Gizzard shad were illegally introduced to Claytor Lake in the late 1980s and soon established a thriving population. This study assessed 1) the degree to which gizzard shad were utilized by piscivores (pelagic - striped bass Morone saxatilis, hybrid striped bass M. chrysops x M. saxatilis, and walleye Stizostedion vitreum, and three littoral black basses Micropterus spp.), 2) the availability of gizzard shad as potential prey as determined from age and growth analysis, and 3) the performance (growth rates, relative weight, and relative abundance) of piscivores before versus after gizzard shad establishment. Gizzard shad were more highly utilized by pelagic predators (especially striped bass and their hybrids) than black basses. Rapid growth of gizzard shad (mean back-calculated length at age-1 = 155 mm TL) meant that almost all morphologically available shad were age-0. The reliance on one edible age class of gizzard shad resulted in an unstable food supply as evidenced by much greater striped bass shad consumption in Summer 1998 (63 % by weight) when age-0 shad were more abundant than in Summer 1997 (7 % by weight). Striped bass was the only species to exhibit faster growth rates and mean relative weight (Wr) values in the 1990s versus pre-shad years. Walleye (except age-1) and black bass growth rates declined, and mean Wr values either remained consistent or declined. Largemouth bass and walleye were the only sportfish to show increases in relative abundance. Benefits of gizzard shad as a forage fish appear to be limited to striped bass and its hybrid species. It is possible that gizzard shad have had, directly or indirectly, an adverse impact on the black basses of Claytor Lake, but explanatory analysis of these relationships was beyond the scope of this study. / Master of Science

The objective of this research was to express a fungal phytase gene in transgenic soybean cells to to study the potential for improving phosphorus utilization in soybean meaL A simple and inexpensive particle inflow gene gun was constructed and bombardment was optimized as assayed by β-glucuronidase reporter gene expression. A somatic embryogenesis approach was used for soybean regeneration from culture. The efficiencies of embryo induction and embryo conversion to form roots and shoots were compared in commercial soybean cultivars to identify optimal cultivars for recovery of transgenic plants. To study the expression of a recombinant fungal phytase gene (<i>Phy</i>A from <i>Aspergillus niger</i>), four expression vectors were constructed in soybean transformation vectors. <i>Phy</i>A was placed under the control of either a constitutive cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter or a soybean seed specific β-conglycinin promoter, each with or without a patatin endoplasmic reticulum (ER) signal sequence. All four vectors were sequenced and introduced into 'Williams 82' suspension culture cells by particle bombardment. Stably transformed cell lines were selected and tested for stable integration by Southern analysis. The presence of the phytase protein product was detected by immunoblotting. Activity of recombinant phytase was characterized by enzyme assay. Cell lines containing the <i>phy</i>A gene under control of the CaMV 35S promoter and ER signal sequence secreted active phytase into the culture medium. The pH and temperature optima were determined for recombinant phytase. / Ph. D.

