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Background: Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is the most common congenital craniofacial anomaly, which may negatively impact one’s appearance, health-related quality of life, and facial function. The course of treatment is intensive and multifaceted. Patients with CL/P can undergo numerous procedures, with the goal of improving their appearance or facial function. To assess the outcomes of treatment in patients, a well-developed, valid, and reliable patient-reported outcome instrument is required. The CLEFT-Q is a new patient-reported outcome instrument developed to evaluate outcomes of treatment in patients aged 8 to 29 years with cleft lip and/or palate. The purpose of this thesis was to establish content validity and transferability of the CLEFT-Q. Methods: Study 1 of this thesis presents findings from cognitive interviews with patients and expert feedback. Patients aged between 6 and 29 years were recruited from 6 plastic surgery clinics. Healthcare providers and experts from 8 countries participated in a focus group or provided individual feedback. Input was sought on all aspects of the CLEFT-Q development, including item wording, instructions, response options, and to identify missing content. Studies 2 and 3 present findings from the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q to evaluate its transferability. Guidelines set forth by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) were applied. Results: Study 1 involved 69 patients and 44 experts who reviewed the CLEFT-Q. The first draft of the CLEFT-Q consisted of 163 items measuring 12 constructs. Three rounds of interviews and expert feedback were needed to establish content validity. At the completion of the cognitive interviews and expert review, the CLEFT-Q comprised 171 items within 13 scales that measure appearance (of the face, nose, nostrils, teeth, lips, jaws, cleft lip scar), health-related quality of life (psychological, social, school, speech-related distress), and facial function (speech, eating/drinking). Studies 2 and 3 involved the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q from English to 6 different languages including Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, Hindi, Swedish, Turkish, and 3 Spanish language varieties (Colombian, Chilean, and Spain). A total of 18 (12%), 18 (12%), 7 (5%), and 4 (3%) items were difficult to translate during the forward translations for the Arabic, Swedish, Dutch, and Hindi versions respectively. Among the Spanish varieties (study 3) only 10 (7%) items were difficult to translate into Chilean. Comparison of the back translation to the source language version of the CLEFT-Q identified that the meaning of 40 (26%), 17 (11%), 9 (6%), and 5 (3%) items in the Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, and Swedish translations respectively had changed and required re-translation, and none were changed for the Dutch translation in study 2. Similarly, in study 3, back translations identified 23 (15%), 21 (13%), 12 (8%), and 10 (6%) items in the Colombian, Catalan, Chilean, and Spanish (Spain) versions respectively whose meanings were changed. Study 2 cognitive debriefing interview participants were mostly below 20 years of age (n= 36, 88%) with CL/P (n=30, 73%). Participants in study 3 were primarily male (n=14, 67%) diagnosed with CL/P (n=17, 81%). Overall, participants in the cognitive debriefing interviews described the CLEFT-Q as understandable and easy to complete. Conclusion: This thesis presents evidence of the CLEFT-Q’s content validity and transferability. After the completion of study 1, no changes were required to the original CLEFT-Q conceptual framework; however, cognitive interviews and expert review allowed us to identify items that required re-wording, re-conceptualizing, to removal, or addition. Finally, the process of translating and culturally adapting the CLEFT-Q in studies 2 and 3 was useful for finalizing the CLEFT-Q scales, and provided evidence of its transferability to other contexts. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Background: Treatment of cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is intensive and involves multiple procedures to improve ones appearance or facial function. To assess outcomes of treatment in patients with CL/P, a well-developed, valid, and reliable patient-reported outcome instrument is required. The purpose of this thesis was to establish content validity and transferability of the CLEFT-Q. Methods: Cognitive interviews with patients and expert feedback were obtained in Study 1. Input was sought on the CLEFT-Q item wording, instructions, response options, and to identify missing content. Studies 2 and 3 involved the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q to evaluate its transferability. Results: Three rounds of cognitive interviews with patients and expert feedback were needed to establish content validity of the CLEFT-Q in study 1. Studies 2 and 3 involved the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q from English to 6 different languages including Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, Hindi, Swedish, Turkish, and 3 Spanish language varieties (Colombian, Chilean, and Spain). Translation and cultural adaptation processes provided evidence of the CLEFT-Qs transferability. Conclusion: This thesis presents evidence of the CLEFT-Q’s content validity and transferability.

An investigation was undertaken to check the difference in isotopic content between two boron samples measured earlier in this laboratory by using different methods of sample preparation from those used in the previous investigation. Yields of preparation were measured throughout. Measurements using methyl borate and boron trifluoride indicated a difference of slightly over 2% in the isotopic content of the samples, whereas the difference found in the previous investigation was 3.5%. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

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The auroral oval is a region of intense Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio scintillation. Ionospheric turbulence can cause scintillation below 3 GHz which means it can severely affect Global Positioning System (GPS) and other forms of wireless communication such as radio frequency (RF) and ultrahigh frequency (UHF). These effects are particularly prevalent at high latitudes, where auroral ionization patterns affect signals and low latitudes where plasma instabilities structure the ionosphere to small scales. This thesis addresses the connection between a well-known GPS derived measurement called total electron content (TEC) to ionospheric state parameters through optical imaging and modeling. The first part of this thesis uses the Global Airglow (GLOW) aeronomical model to infer height-dependent ionospheric state parameters. Spectral imagery and GNSS data are combined to constrain the state outputs of GLOW using a Nelder-Mead optimization during periods of auroral-induced scintillation. The second part of the thesis models the ionospheric continuity equation to produce high-rate electron temperature estimates using temperature dependent recombination from a combined optical and GNSS perspective. Both of these methods quantify E-region dynamic state parameters at a rate (<10 second) that is unachievable by any standard means, such as incoherent scatter radar (ISR). The reliability of these methods is contextualized for the E-region response to auroral forcing for coaligned and non-ideal measurement scenarios common in high latitude receiver networks.

