The aim of this study was to determine the trends in protocol, success rates, and consistency in follow up of revascularization procedures in a controlled environment. Patients of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry were identified who were offered revascularization therapy as a treatment option on immature permanent teeth from January 1, 2010 to May 31, 2017. A total of 77 patients and 78 teeth were evaluated for revascularization therapy. For patients accepting treatment, records were reviewed for outcome assessment and consistency of follow up. A total of 30 patients (31 teeth) were treated following revascularization protocols, with only 20 patients (21 teeth) returning for follow up. Six of the 21 teeth needed some form of additional therapy due to patients remaining symptomatic, however 15/21 exhibited varying levels of success. Recall rate was 67.7%. With a success rate of 71.4%, revascularization therapy should continue to be considered for all patients with teeth having necrotic pulps and immature root apices. However, changes to recall protocols need to be improved in order to better monitor the status of teeth that undergo revascularization therapy.

The legal system of Victorian England is integral to Charles Dickens' novels and to their moral intent. Dickens was acutely conscious of the way in which the Victorian novel operated as a form of moral art. As a novelist he is concerned about the victims of his society and the way in which their lots can be improved. He therefore chooses to construct representative victims of legal institutions such as the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the Court of Chancery in his novels to highlight flaws in his world and the changes that might be made to improve social conditions. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' fictional enquiry into the social world his characters stand to inherit is focused on the legal system and its institutions, most particularly, the law of succession. By discussing three novels from different periods of his writing career, Oliver Twist (1837), Bleak House (1853) and Our Mutual Friend (1862-1865), I will suggest how his engineering of moral outcomes shows his development as a writer. The law of succession and related legal institutions such as the Court of Chancery, dealing with wills and inheritance, recurs in Dickens' novels, providing the novelist with social, moral and legal identities for his characters. These identities, as unveiled during the texts, propel the characters and plot development in particular directions in response to the novels' moral intent. The role of inheritance in Victorian society largely provides Dickens with a means to explore the adequacies of existing legal institutions, such as the means by which to prove and execute wills and the operation of the Court of Chancery. The role of inheritance also allows Dickens to examine the social condition of those who are deprived of an inheritance or who are unable to enforce their legal rights. In this respect Dickens concentrates on the appalling conditions of institutions such as workhouses and poorhouses in Victorian society and on resultant criminal activity and prostitution in the community as the disinherited struggle to survive. Dickens' study of crime in particular sheds invaluable light on the prevailing moral standards of, and difficulties with, his society. Dickens acknowledges his pedagogical role as an author, providing synopses of his lessons in the prefaces to his books and forewarning his audience of the literary devices (such as grotesquerie) that are necessary to communicate them effectively. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' engineering of moral outcomes through the convenient use of the law of succession becomes increasingly sophisticated as he develops as a writer. The stock plot device of the impoverished orphan child, a representative victim of such a Victorian legal institution as the Poor Laws who is morally saved when elevated into gentility by a secret inheritance, sustains the plot of Oliver Twist. The simplistic and somewhat improbable fortunes of Oliver, however, give way to the more probable moral and legal outcomes of characters such as Jo and Richard Carstone in Bleak House. In Bleak House Carstone, who is certainly a more interesting central protagonist than Esther Summerson in terms of Dickens' examination of legal institutions and their effect on moral and social outcomes in the novel, makes a ruinous attempt to manipulate the legal system and gain control over his fortune by joining the suit of Jarndyce v Jarndyce. In Our Mutual Friend, however, a complex and successful manipulation of the legal system is achieved by Harmon/Handford/Rokesmith, an adult and extremely resourceful character who, in conjunction with other characters such as Bella Wilfer and Mr Boffin, is testament to the inseparability of individual and legal identities as far as moral and social outcomes are concerned. Throughout the novels it can be seen that the abilities of Oliver Twist, Richard Carstone and John Rokesmith to manipulate the law of succession correlate directly to stages of Dickens' maturity as a writer and his increasing confidence about layering texts and developing more complex and sophisticated structures in his novels. Dickens' focus on the role of inheritance, however, entails the development of perspectives on the legal system in entirety. Oliver Twist as a novel drawing upon the traditions of sensation, and turning on events such as 'legacies, birthrights, thefts and deeds of violence', focuses intensely on the criminal justice system and establishes Dickens' famous attraction to repulsion and use of grotesquerie and popular entertainment. Oliver Twist also develops analogies between law and drama, establishing the foundation from which Dickens can employ legal metaphors to great effect in his quest for reforms of the legal system and society at large in Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. Oliver Twist further establishes the milieu of a stratified society in which finances govern social behaviour and in which the class system is reflected in the legal system through the denial of access to justice to those who are unable to afford it, or suffer gender inequality. Bleak House builds upon the problems outlined in Oliver Twist. It explores the criminal system, particularly the defeminisation of the law and access to justice issues, including the problem of delay in litigation. Specific legal institutions such as the jury system and, most notably, the civil branch of the Victorian legal system with a particular focus on the equitable procedures in the Court of Chancery are examined. Jo is a transmutation of Oliver as representative victim of the Poor Laws, and his fate as such appears more probable. Richard Carstone is, however, the central character in the novel in terms of his construction as the representative victim of the civil system and of the law of succession. In Our Mutual Friend Dickens refines his use of the law of succession and other legal institutions to propel characters into directions suited to his own agendas. The entire plot is constructed from the premise of the execution of a will arising out of the death of John Harmon whose murder is a crime that has never, in fact, been committed. The ramifications of the execution of this will and subsequent codicils are extremely interesting. The novel further examines problems of access to justice and gender inequality under the prevailing legal system, particularly through Bella Wilfer. As part of the development of Dickens' use of the legal system there is a perceptible development of his powers of characterisation. Richard Carstone is a more substantial and believable character than Oliver; John Harmon offers the opportunity for Dickens to experiment with a chameleon identity. This aspect of Dickens' development, however, has received substantial attention already, particularly by Arnold Kettle, Barbara Hardy, Monroe Engel and Grahame Smith. There has been, to the best of my knowledge, little work done on his use of the law of succession, and it is here that I wish to concentrate my argument. Much of Dickens' interest in the law appears to stem from his early career as a legal clerk in Lincoln's Inn and Doctors' Commons. His first job, as a writing clerk in the office of Ellis and Blackmore, a small set of chambers in Holborn Court, involved duties such as copying documents, administering the registration of wills and running errands to other legal offices and law courts. Public offices with which Dickens came into contact in the course of this job were the Alienation Office, the Sixpenny Receivers Office, the Prothonotaries Office, the Clerk of the Escheats, the Dispensation Office, the Affidavit Office, the Filazer's, Exigenter's and Clerk of the Outlawry's Office, the Hanaper Office and the Six-Clerk's office . This employment gave Dickens an exposure to a wide range of jurisdictions and legal precedents. Through this contact with a variety of legal practices, Dickens experienced a broad range of litigation which enabled him to develop opinions on the contemporary operation of the law and its efficacy in the administration of justice. Such experience almost certainly sowed the seeds for much of the critique of the legal system found in his novels. In 1829 when he joined Doctors Commons, Dickens was exposed to ecclesiastical and naval jurisdictions including a Consistory Court, A Court of Arches, the Prerogative Court, the Delegates Court and the Admiralty Court. In this role Dickens was employed by a firm of proctors to take notes on evidence and judgments. This job as a shorthand reporter granted Dickens the opportunity to observe at close range members of the legal profession such as clerks, proctors, secretaries and Doctors. Probably as much through a process of osmosis as anything else, Dickens gained an understanding of the mechanics of basic legal procedures through this type of employment. In order to work as a court reporter, Dickens was required to use shorthand, a method of taking notes that perhaps allowed Dickens to develop the skill to think and write quickly. It was probably at this early stage in his career that the duality of law and literature began to come together for Dickens, developing at a later stage into his volumes of legal fiction. The anonymity of the law writer's existence, as captured later in Dickens' description of Nemo the law-writer in Bleak House, who either lived or did not live by law-writing according to Krook, also may have prompted Dickens to begin writing original works with legal themes.

Time-In, A Logical Consequence for Misbehaving Students, studied the effects of a primary school discipline program designed and implemented by a trainee school counsellor. The program delivered a series of logical consequences for students' misbehaviour and a formalized entry point for counselling intervention. The program was based on a critical incident technique that required teachers to issue infringement notices to misbehaving students who failed to respond to warnings or contravened existing rules regarding safe and responsible behaviour. Counselling and system responses (loss of privileges, parent notification, in school suspension, exclusion) occurred within an established formula dependent on the number of infringements accruing to the student. The school counsellor assumed full responsibility for the collection of infringements, monitoring of on-going student misbehaviour, parental contact and overall management functions of the host school's discipline program. Counselling sessions and mode of therapy were selected and employed to meet the specific needs of misbehaving students once extended misbehaviour patterns emerged. Data collected throughout the study's duration (one year) indicated a decline in the number of recurring offenders and a drop-off in the number of infringements received by those pupils who continued to transgress school policies regarding safe and responsible behaviour. Five hundred and forty-seven infringement notices were issued during the study which resulted in a total of 83 counselling sessions. Male students dominated all categories of misbehaviour and accounted for 86% of the infringements issued. Seventy-seven per cent of infringements issued were from class teacher to students in the class setting. Three questionnaires were administered at the end of the program to teachers, parents and students. Both parent and teacher questionnaire results supported Time-In procedures but almost half of the students responded negatively to the continuation of the program. Several hypotheses were posited for this outcome.

Understanding and explaining perception of touch is a non-trivial task. Even seemingly trivial differences in exploration may potentially have a significant impact on perception and levels of discrimination. In this study, we explore different aspects of contact related to stiffness perception and their effects on the just noticeable difference (JND) of stiffness are surveyed. An experiment has been performed on non-deformable, compliant objects in a virtual environment with three different types of contact: Discontinuous pressure, continuous pressure and continuous lateral motion. The result shows a significantly better discrimination performance in the case of continuous pressure (a special case of nonlinearity), which can be explained by the concept of haptic memory. Moreover, it is found that the perception is worse for the changes that occur along the lateral axis than the normal axis.

Numerous studies have considered the ability of humans to perceive differences in forces and how this affects our ability to interpret the properties of materials. Previous research has not considered the effect of the rate of change of the material stiffness in our ability to perceive differences, however, an important factor in exploration processes such as a doctor’s palpation of the skin to examine tissues beneath. These effects are the topic of this research which attempts to quantify the effects of stiffness gradient magnitude and form on the discernment of changes in stiffness.

Surface water reservoirs in rural areas of the Canadian prairies often have poor water quality due to contamination by dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DOC can activate growth of microorganisms in water distribution systems and form disinfection by-products (DBPs) in water treatment. The presence of microbiological contaminants and DBPs are potentially harmful to human health. Therefore, rapid and simple methods for DOC characterization are needed to evaluate potential water sources and to assist in understanding how best to remove DOC. The first objective of this project was to develop a sample preparation and analysis procedure utilizing Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to characterize the DOC content of water samples. The second objective was to compare FTIR analysis results for fractionated and un-fractionated water samples to more convention DOC characterization methods (such as UV, SUVA and specific THMFP). The third objective was to demonstrate the application of the procedure to source water assessment and water treatment process evaluation by characterizing the DOC content of several typical treated and un-treated prairie water samples at several locations in Saskatchewan.<p> In the first phase of the study prepared samples of known DOC concentration were separated into six fractions (hydrophobic acid (HPOA), hydrophobic neutral (HPON) and hydrophobic base (HPOB); and hydrophilic acid (HPIA), hydrophilic neutral (HPIN) and hydrophilic base (HPIB)) using resin fractionation techniques. FTIR and conventional UV spectroscopic measurements, DOC concentration, and trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) measurements were taken on the un-fractionated samples and their fractions. A water matrix interference problem in the FTIR measurements was overcome by depositing a residue of dry solids from the aqueous solution containing the DOC on a flat, organic compound free and non-infrared absorptive gold plated slide before analysis. This simple evaporation procedure developed for concentrating water samples successfully deposited a solid residue for FTIR scanning. Scanning of the solid residue of each sample at multiple locations successfully produced a spectrum of average results suitable for interpretation.<p> Each organic fraction separated from the prepared samples of known DOC was then assessed using FTIR analysis. Comparison of the spectra from the resin adsorption fractions gave an indication of the relationship between functional groups and the hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature of the DOC. The results suggest that the hydrophobic fractions contain more aromatic functional groups. This demonstrates that the FTIR spectra can provide information regarding the hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature of the DOC as an alternative to the resin separation procedure. The sample preparation and FTIR analysis procedure was then used to characterize the DOC content of source and treated waters at several locations within Saskatchewan. The results of these initial investigations indicate the method can effectively identify the major organic functional groups present in source waters and the changes in the major functional groups that occur as the water is subjected to water treatment unit operations and processes. Further, the presence of several key functional groups is related to an increase in THMFP.

Abstract Warning Colors by Robert McClure Warning Colors is a piece for orchestra scored for three flutes (second flute doubling alto flute in G and third flute doubling piccolo), two oboes, one english horn in F, two clarinets in Bb, one bass clarinet in Bb, three bassoons, four horns in F, three trumpets in C, two tenor trombones, one bass trombone, tuba, timpani, three percussion, harp, piano doubling celeste, and strings. The title is a phrase used in evolutionary biology in relation to the behavior of mimicry which is the core musical concept of the work. While writing a piece called Desert Miniatures: Insects for three bassoons in the summer of 2012, I learned about a butterfly, the Arizona Red Spotted Purple from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona which employs mimicry. The physical appearance of the butterfly has evolved to resemble another, noxious species of butterfly in the region, the Pipevine Swallowtail. The Red Spotted Purple is attacked far less because it has developed similar warning colors to the Swallowtail that predators have learned to recognize and avoid. Warning Colors employs three types of musical mimicry. The first is harmonic mimicry in which a stable harmony is presented in either the winds or brass. The strings mimic the harmony by sliding around it using microtones. These moments of harmonic mimicry serve as structural pillars. Second, rhythmic mimicry occurs when a melody or line is performed simultaneously against itself, the mimicking melody having different rhythmic values. The two lines intertwine rhythmically, come into unison, and break away from each other in a heterophonic texture. The third, melodic mimicry, occurs when two or more lines mimic a source by matching its contour. However, these mimics are not the product of a simple transposition because they retain their own internal intervallic characteristics. The concept of mimicry informed many of the musical characteristics displayed and heard in Warning Colors.

Surface water reservoirs in rural areas of the Canadian prairies often have poor water quality due to contamination by dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DOC can activate growth of microorganisms in water distribution systems and form disinfection by-products (DBPs) in water treatment. The presence of microbiological contaminants and DBPs are potentially harmful to human health. Therefore, rapid and simple methods for DOC characterization are needed to evaluate potential water sources and to assist in understanding how best to remove DOC. The first objective of this project was to develop a sample preparation and analysis procedure utilizing Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to characterize the DOC content of water samples. The second objective was to compare FTIR analysis results for fractionated and un-fractionated water samples to more convention DOC characterization methods (such as UV, SUVA and specific THMFP). The third objective was to demonstrate the application of the procedure to source water assessment and water treatment process evaluation by characterizing the DOC content of several typical treated and un-treated prairie water samples at several locations in Saskatchewan.<p> In the first phase of the study prepared samples of known DOC concentration were separated into six fractions (hydrophobic acid (HPOA), hydrophobic neutral (HPON) and hydrophobic base (HPOB); and hydrophilic acid (HPIA), hydrophilic neutral (HPIN) and hydrophilic base (HPIB)) using resin fractionation techniques. FTIR and conventional UV spectroscopic measurements, DOC concentration, and trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) measurements were taken on the un-fractionated samples and their fractions. A water matrix interference problem in the FTIR measurements was overcome by depositing a residue of dry solids from the aqueous solution containing the DOC on a flat, organic compound free and non-infrared absorptive gold plated slide before analysis. This simple evaporation procedure developed for concentrating water samples successfully deposited a solid residue for FTIR scanning. Scanning of the solid residue of each sample at multiple locations successfully produced a spectrum of average results suitable for interpretation.<p> Each organic fraction separated from the prepared samples of known DOC was then assessed using FTIR analysis. Comparison of the spectra from the resin adsorption fractions gave an indication of the relationship between functional groups and the hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature of the DOC. The results suggest that the hydrophobic fractions contain more aromatic functional groups. This demonstrates that the FTIR spectra can provide information regarding the hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature of the DOC as an alternative to the resin separation procedure. The sample preparation and FTIR analysis procedure was then used to characterize the DOC content of source and treated waters at several locations within Saskatchewan. The results of these initial investigations indicate the method can effectively identify the major organic functional groups present in source waters and the changes in the major functional groups that occur as the water is subjected to water treatment unit operations and processes. Further, the presence of several key functional groups is related to an increase in THMFP.

In order to effectively design an automated office system, it is necessary to understand the nature of office procedures and interactions. In the design of any office system, characterization and formalization of the information flow through the office are important factors in the attainment of effective system design. A model has been developed by defining office components and their representation in terms of system objects, attributes and relations. The model is based on a set of rules specified in a manner that supports analysis of system completeness and consistency. The model representation has been combined into an office specification system which consists of a specification language and analysis software. Using the system presented, information flow through an office can be characterized and formalized. The system provides the capability of categorizing data into one of a number of data types and of tracking data as it travels through an office. These capabilities provide information necessary to eliminate redundant data, indicate incomplete data, and specify useless data. Through the use of analyzer reports and analysis software, system completeness and consistency are determined.

In order to achieve the stated goal of reducing the final closing procedure time cycle for construction projects at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Odessa District, several standard operating procedures (SOPs) for project construction control and management had to be revised. Seemingly unrelated tasks created posterior chains of events that resulted in bottlenecks in the process and delayed final project closing. Four specific SOPs were identified and analyzed to determine which tasks required modification and what was expected from these modifications. A mission for each specified SOP was conceived and written to give a clear view of the intent of the procedure. Afterwards, district policies were drafted to provide the means to fulfill the intent. The procedural changes, compatible with TxDOT statewide procedures, allowed the time spent in the processes to remain the same but redistributed it to reduce the end-loading of the control process. The new SOPs require an even time distribution cyclically throughout the project. Control procedures are done only once, shortening the final closing procedure for projects by doing one-time, short, cyclical, consecutive control tasks of the same procedure throughout the life of the project, rather than doing some of them once cyclically and then again at the closing procedure and others just at the closing procedure. These changes resulted in a shorter end-cycle time, which substantially reduced the final closing procedure time for each project, without affecting the integrity and safeguards of the project. The changes resulted in more efficient and timely financial, managerial, and engineering control of projects. The procedures revised were (1) Review and Approval of Change Orders; (2) Review and Approval of Monthly Progress Estimates; (3) Review and Approval of Interim and Final Audits and Final Estimate; and (4) Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans (SW3P) Records Management and Auditing Procedures.