The goal of this work is to provide an account of dative clitic dependencies in constructions with raising verbs such as to seem in Romanian. Dative clitic experiencers as quirky subjects and dative clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) constructions are discussed from a syntactic point of view and experimentally tested in a psycholinguistics study. The study contributes to current innovations in the Minimalist Program, presenting new perspectives on Romanian clitic dependencies in raising constructions partially addressed in earlier generative grammar. This study poses new questions regarding raising, the intervention effects of dative clitic experiencers, and the effects of clitic dependencies in ditransitive constructions. Chapter II presents an overview of Romanian raising constructions without dative experiencers. I show that Romanian possesses three raising constructions, based on the type of the embedded clause: subjunctive, infinitive, and indicative. Each of these has three potential locations for the nominative subject, argued to be generated in the embedded clause. Formal mechanisms such as Long Distance and Multiple Agree, Movement, Case and EPP are considered independent of one another. Dative clitic experiencers in raising constructions, analyzed in Chapter III, are claimed to be quirky subjects and to structurally occupy the highest position in the sentence. Having established the role of dative clitic experiencers, I discuss raising constructions involving dative experiencers generated and/or surfacing in various positions, and their effects on operations such as Agree and Move. I then discuss Experiencer Islands, formed by matrix and embedded experiencers in the same utterance, and present the contexts in which they occur. A Grammaticality Judgment Test confirms the existence of such restriction in Romanian. Furthermore, I present an analysis of Experiencer Islands and discuss observed exceptions to the restriction. Dative clitic dependencies such as CLLD constructions and Long Distance CLLD Constructions are also analyzed in this thesis. The experimental study presented in Chapter IV supports theoretical claims and demonstrates that Romanian speakers are aware of dative clitic dependencies, such as clitic experiencer dependencies and clitic dependencies in CLLD constructions, possess the grammatical knowledge of biclausal constructions involving dative clitic dependencies and have the ability to recognize such dependencies.

The heart is a complex organ and much is still unknown about its mechanical function. In order to use simulations to study heart mechanics, fluid and solid components and their interaction should be incorporated into any numerical model. Many previous studies have focused on myocardium motion or blood flow separately, while neglecting their interaction. Previous fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations of heart mechanics have made simplifying assumptions about their solid models, which prevented them from accurately predicting the stress-stain behaviour of the myocardium. In this work, a numerical model of the canine left ventricle (LV) is presented, which serves to address the limitations of previous studies. A canine LV myocardium material model was developed for use in conjunction with a commercial finite element code. The material model was modified from its original form to make it suitable for use in simulations. Further, numerical constraints were imposed when calculating the material parameter values, to ensure that the model would be strictly convex. An initial geometry and non-zero stress state are required to start cardiac cycle simulations. These were generated by the static inflation of a passive LV model to an end-diastolic pressure. Comparisons with previous measurements verified that the calculated geometry was representative of end diastole. Stresses calculated at the specified end diastolic pressure showed complex spatial variations, illustrating the superiority of the present approach over a specification of an arbitrary stress distribution to an end-diastolic geometry. In the third part of this study, FSI simulations of the mechanics of the LV were performed over the cardiac cycle. Calculated LV cavity pressures agreed well with previous measurements during most of the cardiac cycle, but deviated from them during rapid filling, which resulted in non-physiological backflow. This study is the first one to present a detailed analysis of the temporal and spatial variations of the properties of both the solid and the fluid components of the canine LV. The observed development of non-uniform pressure distributions in the LV cavity confirms the advantage of performing FSI simulations rather than imposing a uniform fluid pressure on the inner surface of the myocardium during solid-only simulations.

