Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-71).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 106 p.; also includes graphics (some col.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-106). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 2010. / Includes abstract. Title from first page of PDF file (viewed May 19, 2010). Includes bibliographical references. Issued in print and online. Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-178).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-135).

Στη παρκάτω διπλωματική εργασία τέθηκαν τρεις στόχοι: 1) Να παρουσιάσουμε σε θεωρητική βάση την ανεργία και το πληθωρισμό. 2) Να δείξουμε πώς αυτά τα δύο μεγέθη συνδέονται μεταξύ τους (καμπύλη Phillips) και 3) Μια οικονομετρική εκτίμηση, για το κατά πόσο ισχύει η καμπύλη Phillips στην Ελλάδα, για τη περίοδο 1975-2009. / -

Rates of recorded crime have been falling in many countries in Western Europe, including Scotland, since the early 1990s. This marks the reversal of a trend of increasing levels of crime seen since the 1950s. Despite this important recent change, most analyses of the ‘crime drop’ have focused on recorded crime or victimisation rates aggregated to national or regional level. It is little known how patterns of offending or conviction have changed at the individual level. As a result it is not known how the crime drop is manifest in changing offending or conviction rates, or how patterns of criminal careers have changed over this period. The aim of this thesis is to explore trends in convictions across a number of criminal careers parameters – the age-crime curve, prevalence and frequency, polarisation and conviction pathways – over the course of the crime drop in Scotland. The results presented here are based on a secondary analysis of the Scottish Offenders Index, a census of convictions in Scottish courts, between 1989 and 2011. Analysis is conducted using a range of descriptive statistical techniques to examine change across age, sex and time. Change in the age-crime curve is analysed using data visualisation techniques and descriptive statistics. Standardisation and decomposition analysis is used to analyse the effects of prevalence, frequency and population change. Trends in conviction are also examined between groups identified statistically using Latent Class Analysis to assess the polarisation of convictions, and trends in the movement between these groups over time provides an indication of changing pathways of conviction. This thesis finds a sharp contrast between falling rates of conviction for young people, particularly young men, and increases in conviction rates for those between their mid-twenties and mid-forties, with distinct periods of change between 1989- 2000, 2000-2007 and 2007-2011. These trends are driven primarily by changes in the prevalence of conviction, and result in an increasingly even distribution of convictions over age. Analysis across latent classes shows some evidence of convictions becoming less polarised for younger men and women but increasingly polarised for older men and women. Similarities in trends analysed across latent classes between men and women of the same age suggest that the process driving these trends is broadly similar within age groups. Increases in conviction rates for those over 21 are explained by both greater onset of conviction and higher persistence in conviction, particularly between 1998 and 2004. The results of this thesis suggest that explanations of the crime drop must have a greater engagement with contrasting trends across age and sex to be able to properly explain falling conviction rates. These results also reinforce the need for criminal careers research to better understand the impact of recent changes social context on patterns of convictions over people’s lives. The distinct periods identified in these results suggest a potential effect of changes in operation of the justice system in Scotland leading to high rates of convictions in the early 2000s. However, the descriptive focus of this analysis and its reliance upon administrative data from a single country mean this thesis cannot claim to definitively explain these trends. As a result, replication of this research in another jurisdiction is encouraged to assess whether trends identified are particular to Scotland.

The way surgical trainees acquire technical skills is changing in modern surgical training programmes: simulation is proposed as a key part of those changes. Arthroscopy is a surgical technique that is increasing in both incidence and technical complexity; where simulation is becoming common, but evidence is limited. Real-world performance improvements can be measured following simulation training in other fields, but equivalent measures of intra-operative performance are inadequate. Thus, although surgical simulation is popular and improves simulated performance, there is little objective evidence that it improves intra-operative performance. The original contribution of this thesis is to objectively demonstrate the transfer of simulation training into improved intra-operative technical skills. To achieve this, a systematic literature review investigated the quantitative metrics currently used to measure arthroscopic performance, identifying wireless motion analysis as a potential method to assess performance intra-operatively. Motion analysis is a recognised objective method to measure surgical activity which correlates with surgical experience, so wireless motion analysis was validated against a wired motion analysis method commonly used in simulation but not feasible for intra-operative use. Wireless motion analysis metrics were further validated with a simulated arthroscopy list: this environment allowed deliberate practice of arthroscopic sub-skills with proximate feedback for independent practice. This simulated arthroscopy list with wireless motion analysis was used in two randomised studies: the penultimate study of this thesis investigated the impact of simulated practice on the arthroscopic learning curve and showed that performance improved rapidly with independent practice but was not modified by feedback, while the final study investigated additional simulation practice during early surgical training, and objectively demonstrated that additional simulation training improved intra-operative performance compared to traditional training alone. This thesis is the first to objectively show that simulation affects intra-operative behaviour. It sets the groundwork for further investigations into efficient, cost-effective simulation and the impact of simulation training on patient outcomes.

Misfolding and accumulation of insoluble protein aggregates in the form of amyloid fibrils is associated with a number of prevalent and debilitating mammalian disorders. In addition, amyloid-like nanostructures exhibit robust material properties, biological compatibility and replicative properties, making them of particular interest in the development of novel nanomaterials. Understanding fibril formation is essential to the development of strategies to control, manipulate or prevent fibril growth. The amyloid hypothesis is that since amyloid-like fibrils share a common core structure, they also share common formation mechanisms. Utilising a combination of turbidity and extrinsic fluorescence techniques this thesis provides insight into the diagnostic strength of simple, inexpensive kinetic measurements of aggregate growth. These simple techniques are found to be capable of delivering a substantial amount of information about the growth mechanisms controlling aggregation, and the effect of solution and environmental conditions, forming a solid basis for further investigation. Two competing fibrillar pathways are observed for hen egg white lysozyme at low pH in the presence of salt. These two pathways, leading to the formation of either curvilinear, worm-like fibrils or to the more widely recognised rigid, straight fibrils are not particular to hen egg white lysozyme, and similar competition may affect growth curve analysis in many other protein assays, including a-synuclein. Many proteins aggregate in the presence of membranes and detergents, and the kinetics of a-synuclein aggregation in the presence of SDS are strongly influenced by SDS concentration. Most descriptions of amyloid fibril growth currently lack heterogeneous nucleation events, and these may be important for predicting aggregation of membrane-active species in vivo. It is clear that simple analytical solutions to growth models are unable in many cases to capture the complexities of filament growth. Even in relatively simple in vitro experiments different growth processes can dominate growth rate over time, competing fibrillar species can result in composite kinetic growth signals and some growth mechanisms have not yet been sufficiently incorporated into an overall description of fibril growth.

vi, 85 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / We define and study a gluing procedure for Bridgeland stability conditions in the situation where a triangulated category has a semiorthogonal decomposition. As one application, we construct an open, contractible subset U in the stability manifold of the derived category [Special characters omitted.] of [Special characters omitted.] -equivariant coherent sheaves on a smooth curve X , associated with a degree 2 map X [arrow right] Y , where Y is another curve. In the case where X is an elliptic curve we construct an open, connected subset in the stability manifold using exceptional collections containing the subset U . We also give a new proof of the constructibility of exceptional collections on [Special characters omitted.] . This dissertation contains previously unpublished co-authored material. / Committee in charge: Alexander Polishchuk, Chairperson, Mathematics; Daniel Dugger, Member, Mathematics; Victor Ostrik, Member, Mathematics; Brad Shelton, Member, Mathematics; Michael Kellman, Outside Member, Chemistry