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Blacks in the United States have the highest rates of hypertension in the world, and their cardiovascular disease mortality rates are higher than for any other population group as a result of traditional risk factors such as obesity and stronger family history. However, additional underlying factors, such as social determinants of health (e.g., socioeconomic status [SES]) and macrosocial factors (e.g., racism), also correlate with adverse health outcomes. This study investigated whether the interaction between SES mobility over the lifecourse and lifetime racial discrimination influenced the extent to which hypertension contributed to the cardiovascular disease health disparities observed among Blacks in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS). Using a socioecological framework, cross-sectional data collected from the baseline period on a cohort of 5,302 JHS participants were analyzed with multiple regression techniques. The study findings indicated that SES mobility, as measured by education, predicted both the racial discrimination exposure and the burden that individuals experience. However, neither SES mobility nor racial discrimination had any effect in moderating the relationship between hypertension and cardiovascular disease when examined individually or collectively. This study examined a new approach for measuring the influence of racial discrimination on health outcomes. Multidisciplinary public health and research partners should continue to advance understanding of the complex health impact of such experiences on individuals and the dynamics that create racial factors in order to effect social change.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC, 2005. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-323).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-283).

<p>"The Uses of Literature: Gilles Deleuze's American Rhizome" puts four writers - Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, George Jackson and William S. Burroughs - in conjunction with four concepts - becoming-democratic, belief in the world, the line of flight, and finally, control societies. The aim of this study is to elaborate and expand on Gilles Deleuze's extensive use of American literature and to examine possible conjunctions of his philosophy with contemporary American literary criticism and American Studies. I argue that Deleuze's interest in American writing not only productively complicates recent historical accounts of "French Theory's" incursion into American academia, but also provides a compelling way think about the relationship between literature and history, language and experience, and the categories of minor and major that organize national literary traditions. Beginning with the concept of the "American rhizome" this dissertation approaches the question of rhizomatic thought as a constructivist methodology for engaging the relationship between literary texts and broader social movements. Following an introduction laying out the basic coordinates of such an approach, and their historical relevance with respect to the reception of "French Theory" in the United States, the subsequent chapters each take an experimental approach with respect to a single American writer invoked in Deleuze's work and a concept that resonantes with the literary text under consideration. In foregrounding the question of the use of literature this dissertation explores the ways literature has been appropriated, set to work, or dismissed in various historical and institutional arrangements, but also seeks to suggest the possibility of creating conditions in which literature can be said to take on a life of its own.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (M.A.)--East Carolina University, 2009. / Presented to the faculty of the Department of History. Advisor: Lawrence Babits. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [125]-136). Also available via the World Wide Web. Adobe reader required.

Cette thèse a pour objet les nouvelles formes de textes apparues les 25 dernières années sous la pression concertée des nouvelles technologies médiatiques: livres hybrides, littérature hypertextuelle, fictions hypermédiatiques et interactives, etc. Nous tentons de comprendre ces formes, de les situer dans une histoire longue des supports de textes et des pratiques de lecture, et de développer des techniques permettant de les analyser. Il s'agit également pour nous de mesurer, dans les discours actuels sur les nouveaux médias, l'influence de modèles théoriques plus anciens et, plus particulièrement, de la notion poststructuraliste de texte. Les chapitres théoriques de la thèse s'attardent à quatre grandes problématiques conceptuelles réactualisées par la « révolution numérique » : la notion de textualité (chapitre 1), la question de la matérialité des supports d'écriture (chapitre 2), le rôle de la manipulation dans la lecture (chapitre 3), et l'opposition entre narrativité et interactivité (chapitre 4). Chaque chapitre effectue une relecture critique des corpus théoriques récents avant de proposer ses propres développements théoriques et conceptuels. Chemin faisant, nous sommes appelé à réévaluer la place du texte dans la sémiotique et à mettre les théories du texte, de la lecture et du récit à l'épreuve des nouvelles formes textuelles. Il s'agit moins pour nous de fonder une méthodologie rigide que de développer une certaine attitude pragmatique, sensible à la matérialité des supports textuels et à la singularité des parcours de lecture dynamiques, mais décidée à intégrer ces particularités à une sémiotique textuelle unifiée. Cette attitude est mise à l'essai dans les chapitres d'analyse de la thèse, où nous effectuons la lecture de différentes oeuvres nées des possibilités nouvelles des technologies médiatiques. Nous analysons d'abord, au chapitre 5, l'hypertexte de fiction Patchwork Girl (Jackson, 1995), oeuvre riche, médiatiquement et sémiotiquement complexe, réalisée avec le logiciel Storyspace et articulée sur une intertextualité complexe avec le Frankenstein de Mary Shelley. Nous nous penchons ensuite, au chapitre 6, sur le cas de House of Leaves (Danielewski, 2000), oeuvre de fiction livresque où les techniques numériques d'impression -et de mise en page donnent lieu à des jeux typographiques et tabulaires complexes. Nous effectuons finalement, au chapitre 7, une lecture critique d'une oeuvre interactive, le jeu vidéo Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games, 2004), où nous tentons de confronter la lecture littéraire et les théories du récit à l'expérience du jeu. L'objectif général de cette thèse est d'en arriver à une définition du concept de texte, par et pour le numérique, capable d'accompagner le passage des contenus textuels vers de nouveaux supports et d'interroger, à partir de là, l'ensemble de nos pratiques culturelles. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Sémiotique textuelle, Théories de la lecture, Texte, Lecture, Numérique, Matérialité, Interactivité, Shelley Jackson, Mark Z. Danielewski, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The aim of this thesis is to develop a tractable method for approximating the steady-state behavior of continuous-review base-stock controlled assembly systems with Poisson demand arrivals and manufacturing and assembly facilities modeled as Jackson networks. One class of systems studied is to produce a single type of finished product assembling a number of components and another class is to produce two types of finished products allowing component commonality. The performance measures evaluated are the expected backorders, fill rate and the stockout probability for finished product(s). A partially aggregated but exact model is approximated assuming that the state-dependent transition rates arising as a result of the partial aggregation are constant. This approximation leads to the derivation of a closed-form steady-state probability distribution, which is of product-form. Adequacy of the proposed model in approximating the steady-state performance measures is tested against simulation experiments over a large range of parameters and the approximation turns out to be quite accurate with absolute errors of 10% at most for fill rate and stockout probability, and of less than 1.37 (&amp / #8776 / 2) requests for expected backorders. A greedy heuristic which is proposed to be employed using approximate steady-state probabilities is devised to optimize base-stock levels while aiming at an overall service level for finished product(s).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Jacqueline Rouse, committee chair; Glenn T. Eskew, Vicki Crawford, Patricia Sullivan, committee chairs. Electronic text (195 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Nov. 9, 2007; title from file title page. Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-195).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-240).