Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard--Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology Program in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Bibliography: leaves 193-202. / by David Albert Sebok. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology Program in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Bibliography: leaves 120-122. / by Jose Gabriel Venegas T. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2009. / Author is also affiliated with the MIT Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-188). / Large volumes of continuous waveform data are now collected in hospitals. These datasets provide an opportunity to advance medical care, by capturing rare or subtle phenomena associated with specific medical conditions, and by providing fresh insights into disease dynamics over long time scales. We describe how progress in medicine can be accelerated through the use of sophisticated computational methods for the structured analysis of large multi-patient, multi-signal datasets. We propose two new approaches, morphologic variability (MV) and physiological symbolic analysis, for the analysis of continuous long-term signals. MV studies subtle micro-level variations in the shape of physiological signals over long periods. These variations, which are often widely considered to be noise, can contain important information about the state of the underlying system. Symbolic analysis studies the macro-level information in signals by abstracting them into symbolic sequences. Converting continuous waveforms into symbolic sequences facilitates the development of efficient algorithms to discover high risk patterns and patients who are outliers in a population. We apply our methods to the clinical challenge of identifying patients at high risk of cardiovascular mortality (almost 30% of all deaths worldwide each year). When evaluated on ECG data from over 4,500 patients, high MV was strongly associated with both cardiovascular death and sudden cardiac death. MV was a better predictor of these events than other ECG-based metrics. Furthermore, these results were independent of information in echocardiography, clinical characteristics, and biomarkers. / (cont.) Our symbolic analysis techniques also identified groups of patients exhibiting a varying risk of adverse outcomes. One group, with a particular set of symbolic characteristics, showed a 23 fold increased risk of death in the months following a mild heart attack, while another exhibited a 5 fold increased risk of future heart attacks. / by Zeeshan Hassan Syed. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard--Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology Program in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Bibliography: leaves 200-214. / by Tamar Yashin-Flash. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Program in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Edward Patrick Ingenito. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology Program in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Dennis P. Orgill. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard--Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology Program in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Joanne Marie Donovan. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Science and Technology Program in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Bibliography: leaves 277-289. / by Paul Albrecht. / Ph.D.

Globally, the aviation industry supports 58.1 million jobs in related industries and U.S. airlines alone generated 11.8 million jobs. Airline performance, productivity, and profitability depend on employees. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies that U.S. airline leaders use to improve employee performance. The study was grounded with the Harvard model of human resource management. A stratified purposeful sample of 14 managers and 10 frontline staff from a Florida airline participated in semistructured individual interviews and a focus group, respectively. The data from these interviews were analyzed using Moustakas's modified van Kaam method. The themes that emerged from analysis included: an emphasis on the individual interaction and verbal affirmations between managers and frontline staff, additional career development opportunities for employees, not only for performing in their role but improving performance and level of commitment to the organization. Furthermore, managers and employees arrived at the same conclusion about organization culture and commitment-individuals have to feel they are contributing to the overall mission and feel valued in doing so. For the latter to occur, leaders need to engage employees in continuous dialogue and be completely transparent, and employees need to be open to feedback and share their motivations and goals. Social change implications include improved management and labor relationships within the U.S. airline industry, which ultimately benefits the flying public through greater stability and better service.

This thesis is an auto-ethnographic study of teaching methods proposed to be effective in developing thinking skills that advance meaning making in my middle school art classes. The study explored the use of Visible Thinking Routines Ritchart et all, 2001) and Art Investigations (Herz, 2010) in middle school art classes.Reflections and other field texts reveal the extent to which I found these methods effective in guiding students to develop higher order thinking skills that support more meaningful outcomes in art and could be beneficial in other areas of their lives.