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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a serious public health issue in this country and a major contributor to infant mortality in African American populations. African Americans have one of the highest rates of SIDS, some of which is due to increased risk factors for SIDS, such as prone sleeping and bed-sharing, as well as a lack of adherence to the SIDS risk reducing recommendations. Little is understood about this lack of adherence in the African American population or how to effectively address it but some research suggests a link between parental health beliefs of SIDS and the risk reducing recommendations and the implementation of these recommendations. This study used quantitative methods to gather data about the health beliefs and perceptions of SIDS among African American women living in Service Planning Area (SPA) Six of Los Angeles County to better understand the link between beliefs about SIDS and how this relates to implementation of the safe infant sleeping recommendations, specifically bed-sharing and prone sleeping. A self-administered questionnaire was developed to collect data using the Health Belief Model and several of its concepts as a guiding framework to assist with the construction of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed electronically through the survey software program, Survey Monkey and analyzed using statistical software, SPSS. Exploratory factor analysis found the questionnaire reliable and valid upon the removal of four items, including the construct of cues to action. The new 19-item questionnaire suggested that the women felt that SIDS was a big problem but didn't feel as susceptible. There was also a clear confusion about prone sleeping position. Overall, the data suggests a need for tailored educational campaigns in African American communities to increase awareness of and susceptibility to SIDS and stressing the benefits of supine sleeping position.

This dissertation attempts in three essays to contribute to the growing body of research on the problems associated with sudden stops of capital inflows, known to have been at the heart of many recent emerging market crises. It does this by developing basic models that can incorporate sudden stops and hopefully make policy relevant recommendations. The first essay develops a simple three date representative agent model of a small open endowment economy without money. It allows sudden stops to occur at date two and asks whether individuals in such a shock-prone world are still better off borrowing than in autarky. Unambiguously, this chapter shows that individuals are better off borrowing than in autarky and provides a tractable core model on which the later chapters build. The second essay then includes a long-term borrowing option as well as country-specific risk premia based on an information asymmetry between domestic borrowers and international lenders. This allows analysis of optimal maturity choices in a meaningful way. The intent is to address questions in the literature concerning whether emerging economies could enhance welfare by imposing short-term capital controls to encourage the use of longer-maturing debt and thus avoid the sudden stop. The results imply that short-term capital controls would generally lower welfare, even when sudden stops are fully anticipated. Finally, the third essay extends the horizon of the model and includes a much wider range of maturities. This allows one to start making sense of maturity bunching (when a country's debt all matures around a given date) which is known to exacerbate sudden-stop related problems. The model shows that maturity bunching can occur endogenously when both risk premia and uncertainty over the duration of the sudden stop are present.

This dissertation addresses the causes of and policy responses to the 1990s current account crises. The first chapter explores the relative importance of external shocks as key determinants of the significant increase of foreign reserves accumulated in many emerging market economies, and provides a comprehensive framework to assess the adequacy of reserve holdings. Using the case of Mexico, I find that more than two thirds of the increase in international reserves can be replicated by a linear combination of external shocks, without an abrupt regime shift after the Tequila crisis. I also find that Mexico has historically adopted an appropriate reserves policy, with 1994 being an exception. However, under the current reserves policy, there is a positive probability of a current account crisis in the near future. In chapter Two, I investigate the optimal reserves policy. The analysis predicts an optimal level of reserves in Mexico that is considerably higher than the actual level. When I account for the possibility of a bailout by the outside world in case of a crisis, Mexico's current reserves policy is in the range of my model's predictions. The final chapter proposes a new explanation for the existence and nature of sudden stops. In my model, a sudden stop forms a necessary solution to the moral hazard problem in investment and can be rationalized as part of an optimal lending strategy in the face of asymmetric information. / Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-13 22:52:26.219

This practice-based project explores the photographic phenomenon of ‘moment beyond moment’, which refers to the combined representations of an existing image in an environment, together with the real-life situation at the moment the photograph is taken. I call this photograph an ‘extended photograph’. Employing practical works of extended photographs and focusing on interactions between the moment in real-life and the moment in an existing image, the research explores the transformation of meanings caused by the interactions of these moments in an extended photograph. The research owes its approach to grounded theory, contrary thinking and Chinese Buddhist ‘Sudden Enlightenment’ to further its aim of exploring the unpredictable interaction of these moments, and to disclose the potentials of meaning transformation. My research outcome intends to initiate a discourse with photographic practitioners and theorists on the phenomenon of moment beyond moment in a working environment that is encaged by the excessive existence of displayed images. The thesis is composed as a creative work that consists of a series of photographic images accompanied by an exegesis component. The images represent a nominal 80%, and the exegesis 20% of the final submission.

Diss. Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2002. / S. 1-56: sammanfattning, s. 59-127: 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2001. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : University, 2005. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2003. / Title from title screen (viewed 7 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-61). Also available on the World Wide Web.