Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and progression to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) often result in neurologic and neuropsychiatric changes, although the prognostic information available for patients affected by HIV/AIDS-related neurologic diagnoses has been limited. The objective of the present study was to characterize the patterns and predictors of survival, including the impacts of antiretroviral therapy (ART) use and potential factors in healthcare access and disparity, among patients with one or more of the following conditions: cryptococcosis, toxoplasmosis, primary central nervous system lymphoma, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, and HIV-associated dementia. To accomplish this, a cohort was drawn from the Iowa HIV/AIDS reporting system, and a non-independent, university-based cohort was then used to validate the analyses conducted for the statewide sample. Patterns of ART use were identified in each cohort using logistic regression, and survival analyses were conducted using Kaplan-Meier analysis, Cox regression, and accelerated failure time modeling. Survival was poor in both cohorts, although the university-based setting (University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics) was associated with better overall survival. Of 230 persons in the statewide cohort, 77.0% were deceased by the end of the study period (1982-2008), and the median survival was 1.13 years (95% CI: 0.90 to 1.86 years, n=225). By contrast, 56.4% of the university-based cohort was deceased by the end of the study period (1984-2009), and the median survival in this group was 3.04 years (95% CI: 1.79 to 11.62 years, n=172). Both cohorts were predominantly male, non-Hispanic white, and residents of a small metropolitan area at the time of the AIDS diagnosis. ART use had a strong protective effect on survival in both cohorts. Use of ART among patients diagnosed during the era of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) was associated with an 80% reduction in the rate of death (HR=0.20, 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.46) compared to the non-users diagnosed during the pre-HAART era (that is, prior to 1996), after adjustment for age, race, birth sex, healthcare facility type, opportunistic infection count, HIV transmission risk category, neurologic condition, years since AIDS diagnosis, and timing of neuro-AIDS in a Cox regression model. In the UIHC cohort, the adjusted expected survival time among ART/HAART users was 37.71 (95% CI: 14.44 to 99.48) times that among non-users. Women had significantly poorer outcomes than men in the statewide cohort (adjusted HR=2.31, 95% CI: 1.22 to 4.35), and a similar, non-significant trend was observed among university-based cases. Secondary analyses suggested that this difference persisted over the course of the epidemic and was not attributable to differential ART response among men and women. Evidence for a role of disease severity, psychosocial support, and/or psychiatric comorbidity in the differential survival of men and women was identified. This study provides useful prognostic data for patients and providers and may guide future research efforts aimed toward improved survival for neuro-AIDS patients. The survival disadvantage of women compared to men should be confirmed and the mechanisms underlying this disparity elucidated. Meanwhile, clinical and public health efforts might be directed towards screening, treatment, and support for women affected by neuro-AIDS, including potential assessment of comorbid psychiatric disorders.

Winter wheat stubble and dried plant residue in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields were burned in the fall and spring to evaluate effects on jointed goatgrass (Aegilops cylindrica Host.) seed survival and germination. Laboratory studies were also conducted to determine minimum temperatures and heat duration needed to reduce jointed goatgrass seed viability. Maximum air temperatures attained during various field burns reached from 74 C to over 700 C. Temperatures 2.5 em above the soil surface remained above 400 C for over 10 seconds and above 600 C for 2 to 8 seconds in burning CRP stubble. Results for the winter wheat stubble location were similar with temperatures sustained above 400 C for over 30 seconds. Seed exposure in the lab to 400 and 600 C flames for 1 second reduced germination to 20 and 15 percent, respectively. Germination was reduced to zero with exposures of 10 seconds or more. Oven temperatures of 150 C reduced germination to 85, 57.5, 17.5, 0 and 0 percent for exposures of 20, 30, 60, 120 and 300 seconds, respectively. At 275 C oven temperature germinability dropped to 50% after a 10 second exposure and 0% after a 20 second exposure. Jointed goatgrass plant populations were reduced 54 to 92% after field burning in the spring or fall. Fall burning provided 70 to 85% control of goatgrass the following spring. In non-burned non-disked plots over 90% of emerging plants germinated from seeds on the soil surface. In burned non-disked plots few seeds germinated from on the surface, with 80 to 90 percent of surviving plants having germinated from buried seed. Herbicides provided limited control of jointed goatgrass. None of the herbicides provided greater than 50% control.

A major challenge in ecology is to understand intraspecific variation in life histories. Variation in resource availability can lead to differences in reproductive allocation and life histories. Grasshoppers are a good organism for the study of variation in life histories, since they exhibit life history plasticity in response to biotic and environmental factors. An optimality model for grasshoppers was developed that predicts optimal total allocation to reproduction and optimal effort-per-offspring as functions of resource availability and mortality. Relative allocation to reproduction is predicted to increase with resource availability, while relative allocation to survival declines. A resource-based trade-off between egg size and number does not exist, as optimal egg size is predicted to be independent of resource intake. I examined if changes in reproductive allocation and survival of Melanoplus sanguinipes (Fabricus) under a range of resource availabilities fit the predictions of the model. The patterns of reproductive allocation and survival in the field were in qualitative agreement with the predictions. I examined the importance of density, resources, and parasitism on the life history patterns of grasshoppers. I conducted an experiment to examine if differences in reproductive allocation of M. sanguinipes are primarily explained by exploitative competition. Per capita resource availability explained a significant amount of the variation in reproduction , as expected with exploitative competition. M. sanguinpes grasshoppers appeared to trade off resource allocation to reproduction for that of allocation to survival, because per capita resource availability did not affect survival. Careful examinations of changes in life history characteristics in response to parasitism are lacking, despite the fact that parasites often influence resource availability for the host. I investigated the effects of a grasshopper ectoparasitic mite on grasshopper reproduction and survival. Mites had small effects on grasshopper survival. As predicted, both species had reduced initial and total reproduction, and completed development of a lower percentage of ovarioles initiated when parasitized. These experiments act to expand our knowledge of life history theory and further our understanding of grasshopper life history variation and population fluctuations.

Most outbreaks of foodborne illness in the United States occur as a result of improper food-handling and preparation practices in homes or food establishments. Some food-safety recommendations that are difficult to incorporate into handling and cooking procedures have contributed to a gap between food-safety knowledge and the actual behavior. The first part (Chapter 3, 4) of this study sought to ensure microbial safety by establishing alternative processing of meat products that can be easily practiced by food-operators and consumers. In Chapter 3, a novel method was developed to thaw frozen chicken-breast by submersion in hot water at 60 °C, an appropriate temperature setting for foodservice hot-holding equipment. This method is rapid (compared to either refrigerator or cold-water thawing that also uses a significant amount of water), safe, and the final cooked-product sensory-quality was not different from refrigerator-thawed and cooked product (microwave thawing results in localized overheating). Chapter 4 developed marinade-cooking (91 °C) and holding (60 °C) procedures for hamburger-patties. Frozen patties were partially grilled and finished cooking in marinade. The moderate temperature of marinade cooking overcomes the chances of thick-patties being surface-overcooked while innermost portions remain undercooked as seen in high-temperature cooking methods (grilling and pan-frying). Consumers liked the marinade-finished cooked and held patties (up to 4 h) equally or more (holding-time dependent) compared to patties grilled and held in a hot-steam cabinet. Reducing salt in perishable foods including cheese is microbial-safety concern especially in their distribution and storage. The second part (Chapter 5, 6) of this study sought to evaluate microbial safety of low-salt hard-type cheese. Aged Cheddar cheeses were inoculated with either Listeria monocytogenes (3.5 log CFU/g) or Salmonella spp. (4.0 log CFU/g) and their survival or growth was monitored at 4, 10, and 21°C for up to 90, 90, and 30 d, respectively. Low-salt (0.7% NaCl) Cheddar formulated at pH 5.1 or 5.7 exhibited no-growth or gradual reduction in L. monocytogenes and Salmonella counts. The results suggest that low-salt Cheddar is as safe as its full-salt counterparts (1.8% NaCl) and that salt may only be a minor food-safety hurdle regarding the post-aging contamination and growth of L. monocytogenes and Salmonella.

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand why individuals enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) fail to retrieve food vouchers, miss WIC appointments, and become inactive in program components. In Kentucky, mothers who fail to pick up food instruments for 60 days are automatically terminated from the program. The specific research questions that guided this study are: (1) Which segments of enrollees are at greatest and least risks of nonparticipation in the WIC program? (2) How do predisposing, enabling and need characteristics impact WIC nonparticipation among eligible mothers? (3) How do WIC enrollees describe their experiences using WIC? (4) What do WIC enrollees report as reasons for nonparticipation while still eligible? Addressing these research questions will inform the development of practical outreach solutions specifically tailored for the purpose of mitigating nonparticipation in WIC and contribute to our understanding of the factors that deter eligible families from using government assistance programs like WIC.

This dissertation examines the emergence of ethnic parties, their survival in the political system, and their impact on the governance practices. While scholars have long debated the impact of ethnic parties on state-building and democratization process, few works have empirically examined their behavior in the political system. Empirical research on ethnic parties is limited to single countries or regions -- Latin America, Eastern Europe, or a few countries including India. Firstly, this dissertation extends the research on ethnic parties to include another South Asian Country – Nepal. Secondly, research on ethnic parties has been hampered by the lack of cross-sectional data on ethnic parties. This dissertation employs new datasets on the electoral performance of ethnic parties, making use of the newly available resource. Employing both qualitative and quantitative techniques, this dissertation is built around three empirical chapters. Firstly, it argues that strategic interactions between major parties and ethnic groups, among others, determine why some ethnic groups successfully form their own parties and others do not. Secondly, it argues that the factors that are responsible for the emergence of ethnic parties are hardly sufficient for the survival of these parties in the long run and shows that ethnic parties' access to state resources is a major factor that can explain the variation in their survival. And thirdly, it argues and empirically shows that support from ethnic groups to political parties does not necessarily lead to higher levels of corruption as scholars have often argued. The parties that are overwhelmingly supported by ethnic groups increase the level of regime corruption, while the parties that have large coalitions of voters including ethnic groups do not.

MPhilPH / Female tubal sterilisation, often referred to as "tubal ligation" but more often performed these days using laparoscopically-applied metal clips, remains a popular form of contraception in women who have completed their families. A review of the literature on the incidence of failure of tubal sterilisation found many reports of case-series and small clinic-based studies, but only a few larger studies with good epidemiological designs, most recently the US CREST study conducted during the 1980s and early 1990s. The CREST study reported a conditional (life-table) cumulative incidence of failure of 0.55, 0.84, 1.18 and 1.85 per 100 women at 1, 2, 4 and 10 years of follow-up respectively. The study described here estimated a lower bound for the incidence of tubal sterilisation failure in NSW by probabilistically linking routinely-collected hospital admission records for women undergoing sterilisation surgery to hospital admission records for the same women which were indicative of subsequent conception or which represented censoring events such as hysterectomy or death in hospital. Data for the period July 1992 to June 2000 were used. Kaplan-Meier and proportional-hazards survival analyses were performed on the resulting linked data set. The conditional cumulative incidence per 100 women at 1, 2 4 and 8 years of follow-up was estimated to be 0.74 (95% CI 0.68-0.81), 1.05 (0.97-1.13), 1.33 (1.23-1.42) and 1.51 (1.39-1.62) respectively. Forty percent of failures ended in abortion and 14% presented as ectopic pregnancies. Age, private health insurance status and sterilisation in a smaller hospital were all found to be associated with lower rates of failure. Strong evidence of time-limited excess numbers of failures in women undergoing surgery in particular hospitals was also found. The study demonstrates the feasibility of using linked, routinely-collected health data to evaluate relatively rare, long-term outcomes such as sterilisation failure on a population-wide basis.