Caching at the network edge has emerged as a viable solution for alleviating the severe capacity crunch in content-centric next generation 5G wireless networks by leveraging localized content storage and delivery. Caching generally works in two phases namely (i) storage phase where parts of popular content is pre-fetched and stored in caches at the network edge during time of low network load and (ii) delivery phase where content is distributed to users at times of high network load by leveraging the locally stored content. Cache-aided networks therefore have the potential to leverage storage at the network edge to increase bandwidth efficiency. In this dissertation we ask the following question - What are the theoretical and practical guarantees offered by cache aided networks for reliable content distribution while minimizing transmission rates and increasing network efficiency? We furnish an answer to this question by identifying fundamental Shannon-type limits for cache aided systems. To this end, we first consider a cache-aided network where the cache storage phase is assisted by a central server and users can demand multiple files at each transmission interval. To service these demands, we consider two delivery models - (i) centralized content delivery where demands are serviced by the central server; and (ii) device-to-device-assisted distributed delivery where demands are satisfied by leveraging the collective content of user caches. For such cache aided networks, we develop a new technique for characterizing information theoretic lower bounds on the fundamental storage-rate trade-off. Furthermore, using the new lower bounds, we establish the optimal storage-rate trade-off to within a constant multiplicative gap and show that, for the case of multiple demands per user, treating each set of demands independently is order-optimal. To address the concerns of privacy in multicast content delivery over such cache-aided networks, we introduce the problem of caching with secure delivery. We propose schemes which achieve information theoretic security in cache-aided networks and show that the achievable rate is within a constant multiplicative factor of the information theoretic optimal secure rate. We then extend our theoretical analysis to the wireless domain by studying a cloud and cache-aided wireless network from a perspective of low-latency content distribution. To this end, we define a new performance metric namely normalized delivery time, or NDT, which captures the worst-case delivery latency. We propose achievable schemes with an aim to minimize the NDT and derive information theoretic lower bounds which show that the proposed schemes achieve optimality to within a constant multiplicative factor of 2 for all values of problem parameters. Finally, we consider the problem of caching and content distribution in a multi-small-cell heterogeneous network from a reinforcement learning perspective for the case when the popularity of content is unknown. We propose a novel topology-aware learning-aided collaborative caching algorithm and show that collaboration among multiple small cells for cache-aided content delivery outperforms local caching in most network topologies of practical interest. The results presented in this dissertation show definitively that cache-aided systems help in appreciable increase of network efficiency and are a viable solution for the ever evolving capacity demands in the wireless communications landscape. / Ph. D. / Caching at the network edge has emerged as a viable solution for alleviating the severe capacity crunch in content-centric next generation 5G wireless networks by leveraging localized content storage and delivery. Caching generally works in two phases namely (<i>i</i>) <i>storage phase</i> where parts of popular content is pre-fetched and stored in caches at the network edge during time of low network load and (<i>ii</i>) <i>delivery phase</i> where content is distributed to users at times of high network load by leveraging the locally stored content. Cache-aided networks therefore have the potential to leverage storage at the network edge to increase bandwidth efficiency. In this dissertation we study cache-aided systems from an information theoretic perspective and identify fundamental Shannontype limits for such systems. The results presented in this dissertation show definitively that cacheaided systems help in appreciable increase of network efficiency and are a viable solution for the ever evolving capacity demands in the wireless communications landscape.

Background: Content marketing has become a more commonly used strategy when marketers want to convey a message to consumers. Problem discussion: The scientific definition of content marketing is vague and it varies in between users. This makes it difficult for the practitioners who use content marketing as a strategy, that what it is that they are actually creating is content marketing. Questions: How does marketers/practitioners perceive content marketing? How do marketers/practitioners use content marketing? Aim: The aim is to analyse and determine the marketers/practitioners perceived notion of content marketing is and how he or she uses it. Method: The study has a qualitative research point of view.When collecting the data for the study, semi-structured interviews where chosen as the method most fitting for the purpose of the study. The collected data was then analysed within the frames of the research questions. Conclusion: With the result of the study one can conclude that there is no universal view of content marketing within the group of practitioners that were interviewed. There are though many similarities of how they perceive content marketing. The practitioners all agreed that content marketing should be distributed through owned digital channels. The content itself should be in an editorial context, and should both create value and be captivating to reader. It should not be in immediate association to the product or the service that the company provide. Content marketing should not be perceived by the reader or user as advertising activities, once it is it has lost its value and should not be called content marketing. A need for a concrete definition does not seem to exist among marketing managers. Marketing managers considers content marketing to be free insofar that it is up to each marketer to determine how content marketing should be practised.

This paper expands existing understandings of how entertainment content viewers conceptualize, encounter, evaluate, and select entertainment video content in the emerging television ecosystem. Special attention is paid to the influences that create awareness around a particular media product and the decision-making dynamics that influence viewers as they move through the selection process. Patterns of awareness, discovery, selection, and adoption relevant to a theoretical understanding of media content choice are identified and discussed.