DRAM contributes significantly to a server system's cost and global warming potential. To make matters worse, DRAM density scaling has not kept up with the scaling in logic and storage technologies. An effective way to reduce DRAM's monetary and environmental cost is to increase its effective utilization and extract the best possible performance in all utilization scenarios. To this end, this dissertation proposes Utilization-adaptive Memory Architectures that enhance the memory controller with the ability to adapt to current memory utilization and implement techniques to boost system performance. These techniques fall under two categories: (i) The techniques under Utilization-adaptive Hardware Memory Replication target the scenario where memory is underutilized and aim to boost performance versus a conventional system without replication, and (ii) The techniques under Utilization-adaptive Hardware Memory Compression target the scenario where memory utilization is high and aim to significantly increase memory capacity while closing the performance gap versus a conventional system that has sufficient memory and does not require compression. / Doctor of Philosophy / A computer system's memory stores information for the system's immediate use (e.g., data and instructions for in-use programs). The performance and capacity of the dominant memory technology – Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) – has not kept up with advancements in computing devices such as CPUs. Furthermore, DRAM significantly contributes to a server's carbon footprint because a server can have over a thousand DRAM chips – substantially more than any other type of chip. DRAM's manufacturing cycle and lifetime energy use make it the most carbon-unfriendly component on today's servers. To reduce the environmental impact of DRAM, an intuitive way is to increase its utilization. To this end, this dissertation explores Utilization-adaptive Memory Architectures which enable the memory controller to adapt to the system's current memory through a variety of techniques such as: (i) Utilization-adaptive Hardware Memory Replication which copies in-use data to free memory and uses the extra copy to improve performance, and (ii) Utilization-adaptive Hardware Memory Compression which uses dense representation for data to save memory and allows the system to run applications that require more memory than the physically installed memory. Compared to conventional systems that do not feature these techniques, these techniques improve performance for different memory utilization scenarios ranging from low to high.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Den svenska hälso- och sjukvården står inför utmaningen med en ökande och åldrande befolkning. Överdiagnostisering och under-, över- och felanvändning av diagnostisk service bidrar till de ekonomiska utmaningarna. Utilization management kan bidra till att komma tillrätta med användningen. I ett samarbetsprojekt mellan Rådet för värdeskapande användning av Medicinsk diagnostik i Region Jönköpings län och en vårdcentral genomfördes ett förbättringsarbete för att minska förbrukningen av laboratorieanalyser; målet var att komma till rätta med över-, under och felanvändning. Parallellt genomfördes en studie med syftet att utvärdera effekter av fem insatser rådet gjort. Studien genomfördes med en mixad metod med förklarande sekventiell design. Då förbättringsarbetet aldrig tog fart i verksamheten, på grund av chefsomsättning, kan inga resultat redovisas. Studien påvisar få förändringar i beställningsmönster. I intervjuerna med remittenterna framkommer temat att vilja arbeta med beställningsmönster och förändringar nära verksamheten. Remittenterna efterfrågar tekniska lösningar och dialog med de diagnostiska specialiteterna. Litteraturen stödjer hittills gjorda insatser men i studien ses få resultat. Tidigare insatser har varit engångsföreteelser. Genom att nyttja förbättringskunskapen och arbeta med frågorna närmare remittenternas vardag kan engagemang skapas varpå förändringen lättare anammas. Kombinationen av förbättringsarbeten på mikrosystemnivå med stöd och förbättringar på mesonivå kommer sannolikt att bidra till framgång med värdeskapande användning. / Swedish healthcare is facing the challenge of an increasing and aging population making cost reductions necessary. Some of the challenges are based around the over diagnosis and the misutilisation of laboratory analysis. Utilisation management could contribute to proper use. A quality improvement project was performed as a collaboration between a primary care centre and the Council of Value-creating use of Medical Diagnosis. The aim was to reduce the number of analyses and misuse of laboratory analysis. A mixed method study was conducted with the aim to evaluate five interventions made by the Council. Because the improvement project never really started, results are limited. Interviews with physicians revealed that the studied units are open for dialogue with the diagnostic specialties and willing to change ordering patterns but few changes were detected. The literature supports the interventions made so far but few results are shown. One reason might be that previous efforts have been isolated events. By using the knowledge of quality improvement and bringing the questions closer to the units’, change might be easier to embrace. The combination of quality improvement in the microsystems with support and improvements in mesosystems will probably contribute to success.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering at the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa October, 2017 / The significant increase in the primary energy demand and the effort to reduce harmful emissions related to the greenhouse gases enhanced the search for alternative energy. Production and modelling processes of biofuel from non-edible oil sources assist in the process development of an environmentally friendly fuel such as biodiesel. This work focused on the kinetic modelling of biodiesel synthesised from non-edible oils. Two types of non-edible oils (Jatropha curcas seed oil and Tobacco seed oil) were used in this study including the development of the kinetic behaviour of the transesterification reaction. A linear polynomial model was generated from experimental data found in literature in order to study the influence of operating parameters during biodiesel production. It was found that the temperature improves the yield of biodiesel; this is attributed to the fact that temperature affects the reaction rate constants; and the higher the reaction rate, the lower the activation energy required for a reaction to occur. The optimum conditions for the transesterification of Jatropha curcas seed oil are a temperature of 55 0C, methanol to oil ratio of 6:1, catalyst concentration of 1.2% KOH (by volume of oil), and agitation speed range of 0-250 rpm. Results from both the homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions of Jatropha curcas oil and tobacco seed oil were used to verify the theoretical kinetic and empirical models. It was found that both models describe the kinetic behaviour of transesterification with minor deviations in the estimated parameters. However, the use of empirical model in determining the reaction order, as opposed to the theoretical assumption, gave a second order with respect to oil triglycerides at a temperature of 60 0C. The theoretical kinetic model gave a first order with respect to oil triglycerides. In this case, the activation energy was found to be 71.83 kJ/mol and pre-exponential factor was found to be 2.48 x1010. More investigation should be done to describe the kinetic behaviour of biodiesel production from non-edible oil in order to confirm the correct reaction order and why there is change in reaction order when the temperature increases above 60°C. / MT2018

The main objectives of this dissertation were to examine the effects of bariatric surgery on medication and health services utilization among a cohort of Commercial and Medicare insured members from a large health benefits organization in the U.S.. A total of 1,492 members with morbid obesity underwent gastric bypass (n=785) or gastric banding (n=707) procedure between January 2005 and June 2008. Administrative claims databases were accessed and three data files including a member file, a medical file and a pharmacy file were merged at the member level. Non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank tests revealed that the average number of all prescription claims were significantly lower during the 12 months post-surgery, compared to the 12 months pre surgery (p<0.0001). Moreover, McNemar’s Chi Square analyses showed that after the surgery, there was a statistically significant (p=<0001) decline in the proportion of members utilizing antihypertensives, antidiabetics and antihyperlipidemics. Our results also showed that the average number of prescription claims for each of these medication groups significantly declined during the 12-month post-surgery period, among members who had at least one prescription for these medications before the surgery (p<0.0001). Logistic regression modeling revealed that members who underwent bypass procedures were more likely to discontinue antihypertensives (OR=2.04; 95% CI= 1.30-3.23) , antihyperlipidemics (OR=3.25; 95% CI 1.96-5.40) and antidiabetics (OR=1.89; 95% CI 1.13–3.08) post-surgery than members who underwent banding procedures. In terms of medical services utilization, our results showed a significant decline in the average number of medical claims for all outpatient services overall from the 12 months pre to the 12 months post-surgery (p<0.0001). In contrast, the average number of medical claims for emergency room and inpatient hospitalizations were significantly increased from the pre to the post-surgery period (p<0.01). Logistic regression modeling revealed that the type of bariatric surgery was a significant positive predictor for inpatient hospitalizations post-surgery (OR =2.33; 95% CI= 1.76-3.08; p<0.0001) but not for emergency room visits (OR=1.23; 95% CI 0.97–1.56). The implications of the findings from a managed care perspective are discussed, along with limitation and future directions.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 263 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-242).

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