University of Western Ontario

About: University of Western Ontario is a education organization based out in London, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 46971 authors who have published 99859 publications receiving 3741703 citations. The organization is also known as: UWO & University of Western Ontario.

Client-centred care means that I am a valued human being.

Abstract: Canadian occupational therapists have increasingly adopted a client-centred approach to practice. Interpretation of what "client-centred" means has been diverse and varied. Professionals have written about the characteristics of this approach to care but no reported studies could be found that examined the client's perspective. The omission of the client perspective is puzzling when partnership, client involvement in decision making, and client empowerment are thought to be fundamental elements of this approach to practice. A qualitative research approach, using focus groups was employed to explore the opinions and perspectives of individuals with experience of mental illness and the mental health service delivery system. Seventeen individuals participated in three focus groups to discuss the meaning of a client-centred approach to practice. Participants assessed the inadequacies of past and present practices and recommended needed changes. Their central message was the need for individuals with mental illness to be viewed as valuable human beings by service providers and by society.

Equilibration Rates in a Strongly Coupled Nonconformal Quark-Gluon Plasma.

Abstract: We initiate the study of equilibration rates of strongly coupled quark-gluon plasmas in the absence of conformal symmetry. We primarily consider a supersymmetric mass deformation within N=2^{*} gauge theory and use holography to compute quasinormal modes of a variety of scalar operators, as well as the energy-momentum tensor. In each case, the lowest quasinormal frequency, which provides an approximate upper bound on the thermalization time, is proportional to temperature, up to a prefactor with only a mild temperature dependence. We find similar behavior in other holographic plasmas, where the model contains an additional scale beyond the temperature. Hence, our study suggests that the thermalization time is generically set by the temperature, irrespective of any other scales, in strongly coupled gauge theories.

Microenvironmental regulation of cancer stem cell phenotypes.

Abstract: Cancer is a complex set of diseases, driven by genomic instability overlaid with epigenetic modifications. Two prevailing concepts, the stochastic theory and the hierarchical theory, are traditionally used to understand tumor progression. These seemingly contradictory theories can be reconciled with the concept of cellular plasticity, such that certain genetic mutations enable epigenetic alterations in cell fate. A growing body of evidence suggests that cancer cells co-opt embryonic stem cell-associated regulatory networks in order to sustain tumor cell plasticity concomitant with growth and progression. The expression of these stem cell associated factors is regulated by dynamic niches, characterized by cellderived proteins as well as biophysical features such low oxygen tensions. In this review we describe specific embryo-associated proteins such as NODAL, NOTCH, and canonical WNT, which cooperate to maintain stem cell phenotypes in cancer. We also illustrate how biophysical factors, in particular oxygen, can orchestrate plasticity by modulating the expression of stem cell-associated proteins. As the microenvironment is known to play a key role in cellular regulation, it is essential to understand its role in cancer progression in order to improve and create new therapies.