Background: The implementation of comprehensive smoking ban policies results in reduced population exposure to secondhand smoke, yielding health benefits such as improved respiratory function and decreased risk of cardiovascular events. However, smoking ban effects on respiratory and cerebrovascular mortality and effect differences by socioeconomic status (SES) are unknown. Methods: A literature review was conducted to understand the health benefits of smoking ban policies and to identify areas of research that needed to be addressed. Subsequently, an epidemiologic study employing an interrupted time-series approach was conducted with a national mortality dataset from the Republic of Ireland to determine effects following the implementation of the national workplace smoking ban. Irish census data were used to calculate frequencies of deprivation at the level of the local authority and principal component analysis was conducted to generate a composite SES index. To determine whether the smoking ban policy impacted inequalities, Poisson regression with interrupted time-series analysis was conducted to examine mortality rates, stratified by tertiles of discrete SES indicators and the composite index. Results: The review identified strong evidence for post-ban reductions in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and suggestive evidence of reductions in respiratory morbidity following smoking ban implementation. Few studies assessed ban effects by SES and findings were inconsistent; hence, insufficient evidence was available to determine smoking ban policy impacts on health inequalities. Epidemiologic analyses demonstrated that the national Irish smoking ban was associated with immediate reductions in early mortality for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory causes. Further analyses by discrete socioeconomic indicators and a composite index indicated that the national Irish smoking ban was associated with decreased inequalities in smoking-related mortality. Conclusions: Smoking ban policies are effective public health interventions for the prevention of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory mortality. Furthermore, findings indicate that smoking ban policies have the potential to reduce inequalities in mortality.

published_or_final_version / Statistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Statistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

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Four contributions to the multitaper method of applied spectrum estimation are presented. These are a generalization of the multitaper method of spectrum estimation to time-series possessing irregularly spaced samples, a robust spectrum estimate suitable for cyclostationary, or quasi cyclostationary time-series, an improvement over the standard, multitaper spectrum estimates using quadratic inverse theory, and finally a method of scan-free spectrum estimation using a rotational shear-interferometer. Each of these topics forms a chapter in this thesis. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2009-02-05 18:01:45.187

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This thesis examines the relations among emotions and musical features and their changes with time, based on the assertion that there exist underlying, culturally specific, quantifiable rules which govern these relations. I designed, programmed and tested a computer controlled Two-Dimensional Emotion Space (2DES) which administered and controlled all aspects of the experimental work. The 2DES instrument consisted of two bipolar emotional response (ER) dimensions: valence (happiness-sadness) and arousal (activeness-sleepiness). The instrument had a test-retest reliability exceeding 0.83 (p &gt 0.01, N = 28) when words and pictures of facial expressions were used as the test stimuli. Construct validity was quantified (r &lt 0.84, p &gt 0.01). The 2DES was developed to collect continuous responses to recordings of four movements of music (N = 67) chosen to elicit responses in all quadrants of the 2DES: &quotMorning&quot from Peer Gynt, Adagio from Rodrigo???s Concierto de Aranjuez (Aranjuez), Dvorak???s Slavonic Dance Op 42, No. 1 and Pizzicato Polka by Strauss. Test-retest reliability was 0.74 (p &gt 0.001, N = 14). Five salient and objectively quantifiable features of the musical signal (MFs) were scaled and used for time series analysis of the stimuli: melodic pitch, tempo, loudness, frequency spectrum centroid (timbral sharpness) and texture (number of different instruments playing). A quantitative analysis consisted of: (1) first order differencing to remove trends, (2) determination of suitable, lagged MFs to keep as regressors via stepwise regression, and (3) regression of each ER onto selected MFs with first order autoregressive adjustment for serial correlation. Regression coefficients indicated that first order differenced (???) loudness and ???tempo had the largest correlations with ???arousal across all pieces, and ???melodic pitch correlated with ???valence for Aranjuez (p &gt 0.01 for all coefficients). The models were able to explain up to 73% of mean response variance. Additional variation was explained qualitatively as being due to interruptions, interactions and collinearity: The minor key and dissonances in a tonal context moved valence toward the negative direction; Short duration and perfect cadences moved valence in the positive direction. The 2DES measure and serial correlation adjusted regression models were, together, shown to be powerful tools for understanding relations among musical features and emotional response.