Oldfield Surgery

During her lifetime, Minna Keene (1859-1943) was a celebrated pictorialist and studio photographer, and one of the first women admitted as a fellow to the Royal Photographic Society (RPS). Keene maintained several photographic studios trans-nationally, including in South Africa between 1903 and 1913, and Montreal, Toronto and Oakville from 1913 until 1943. Yet, after her death, Keene’s work was forgotten. Few scholars studied Keene’s career and her photographs disappeared from both public and photo-historical view. In 2021, The Image Centre in Toronto announced the acquisition of the Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection. Using this never-before-seen material, this thesis constructs the first comprehensive biography on Keene, including a chronology detailing her many achievements throughout her career, and analyzes the scope and content of a collection spanning approximately 3,864 objects attributed to Keene. This approach lays the foundation for future researchers to examine Keene’s diverse oeuvre at The Image Centre.

Acotiamide is a novel acetylcholinesterase inhibitor for treatment of postprandial distress syndrome (PDS) symptoms of functional dyspepsia (FD). This European phase 3 open-label safety trial has been conducted to evaluate the long-term safety of acotiamide and explore the efficacy of acotiamide on PDS symptoms using the validated LPDS, quality of life using SF-36 and SF-NDI, and work productivity using WPAI. FD-PDS patients (defined by ROME III criteria) aged ≥18years with active PDS symptoms and without predominant overlapping symptoms of epigastric pain syndrome and related disorders were enrolled to receive 100mg acotiamide three times daily for 1year. Patients' safety profile and efficacy of acotiamide were monitored. The majority of patients (81.6%) maintained exposure to acotiamide for >50weeks, with a mean duration of 320.3days. No specific clinically significant safety concerns have been shown, with no deaths, treatment-related severe/serious adverse events, or any clinically significant laboratory test results. Although being an open-label trial, acotiamide showed a change in severity larger than the minimum clinically important difference at weeks 1 and 2 for postprandial fullness and early satiation (meal-related symptoms), and showed improvement of quality of life and work productivity from the first measurement (at week 12) up to 1year. The long-term safety of acotiamide treatment was confirmed. A clinically important change for PDS symptoms, QoL, and work productivity was suggested; however a controlled trial is required to confirm this hypothetic efficacy of acotiamide. (NCT01973790).

ABSTRACT Proponents of the concept of learning disabilities (LD) assume that students classified as LD and those with IQ‐achievement discrepancies have more severe native language and foreign language learning problems than students not classified as LD. Two studies that included high school students classified as “at‐risk” for learning a foreign language (FL) investigated these assumptions. The first study compared “at‐risk” students classified as learning disabled (LD) with “at‐risk” students not classified as LD. Results showed no significant differences between the two groups on measures of native language skill, FL aptitude, and FL learning and proficiency. The second study examined only the students classified as LD and compared students with and without discrepancies between their scores on measures of intelligence (IQ) and academic achievement. Results showed no significant differences between the two groups on measures of FL learning and proficiency. Findings suggest that students classified as LD and non‐LD do not exhibit cognitive, academic achievement, and FL aptitude differences, or differences in their FL learning and proficiency after two years of FL study. The findings of both studies are contrary to the LD concept. The studies demonstrate the importance of providing verifiable evidence to substantiate claims that a student meets criteria for classification as LD. Implications focus on use of the LD label and IQ‐achievement discrepancies for determining which students may have problems with FL learning.