Cross-sectional surveys are often used in epidemiological studies to identify subjects with a disease. When estimating the survival function from onset of disease, this sampling mechanism introduces bias, which must be accounted for. If the onset times of the disease are assumed to be coming from a stationary Poisson process, this bias, which is caused by the sampling of prevalent rather than incident cases, is termed length-bias. A one-sample Kolomogorov-Smirnov type of goodness-of-fit test for right-censored length-biased data is proposed and investigated with Weibull, log-normal and log-logistic models. Algorithms detailing how to efficiently generate right-censored length-biased survival data of these parametric forms are given. Simulation is employed to assess the effects of sample size and censoring on the power of the test. Finally, the test is used to evaluate the goodness-of-fit using length-biased survival data of patients with dementia from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging.

Political scientists have sought to unify under a single theoretical umbrella the explanations for the patterns of public opinion in the electorate and the patterns of party policy. Yet, these models have not taken account of potential differences between left-wingers and right-wingers in the ways that policy preferences are bundled together across multiple dimensions of political disagreement. The dissertation examines the origins and structure of political opinions on three dimensions of left/right disagreement: wealth redistribution, social morality, and immigration. The overall argument is that the content and structure of opinions are fundamentally intertwined. As a result, left/right disagreement is multidimensional and asymmetrical. Left-wingers and right-wingers derive from different sources, and structure in different ways, their opinions about policy. These asymmetries appear in the patterns of public opinion, the preferences of party activists, and in the positioning of political parties.

This study examined the effects of short-term high-intensity interval training (HIT) and continuous moderate-intensity training (CMT) on left ventricular (LV) function in young, healthy men. Sixteen untrained men were randomly assigned to HIT (8-12 X 60:75 seconds cycling at 95-100%:10% V˙O2peak) and CMT (90-120 minutes cycling at 65% V˙O2peak) and assessed before and after six sessions of training. LV function was determined at rest and during submaximal exercise using two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography. HIT and CMT improved V˙O2peak and induced plasma volume expansion to a similar magnitude. Although resting LV function did not change, increased exercise stroke volume and cardiac output was observed, secondary to increases in end-diastolic volume. Numerous ECHO-derived indices of diastolic performance were similarly enhanced during exercise in both groups. Short-term HIT and CMT elicit rapid increases in V˙O2peak and LV filling without global changes in systolic performance or cardiac morphology at rest.

This study examined the effects of short-term high-intensity interval training (HIT) and continuous moderate-intensity training (CMT) on left ventricular (LV) function in young, healthy men. Sixteen untrained men were randomly assigned to HIT (8-12 X 60:75 seconds cycling at 95-100%:10% V˙O2peak) and CMT (90-120 minutes cycling at 65% V˙O2peak) and assessed before and after six sessions of training. LV function was determined at rest and during submaximal exercise using two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography. HIT and CMT improved V˙O2peak and induced plasma volume expansion to a similar magnitude. Although resting LV function did not change, increased exercise stroke volume and cardiac output was observed, secondary to increases in end-diastolic volume. Numerous ECHO-derived indices of diastolic performance were similarly enhanced during exercise in both groups. Short-term HIT and CMT elicit rapid increases in V˙O2peak and LV filling without global changes in systolic performance or cardiac morphology at rest.

Political scientists have sought to unify under a single theoretical umbrella the explanations for the patterns of public opinion in the electorate and the patterns of party policy. Yet, these models have not taken account of potential differences between left-wingers and right-wingers in the ways that policy preferences are bundled together across multiple dimensions of political disagreement. The dissertation examines the origins and structure of political opinions on three dimensions of left/right disagreement: wealth redistribution, social morality, and immigration. The overall argument is that the content and structure of opinions are fundamentally intertwined. As a result, left/right disagreement is multidimensional and asymmetrical. Left-wingers and right-wingers derive from different sources, and structure in different ways, their opinions about policy. These asymmetries appear in the patterns of public opinion, the preferences of party activists, and in the positioning of political parties.

