This study compared the experiences of adolescent offenders with and without incarcerated parents. A sample of adolescent offenders (n = 26) completed questionnaires assessing past experiences, including trauma and violence, and current behaviors. Over half of the participants reported having a parent who had served time in jail or prison. Adolescent offenders with incarcerated parents were more likely to feel safe at home and school, and more likely to witness their parents in a physical fight than adolescent offenders without incarcerated parents. In contrast, there were no significant differences between adolescent offenders with and without incarcerated parents in self-reported trauma. Post hoc analyses revealed that female adolescent offenders felt less safe, reported more physical punishment, and had more DHS involvement than male adolescent offenders.

An optical fiber humidity sensor has been devised using a porous sol-gel silica (PSGS) coating as a transducer. Evanescent wave scattering (EWS) in the PSGS coating. PSGS particles are highly hydrophilic and have a strong tendency to absorb water molecules from the surrounding environment. The absorbed water molecules form a thin layer on the inner surface of the pores inside the porous silica and enhance EWS, from which an indicatory signal can be obtained. The humidity sensor presented in this thesis has a fast response, is reversible, low cost, and has a broad dynamic relative humidity range from 3.6?0-6% to 100% or humidity range from 1.2ppm to 30000ppm. Because of its multiple advantages, including immunity to electromagnetic interference, resistance to corrosive environments, and high sensitivity, this humidity sensor has various applications. In soil moisture sensing, this humidity sensor can avoid the interference caused by compounds in soil water. For electrical transformer moisture sensing, this humidity sensor can avoid the effect of electromagnetic fields.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the blood flow/pressure relationship (linear or nonlinear) in the superficial femoral artery when seated, as well as to investigate blood flow changes with exercise using varying cuff pressures and a preexercise (PE) condition. The presence of venous outflow with occlusion at rest and exercise was also investigated.Methods: Twenty-three subjects visited the lab on 3 occasions. First to determine linearity of blood flow using 0% to 90% arterial occlusion pressure (AOP), and venous outflow at rest and during exercise with cuff inflated to 40% AOP. Subsequent visits compared blood flow between rest and PE conditions to determine average blood flow, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure changes in response to a blood flow-restricted (BFR) exercise protocol. Results: Blood flow/pressure relationship is nonlinear at the superficial femoral artery (p < 0.01). No significant differences in average blood flow, conductance or mean arterial pressure (MAP) were found between 30% to 80% AOP (p = 1.0 to .08). Blood flow is not significantly different between rest and PE groups (p = 0.49) although initial 40% AOP and 40% exercise arterial occlusion pressure (EAOP) values were different between rest and PE groups. (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The nonlinear relationship at the superficial femoral artery demonstrates higher cuff pressures are not necessary to reduce blood flow in BFR exercise of the lower extremity. Furthermore, PE or warm-up is not necessary prior to determining EAOP as it does not alter blood flow responses during BFR exercise. We found evidence of venous outflow above the cuff both at rest and during exercise at 40% AOP.

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<p> Many medical studies are performed to investigate the effectiveness of new treatments (such as new drugs, new surgery) versus traditional (or placebo) treatments. In many cases, researchers measure a continuous variable at baseline and again as an outcome assessed at follow up. The baseline measurement usually has strong relationship with post treatment measurement. Consequently, the ANCOVA model using baseline as covariate may provide more powerful and precise results than the ANOVA model.</p> <p> However, most epidemiologic studies will encounter the problem of missing covariate data. As a result, the patients with missing baseline measurements will be excluded from the data analysis. Hence, there exists a tradeoff between the ANOVA with full data set and the ANCOVA with partial data set.</p> <p> This study focuses on the variance of the estimator of treatment means difference. In practical situation, the standard error of the estimator obtained from the ANCOVA model with partially missing baseline relative to the standard error obtained form the ANOVA with full data relies on the correlation between baseline and follow-up outcome, the proportion of the missing baseline, and the difference of the group means on the baseline. In moderate sample size studies, it is also affected by the sample size.</p> <p> The theoretically required minimum correlations for the ANCOVA model were calculated to obtain the same precision with the ANOVA model assuming the missing proportion, sample size and difference of group means on covariate are available. The minimum correlation can be obtained through checking the reference table or figures.</p> <p> The figures of asymptotic relative efficiencies provide the asymptotic variance and the length of the confidence intervals of the estimated difference obtained from the ANCOVA model relative to the ANOVA model for all the range of the correlation between baseline and follow up.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)