the “CD-GRS” PRS to those that we were able to develop into a direct genotyping panel and validated the PRS panel in a small clinical cohort from a paediatric gastroenterology clinic at Stollery Children’s Hospital, Alberta. By validating the PRS panel in a clinical setting and again standardising to the UK Biobank we were able to suggest potential use cases such as the PRS panel as an affordable rule-out test to avoid gastroscopy, which carries risks in a paediatric population. The analysis was again limited to European ancestry participants.Throughout my previous chapters and in ongoing studies of PRS there is a longstanding question over the applicability of PRS developed in European ancestry cohorts to non-European populations. In Chapter 4 I examine polygenic risk for T1D and T2D in a mixed ancestry US population youth with diabetes and examine the use of PRS in classification of diabetes type, and in prediction of the onset of T1D associated autoimmunity. I demonstrate the “T1D-GRS2” is broadly effective in a mixed ancestry population, however additional work is needed to more closely study subpopulations and determine if population specific PRS are needed or if transancestry PRS can be broadly applied in all cases such as “T1D-GRS2”.

At the heart of the archive lie the questions of what will be repeated and what comes first, questions that ripple through curriculum studies and qualitative research. Whether social media platforms like Facebook or the monuments of white supremacists, archives increasingly mediate relationships with the past and generate monumental controversies. Hung up on archival exclusions and surplus values—the anarchive—this study considered three different archives: a monument dedicated to Harriet Tubman, a prominent social media platform, and two reading groups dedicated to process philosophy and affect studies. Studying the anarchive involved a mixture of ethnographic methods and speculative practices, like fictocriticism, reading groups, and assemblage art. The way these archives came together affected what they did. Rather than static receptacles, they affected and were affected by novel assemblages. Thus, anarchiving—attunement and experimentation with the archive’s virtuality—entailed taking on responsibility for what those archives might yet become.

This paper explores the emergence of ethnic conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa through the lens of ethnic politicization. It utilizes an integrated framework that combines identity theory literature with the literature on ethnic conflict to examine how politics becomes ethnicized and lays the foundations for ethnic conflict. Through an examination of the case studies of Kenya and Tanzania, it finds evidence for a reinforcing cycle of motivations between elites, individuals, and ethnic groups which contribute to the ethnicization of politics and leads to ethnic conflict. It contributes to the study of identity formation by advancing a theory for the motivations of various groups in society and explains how ethnic thinking can become entrenched in a given social context. It also lays out causal connections between these various groups in society that explain how each one mobilizes or is mobilized by the other by utilizing the literature on ethnic conflict emergence.