The goal of this work is to provide an account of dative clitic dependencies in constructions with raising verbs such as to seem in Romanian. Dative clitic experiencers as quirky subjects and dative clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) constructions are discussed from a syntactic point of view and experimentally tested in a psycholinguistics study. The study contributes to current innovations in the Minimalist Program, presenting new perspectives on Romanian clitic dependencies in raising constructions partially addressed in earlier generative grammar. This study poses new questions regarding raising, the intervention effects of dative clitic experiencers, and the effects of clitic dependencies in ditransitive constructions. Chapter II presents an overview of Romanian raising constructions without dative experiencers. I show that Romanian possesses three raising constructions, based on the type of the embedded clause: subjunctive, infinitive, and indicative. Each of these has three potential locations for the nominative subject, argued to be generated in the embedded clause. Formal mechanisms such as Long Distance and Multiple Agree, Movement, Case and EPP are considered independent of one another. Dative clitic experiencers in raising constructions, analyzed in Chapter III, are claimed to be quirky subjects and to structurally occupy the highest position in the sentence. Having established the role of dative clitic experiencers, I discuss raising constructions involving dative experiencers generated and/or surfacing in various positions, and their effects on operations such as Agree and Move. I then discuss Experiencer Islands, formed by matrix and embedded experiencers in the same utterance, and present the contexts in which they occur. A Grammaticality Judgment Test confirms the existence of such restriction in Romanian. Furthermore, I present an analysis of Experiencer Islands and discuss observed exceptions to the restriction. Dative clitic dependencies such as CLLD constructions and Long Distance CLLD Constructions are also analyzed in this thesis. The experimental study presented in Chapter IV supports theoretical claims and demonstrates that Romanian speakers are aware of dative clitic dependencies, such as clitic experiencer dependencies and clitic dependencies in CLLD constructions, possess the grammatical knowledge of biclausal constructions involving dative clitic dependencies and have the ability to recognize such dependencies.

The heart is a complex organ and much is still unknown about its mechanical function. In order to use simulations to study heart mechanics, fluid and solid components and their interaction should be incorporated into any numerical model. Many previous studies have focused on myocardium motion or blood flow separately, while neglecting their interaction. Previous fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations of heart mechanics have made simplifying assumptions about their solid models, which prevented them from accurately predicting the stress-stain behaviour of the myocardium. In this work, a numerical model of the canine left ventricle (LV) is presented, which serves to address the limitations of previous studies. A canine LV myocardium material model was developed for use in conjunction with a commercial finite element code. The material model was modified from its original form to make it suitable for use in simulations. Further, numerical constraints were imposed when calculating the material parameter values, to ensure that the model would be strictly convex. An initial geometry and non-zero stress state are required to start cardiac cycle simulations. These were generated by the static inflation of a passive LV model to an end-diastolic pressure. Comparisons with previous measurements verified that the calculated geometry was representative of end diastole. Stresses calculated at the specified end diastolic pressure showed complex spatial variations, illustrating the superiority of the present approach over a specification of an arbitrary stress distribution to an end-diastolic geometry. In the third part of this study, FSI simulations of the mechanics of the LV were performed over the cardiac cycle. Calculated LV cavity pressures agreed well with previous measurements during most of the cardiac cycle, but deviated from them during rapid filling, which resulted in non-physiological backflow. This study is the first one to present a detailed analysis of the temporal and spatial variations of the properties of both the solid and the fluid components of the canine LV. The observed development of non-uniform pressure distributions in the LV cavity confirms the advantage of performing FSI simulations rather than imposing a uniform fluid pressure on the inner surface of the myocardium during solid-only simulations.

Cross-sectional surveys are often used in epidemiological studies to identify subjects with a disease. When estimating the survival function from onset of disease, this sampling mechanism introduces bias, which must be accounted for. If the onset times of the disease are assumed to be coming from a stationary Poisson process, this bias, which is caused by the sampling of prevalent rather than incident cases, is termed length-bias. A one-sample Kolomogorov-Smirnov type of goodness-of-fit test for right-censored length-biased data is proposed and investigated with Weibull, log-normal and log-logistic models. Algorithms detailing how to efficiently generate right-censored length-biased survival data of these parametric forms are given. Simulation is employed to assess the effects of sample size and censoring on the power of the test. Finally, the test is used to evaluate the goodness-of-fit using length-biased survival data of patients with dementia from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging.