Following unilateral stroke there is significant loss of function in the body side contralateral to the damage and a robust degenerative-regenerative cascade of events in both hemispheres. It is natural to compensate for loss of function by relying more on the less-affected body side to accomplish everyday living tasks (e.g. brushing teeth, drinking coffee). This is accompanied by a “learned disuse” of the impaired side thought to occur due to repeated experience with its ineptness. However, as investigated in these studies, it may also be due to brain changes instigated by experience with the intact body side. The central hypothesis of these dissertation studies is that experience with the intact forelimb, after unilateral sensorimotor cortex (SMC) damage, disrupts functional recovery with the impaired forelimb and interferes with peri-lesion neural plasticity. Following unilateral ischemic lesions, rats were trained on a skilled reaching task with their intact (less-affected) forelimb or received control procedures. The impaired forelimb was then trained and tested on the same skilled reaching task. Intact forelimb experience worsened performance with the impaired forelimb even when initiated at a more delayed time point following lesions. Intact forelimb training also reduced peri-lesion expression of FosB/ΔFosB, a marker of neuronal activation, and caudal forelimb motor map areas compared to animals without intact forelimb training. It was further established that it is focused training of the intact forelimb and not experience with this limb per se, as animals trained with both forelimbs in an alternating fashion did not exhibit this effect. Transections of the corpus callosum blocked the maladaptive effect of intact forelimb experience on impaired forelimb recovery, suggesting a disruptive influence of the intact hemisphere onto the lesion hemisphere that is mediated by experience. Together these dissertation studies provide insight into how experience with the less-affected, intact body side, can influence peri-lesion neural plasticity and recovery of function with the impaired forelimb. The findings from these studies suggest that compensatory use of the less-affected (intact) body side following unilateral brain damage is not advantageous if the ultimate goal is to improve function in the impaired body side. / text

Although many advances in the treatment of schizophrenia have been made over the past decade, little is known about the process of recovery from a first episode of schizophrenia (FES). To date, the study of recovery in the field of mental health has focused on long-term mental illness. This in depth qualitative study drew upon Charmaz’s (1990) constructivist grounded theory methodology to address the following questions: How do individuals who have experienced a FES describe their process of recovery? How does an identified individual (e.g. friend, family member, teacher, or clinician) describe their role during the participant’s process of recovery, and their perception of the recovery process? Ten primary participants (who self-identified as recovering from a FES) had two interviews; in addition, there was a one-time interview with a secondary participant, for a total of 30 interviews. Data collection sources included participant semi-structured interviews, participant selected personal objects that symbolized their recovery, and clinical records. The results provide a substantive theory of the process of recovery from a FES. The emergent process of recovery model for these participants is comprised of the following phases: ‘Lives prior to the illness’, ‘Lives interrupted: Encountering the illness’, ‘Engaging in services and supports’, ‘Re-engaging in life’, ‘Envisioning the future’; and the core category, ‘Re-shaping an enduring sense of self,’ that occurred through all phases. A prominent distinctive feature of this model is that participants’ enduring sense of self were reshaped versus reconstructed throughout their recovery. The emergent model of recovery from a FES is unique, and as such, provides implications for clinical care, future research, and policy development specifically for these young people and their families.

Stroke is a widespread condition, which often leaves survivors with lasting deficits in motor function, however, physical rehabilitation is the only treatment available after the acute period. A large body of preclinical literature suggests dopamine-augmenting drugs, could enhance motor recovery following stroke. Unfortunately, mixed clinical results have prevented the implementation of such treatments, possibly due to the wide variety of G protein-coupled receptors these drugs can activate. Using a mouse photothrombosis stroke model and a battery of motor and sensorimotor behavioural tests, the current study aims to demonstrate proof of principle for the use of D1-class dopamine receptor agonists to enhance poststroke motor recovery and to evaluate the role of aerobic exercise rehabilitation in an asynchronous study design. The effect of light-dark cycle on behavioural outcome (horizontal ladder test, adhesive removal test, cylinder test) and histological outcome (infarct size) in photothrombotic stroke was evaluated in order to optimize the stroke model, but no there was no evidence of differences between strokes occurring during the light or dark period of a mouse’s circadian rhythm. A bioactive, suboptimal dose of D1-agonist dihydrexidine, was determined by evaluating its effect on locomotor activity and its ability to increase expression of immediate early gene c-fos. Using the determined dose, studies evaluating the efficacy of 7-days and 2-days of dihydrexidine administration on poststroke motor recovery, were performed, indicating efficacy of a 7-days, but not of a 2-days, course of treatment. The 7-days dihydrexidine treatment resulted in accelerated recovery as compared to a control group receiving saline. This work demonstrates, for the first time, proof of principle for the use of specific activation of D1-class dopamine receptors to enhance motor recovery following stroke.

This research adds greater dimensions to the understanding of the recovery-aid acquisition process for households in rural communities with a racially heterogeneous and contentious population. The study population is divided into three categories based on ethnicity: Anglo, African-American, and Hispanic. The disaster-recovery process assessed if variations exist the disaster-aid acquisition process of households which correlate with ethnicity. During the investigation, researchers examined if the sources of disaster-aid a household was able to acquire was influenced by ethnicity. Relationships along ethnic lines were also examined in the types of aid acquired by the various groups. These measurements were undertaken to see if different paths to housing recovery resulted in differential rates of recovery. The societal context in which these processes took place has also been considered to establish if it affected the speed and efficiency of the recovery process. This research has helped identify some common problems faced in the disaster-recovery process by resource strapped communities, which also lack the ability to effectively engage vertical and horizontal ties to promote speedy and equitable recovery after a major natural disaster. Results indicate that ethnicity plays a significant role in the disaster-aid acquisition process, but one that varies from expectations developed through a review of previous literature on this subject. These finding may be an indication that the ethnic variations examined in this casestudy are an artifact of social-status and social-integration more so than because of any cultural construct of a particular ethnic group. The overreaching implications of this study show, however, that ethnicity is an important variable in determining the process and availability of major sources of recovery aid in the housing recovery process, particularly in a rural community.

The topic of this thesis is to propose a dual-tracking clock data recovery device and method for LVDS. Particularly, it is related to a high speed data transmission which utilizes phase-locked loops (PLL) to trace and track two eyes (left eye and right eye), called dual-tracking, to align data sampling at the middle of data eye. Hence, the detection of the data is ensured to be optimal and the BER (bit error rate) is drastically reduced.

Organisations play a vital role in assisting communities to recover from disasters. They are the key providers of goods and services needed in both response and recovery efforts. They provide the employment which both anchors people to place and supports the taxation base to allow for necessary recovery spending. Finally, organisations are an integral part of much day to day functioning contributing immensely to people’s sense of ‘normality’ and psychological wellbeing. Yet, despite their overall importance in the recovery process, there are significant gaps in our existing knowledge with regard to how organisations respond and recover following disaster. This research fills one part of this gap by examining collaboration as an adaptive strategy enacted by organisations in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, which was heavily impacted by a series of major earthquakes, occurring in 2010 and 2011. Collaboration has been extensively investigated in a variety of settings and from numerous disciplinary perspectives. However, there are few studies that investigate the role of collaborative approaches to support post-disaster business recovery. This study investigates the type of collaborations that have occurred and how they evolved as organisations reacted to the resource and environmental change caused by the disaster. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews, survey and document analysis, a rich and detailed picture of the recovery journey is created for 26 Canterbury organisations including 14 collaborators, six non-traders, five continued traders and one new business. Collaborations included two or more individual businesses collaborating along with two multi-party, place based projects. Comparative analysis of the organisations’ experiences enabled the assessment of decisions, processes and outcomes of collaboration, as well as insight into the overall process of business recovery. This research adopted a primarily inductive, qualitative approach, drawing from both grounded theory and case study methodologies in order to generate theory from this rich and contextually situated data. Important findings include the importance of creating an enabling context which allows organisations to lead their own recovery, the creation of a framework for effective post-disaster collaboration and the importance of considering both economic and other outcomes. Collaboration is found to be an effective strategy enabling resumption of trade at a time when there seemed few other options available. While solving this need, many collaborators have discovered significant and unexpected benefits not just in terms of long term strategy but also with regard to wellbeing. Economic outcomes were less clear-cut. However, with approximately 70% of the Central Business District demolished and rebuilding only gaining momentum in late 2014, many organisations are still in a transition stage moving towards a new ‘normal’.

Operators can improve a reservoir’s value by optimizing it in a more holistic manner, or over its entire life cycle. This thesis developed approaches to life cycle optimization, with emphasis on accessible technical and economic modeling techniques for production. The challenges of life cycle optimization are properly scheduling the times at which the operator should switch from one recovery phase to the next, along with determining other field design parameters such as well spacing and injection pressures for waterflooding and enhanced oil recovery processes. To deliver the most value, the operator needs to produce from a reservoir the greatest quantity of oil, at a relatively low cost, reasonably soon, and ideally at a time when the oil price is high. This is quite a tall order, as these goals are often in conflict. This thesis extended existing research regarding lifecycle optimization, first modeling production from a reservoir using an exponential decline model and assuming the oil price’s behavior can be approximated with mean-reverting processes. Implications of operating and capital costs potentially being correlated with the oil price were also examined. Finally, a mean-reverting price model that forecasts the mean oil price as increasing and described by a logistic model was proposed to accommodate both recent price forecasts and economic reality. As exponential decline models are more appropriate for characterizing existing production history rather than making a priori predictions, a geologic-parameter-based model was developed using a tank model for primary recovery and a model based on Koval theory and parameterizing a reservoir in terms of flow capacity and storage capacity for waterflooding and CO2 flooding. This model was adapted from existing theory to account for situations where a waterflood has incompletely swept a reservoir at the start of CO2 flooding. Analytical expressions were also derived for estimating injection rates into a formation parameterized by flow capacity and storage capacity. The geologic-parameter-based model was combined with economic assumptions and optimized using a genetic algorithm. This optimization suggested an operator should switch from primary recovery to a CO2 flood with a large WAG ratio relatively early in the reservoir’s life. / text

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Syftet med undersökningen är att arbeta fram en modell för hur företag bör arbeta innan, under och efter en kris för att bevara sitt varumärke. Studien baseras på en kvalitativ undersökning där primärdata insamlats via intervjuer med sex experter inom området kriskommunikation. Ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt har används då fokus växlat mellan empiri och teori, men där största fokus legat på empirin. Teorin har insamlats via litteraturstudie där vetenskapliga artiklar hämtats från olika databaser, såsom google scholar och ABI/inform. Slutsatsen genererar i ett verktyg i form av en modell som ger riktlinjer på hur företag kan arbeta innan en kris för att förebygga och förbereda. Den visar även på hur företag arbetar under en kris för att minimera skadan av den samt hur de på bästa sätt kan återhämta sig från den. Modellens sista del beskriver även hur företag bör arbeta efter en kris för att ta lärdom av de misstag som gjorts och förebygga att de genomgår en liknande krissituation. / The purpose of this thesis is to develop a model for how businesses should work before, during and after a Crisis to maintain their brand. The study is based on a research where primary data has been collected through six interviews with experts within the area of crisis communication. An abductive method has been used since focus is shifting between empiri and theory, but where the focus mainly lies on the empirical study. Scientific articles have been collected for the theoretical framework and been gathered from databases such as google scholar and ABI/inform. The conclusion represents a tool as a model that will give companies guidelines in how to work before a crisis to detect, prevent and prepare the company. It also shows how companies should work during the crisis to minimize the effect and recover from it. The last part of the model shows how the company should work after the crisis to learn from it and prevent a similar crisis in the future.