The survival of motor neurons is controlled by multiple factors, which regulate different aspects of their physiology. The identification of these factors is important because of their relevance for motor neuron disease. This thesis began with a search for novel growth factors that naturally keep these neurons alive. Members of the TGF-β superfamily, including Mullerian inhibiting substance (MIS) and bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6), were identified as putative survival factors following a cDNA microarray analysis of a mouse model of motor neuron disease. MIS is a gonad-derived hormone with a male bias. It induces the degeneration of the female reproductive tract during development and it was thought to have no physiological function outside of the reproductive system. In this thesis, multiple techniques were used to show that adult motor neurons produce MIS and its receptors. The copy number of MIS mRNA in motor neurons was comparable with that of the testis, whereas the mRNA of the MIS type II receptor (MISRII) in motor neurons appeared to be the most abundant receptor of the TGF-β superfamily. These results were confirmed using Western blot and immunohistochemistry. Thus, MIS may exert its function through an autocrine or a paracrine mechanism between neighbouring motor neurons. The function of MIS was examined using a culture system and a mouse null mutation of MISRII. The in vitro assays showed strong neurotrophic effects of MIS on embryonic motor neurons with the maximum extent of survival being similar to that achieved by the classical motor neuron survival factor, GDNF. MIS has a male bias in utero raising the issue of whether motor neurons are sexually dimorphic. Consistent with this, the number of motor neurons in the lumbar lateral motor column of neonatal male MISRII+/+ mice was 13 % greater than in female mice (P = 0.01). The nuclei of male motor neurons were approximately 20 % larger than their female counterparts (P = 0.000). MISRII-/- male mice had 18 % fewer motor neurons than wild-type males (P = 0.01) and the mean size of their motor neurons was 20 % smaller (P = 0.000). The number and size of motor neurons in the MISRII-/- males was not different to those of MISRII+/+ females. These results implicate MIS as being responsible for neuronal survival as well as producing sexual dimorphism of the limb innervating motor neurons. Since MIS does not appear to be expressed in the embryonic neuromuscular system, it is postulated that MIS is a gonad-derived neurotrophic factor for developing motor neurons. The BMP type II receptor (BMPRII) was the second most abundant receptor of the TGF-β superfamily expressed by motor neurons. One of its ligands, BMP6, was found to have a neurotrophic effect on motor neurons in culture but was slightly less potent than MIS. BMP6 mRNA was detected in nerve, skeletal muscle and spinal cord, but not in motor neurons. BMP6 immunoreactivity was mainly associated with the myelinated Schwann cells and satellite glia that surround motor neurons. In skeletal muscles, immunoreactivity was not detected in muscle fibers, nor the postsynaptic region of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). BMP6 was, however, associated with the interstitial cells of skeletal muscles. Double nerve ligations were used to examine whether Schwann cell-derived BMP6 interacts with motor neurons. Consistent with this, BMP6 was retrogradely transported in motor axons. These observations collectively suggest that BMP6 is a glia-derived regulator of motor neurons. MIS and minority of BMP6 were anterogradely transported towards the NMJ. Their receptors, MISRII and BMPRII, were detected in the postsynaptic portions of the adult NMJ. These observations raised the possibility that MIS and BMP6 may be regulators of the adult NMJ. Since functional redundancy amongst the members of the TGF-β superfamily has been suggested, the function of MIS/BMP6 signaling at the NMJ was therefore examined in mice with muscle-specific deletion of Smad4, a central mediator of TGF-β superfamily pathways. More than 75% of animals lacking Smad4 in muscles died before embryonic day (E) 14 and none survived postnally. This was due to the loss of functional Smad4 in developing cardiac myocytes, which resulted in severe heart defects and early death of embryos. Thus, the function of MIS/BMP6 signaling at the adult NMJ could not be studied. Finally, this thesis briefly examined the phenotypes of mice carrying double null mutations of MISRII and TGF-β2. The animals died at an early stage and showed a more severe phenotype than either of the single null mutants. This suggests that functional redundancy among members of the TGF-β superfamily exists in many organs. In summary, motor neurons require multiple sources of growth factors for their survival. MIS and BMP6 were discovered as novel survival factors for motor neurons in this study. MIS was implicated as a regulator of sexual dimorphism in developing motor neurons, whereas both MIS and BMP6 appear to regulate mature motor neurons, and possibly the NMJ.

My interest in coping and survival of young men is my main motivation for undertaking the field study which this thesis describes. It developed from my concern at the continuing high level of young male suicide. I begin with some background discussion which shows some examples of how the community has been informed, particularly on youth suicide, by reviewing some of the media and government attention to these issues. Because suicidal behaviour is a gendered social phenomenon, this is followed by a discussion of some of the problems inherent in the hegemonic masculinity of young men. I then set out the underlying assumptions, the purpose, aims and theoretical framework of the study. The main theoretical underpinnings of the study are the theory of poststructuralism, as explained by the noted writer on gender and education, Bronwyn Davies. The other major components are Aaron Antonovsky's concepts of Salutogenesis and the Sense of Coherence. Minor but nevertheless important reference is also made to Edward Sampson's idea of the dialogic nature of the self. Following this are two critical reviews of relevant literature. The first addresses studies of resiliency and coping, while the second examines papers given at recent Australian conferences on suicide prevention. Following that I describe the methodology of the study before undertaking an analysis and interpretation of selected transcripts of interviews. This is an exploratory attempt at applying postructuralist discourse analysis to the social problem of male coping skills and male youth suicide. The results describe various discourses young men used in unstructuied interviews to explain how they cope when they feel down or depressed. The main conclusion from the results is that formation of small, confidential, supportive discussion groups for marginalised young men can be useful for sharing and developing coping skills and improving their management of stressors, which are everpresent in the environment. It is argued that the proliferation of such support groups for young men could have long term benefits in reducing the statistics of young male suicide by encouraging young men to share their techniques or behaviours of coping with their peers.

<p>This essay deals with different survival strategies in Hemingway´s <em>The Sun Also Rises</em>, with a focus on three of the characters: Jake, Brett and Cohn. They all try to survive mentally in post-war Europe, and have different ways of handling their traumas.</p>