OPUS: Open Ulethbridge Scholarship

Open ULeth Scholarship (OPUS) is the University of Lethbridge's open access research repository. It contains a collection of materials related to research and teaching produced by the academic community.

Self-archiving your research in OPUS is one way to meet Open Access policies of granting agencies. It is important to retain your final, post-peer-reviewed drafts for submission to OPUS, as this is often the only version publishers will allow to be archived. Click here for information on the U of L Open Access Policy.

Check here for more information about OPUS.

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Recent Submissions

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Neural correlates of position, progress, and action during reward-guided sequence navigation in the rat medial prefrontal cortex
(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Neuroscience, 2024) Gupta, Kushaan; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science; Euston, David R.
The complexity surrounding the seamless execution of skilled action sequences during sparse rewards necessitates an organization of behavior into modular, temporally extended sub-policies. The rodent Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) has emerged as a critical brain region implicated in orchestrating such action plans over extended time frames. Previous research has shed light on the mPFC’s mechanistic contributions to the control of behavior through investigations into its numerous attributed roles, encompassing working memory, spatial representation, decision-making, and task-specific generalization. We investigated the neural correlates of position, task-specific features, and actions within the rat mPFC during a behaviorally elaborate, reward-guided sequence navigation paradigm. We identified a significant proportion of mPFC neurons exhibiting a robust task-specific code for tracking animal’s progress between rewards, characterized most prominently by modulation departures from and approaches to reward zones. Furthermore, initial population-level analyses suggested a representation of prospective non-immediate actions, encoded as turn directions, extending beyond immediate temporal horizons. However, subsequent in-depth examination revealed that these initial findings could not hold up to predict future actions at single-trial level. Instead, the apparent prospective coding of turn directions seemed to be confounded by preparatory motor behaviors within the navigational environment. Consequently, these results call for a reassessment of the influence of various sensorimotor factors on mPFC activity during goal-directed decision-making, challenging the prevailing methodologies used to infer cognitive processes within this region.
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The development of a mindfulness curriculum for nursing education
(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2024) Goforth, Amanda Lee; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Health Sciences; Haight, Katherine; Lokanc-Diluzio, Wendi
In post-secondary education, nursing students face many challenges and demands in completing their programs. Unfortunately, this leads to high rates of stress and anxiety in students, which negatively impacts health and academic performance (Linden, 2021). This project aims to address the growing mental health concerns the students are experiencing and work towards developing mindfulness lesson plans within the nursing curriculum. There was a 90-minute activity presented to faculty at the College of the Rockies to outline the purpose of the project, relevant literature, and allow participation in one of the seven lessons created, followed by reflection and debriefing opportunities. Data was collected verbally through discussion and written through feedback forms. The findings concluded that the College of the Rockies nursing faculty found the lesson plan beneficial and would utilize it in future Professional Practice classes with nursing students as a means to address stress and anxiety.
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Person-centred care (PCC) and dementia care strategies for staff to address responsive behaviours in clients at All Seniors Care Living Centres, Calgary
(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2024) Silvano, Babylyn; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Health Sciences; Haight, Katherine
Person-Centred Care (PCC) is the gold standard for dementia care, yet a significant gap persists between policy mandates and practical implementation at All Seniors Care Living Centres in Calgary, which serve individuals with cognitive impairments. Despite organizational policies and mandatory dementia care education for nurses and health care aides, optimal care provision remains hindered. This quality improvement project aimed to increase staff capacity in PCC and dementia care strategies to address responsive behaviours in clients with dementia. A one-hour PCC education training session was conducted at Aspen Heights Retirement Residence, one of the care sites of All Seniors Care Living Centres in Calgary, focusing on bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. Findings indicate that the staff gained a new perspective on understanding the meaning behind the behaviours of clients with dementia. More comprehensive, standardized, and regular evidence-based training is vital for providing better care and improving the quality of life for individuals with cognitive impairments.
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Not like night and day: the nocturnal letter-winged kite does not differ from diurnal congeners in orbit or endocast morphology
(The Royal Society Publishing, 2022) Keirnan, Aubrey; Worthy, Trevor H.; Smaers, Jeroen B.; Mardon, Karine; Iwaniuk, Andrew N.; Wiesbecker, Vera
Nocturnal birds display diverse adaptations of the visual system to low-light conditions. The skulls of birds reflect many of these and are used increasingly to infer nocturnality in extinct species. However, it is unclear how reliable such assessments are, particularly in cases of recent evolutionary transitions to nocturnality. Here, we investigate a case of recently evolved nocturnality in the world's only nocturnal hawk, the letter-winged kite Elanus scriptus. We employed phylogenetically informed analyses of orbit, optic foramen and endocast measurements from three-dimensional reconstructions of micro-computed tomography scanned skulls of the letter-winged kite, two congeners, and 13 other accipitrid and falconid raptors. Contrary to earlier suggestions, the letter-winged kite was not unique in any of our metrics. However, all species of Elanus have significantly higher ratios of orbit versus optic foramen diameter, suggesting high visual sensitivity at the expense of acuity. In addition, visual system morphology varies greatly across accipitrid species, likely reflecting hunting styles. Overall, our results suggest that the transition to nocturnality can occur rapidly and without changes to key hard-tissue indicators of vision, but also that hard-tissue anatomy of the visual system may provide a means of inferring a range of raptor behaviours, well beyond nocturnality.
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Bridging the gap: the impact of post intensive care syndrome-family on intensive care unit family caregivers
(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2024) Grewal, Aninder; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Health Sciences; Haight, Katherine
The needs of the families of intensive care unit (ICU) patients are not formally acknowledged in the critical care setting, leading to significant challenges for these families. Family members often experience various symptoms, such as anxiety and sleep disturbances (Shirasaki et al., 2024). This is due in part to the stress encountered during their ICU stay, which combined with the needs of the ICU survivor, as well as unexpected challenges post-discharge from ICU to home, can lead to Post-Intensive Care Syndrome-Family (PICS-F) (Shirasaki et al., 2024). There is a notable lack of recognition and understanding of PICS-F among critical care clinicians, including critical care nurses (Shirasaki et al., 2024). The project aimed to bring awareness among ICU clinicians about PICS-F and their role in its mitigation, leading to improved outcomes for ICU families and their loved ones. The findings of this project suggest that ICU clinicians readily confirm the relevance of PICS-F in their clinical practice.