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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-75) / Microfiche. / ix, 75 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

This thesis focuses on infant and maternal health through the examination of different government regulated policy interventions. Specifically, this thesis comprises of three essays. First, I examine the effect of a reduction in coal-fired power plant emissions on infant health outcomes of downwind counties. Second, I analyze how limiting lawyers’ contingency fees affects physicians’ decision to perform C-sections on women and, ultimately, its effect on infant mortality. The third, and final, paper investigates whether or not medical malpractice tort reforms have altered physicians’ decision to take part in defensive medicine. Chapter 1 examines the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) which mandated the reduction of power plant emissions in the eastern United States. This policy improved air quality in neighbouring downwind counties, greatly reducing exposure to a specific form of pollution—fine particulate matter. I investigate the impact of this reduction exposure on birth outcomes using data from the U.S. Natality Detail Files. I find that female babies experience improvements in premature birth and low/very low birth weight status which are driven by the reduction in prematurity. I also focus on full-term babies to better isolate the impact of prematurity from fetal growth on birth weight. Consistent with recent work, I find that full-term male babies experience an increase in birth weight, demonstrating an improvement in intrauterine growth due to lower exposure to fine particulates. Finally, I find a reduction in infant mortality for babies whose mothers were categorized as “high-risk” pregnancies, suggesting that reduced exposure may lead to improved birth outcomes among those most at risk. Chapter 2 analyzes a limit on contingency fees for lawyers in medical malpractice cases enacted in Nevada. Generally, such limits are thought to change the composition of liability cases as they induce lawyers to drop more frivolous cases in favour of ones involving death and serious injury. Inadvertently, obstetricians faced a greater fear of litigation. Applying synthetic control methods, I find a 2.8 percentage point increase in the C-section rates of high school dropout patients, translating to a ten percent increase after the reform. There is no statistically significant difference in C-section rates after the enactment of the reform on patients with at least a college degree, and further, no statistically significant effect on infant mortality. Limiting contingency fees in medical malpractice cases induces obstetricians to engage in defensive medicine by performing more C-sections on low income patients, illustrating that tort reform can alter physician procedural patterns, albeit in heterogeneous ways. Chapter 3 continues with the theme of government regulated policy intervention by examining the effects of medical malpractice tort reform on maternal and infant health. Numerous papers examined the effects of tort reforms on physician behaviour using data from the 1990s. However, a medical malpractice “crisis” in the early 21st century saw many US states adopt tort reforms to alleviate this issue. Using data from 1995 to 2012 I observe that tort reforms are not as effective as they once were. However, I find evidence that physicians’ procedural choices are affected by tort reforms. Not only are C-section rates and “preventable” complications affected by tort reforms, but I also observe that tort reforms influence physicians’ decisions with non-risky patients. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A global defensive alliance in a graph G = (V, E) is a set of vertices S ⊆ V with the properties that every vertex in V - S has at least one neighbor in S, and for each vertex v in S at least half the vertices from the closed neighborhood of v are in S. The alliance is called strong if a strict majority of vertices from the closed neighborhood of v are in S. The global defensive alliance number γa(G) (respectively, global strong defensive alliance number γâ(G)) is the minimum cardinality of a global defensive alliance (respectively, global strong defensive alliance) of G. We show that if T is a tree with order n ≥ 2, l leaves and s support vertices, then γâ (T) ≥ (3n - l - s + 4) /6 and γa (T) ≥ (3n - l - s + 4)/8. Moreover, all extremal trees attaining each bound are characterized.

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The purpose of this study is to examine how hostile architecture affects the public space's purpose and function. The study aims to create an understanding of how the design of public space has an impact on how the rooms are used and of people's access to them. The study has a qualitative approach and is based on observations of three public and semi-public spaces in Umeå. The locations that have been observed are located in the centre of Umeå and they form an important part of the public spaces available in the city centre. The results have been analyzed according to theories concerning the creation and re-creation of public spaces as well as how and why hostile architecture occurs in cities. This report displays that there are factors that will affect the access people have to the public space. This does not only refer to intentionally created hostile architecture that specifically aims to exclude people from a certain space. The study's result shows that a lack of furnishing or furniture linked to a specific purpose can make it difficult to remain in a certain space. The result also shows that there is a municipal vision of creating open public rooms to create comfort and safety. Conclusively this report shows that this type of design also can generate a feeling of being watched, which for example may cause people in need of a place to sleep not to seek out these locations.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Alan R. Washburn, Moshe Kress. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-68). Also available online.

The shock prod defensive burying test has proven incredibly reliable and instrumental in determining the underpinnings of normal anxiety in rodents. Largely ignored in tests of defensive burying, however, is the capacity for individual animals to display marked variations in active and passive coping behaviors. To unmask the neurobiological correlates of this behavioral differentiation, rats were exposed to a mousetrap that was remotely triggered upon approach to remove the quality of pain. This design invited striking variations in defensive burying behavior levels, in which some rats either buried robustly or showed little to no levels of defensive burying. Furthermore, differences in burying behavior were associated with marked differences in the central expression of arginine vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT). Thus, relative to animals showing no significant levels of defensive burying activity, rats showing sustained elevations in defensive burying expressed higher levels of AVP mRNA and increased numbers of androgen receptor positive cells in the medial amygdala and posterior bed nuclei of the stria terminalis, brain regions that integrate emotional appraisal and sensory information. In contrast, animals showing little to no defensive burying responses expressed relatively higher levels of AVP and OT mRNA within the supraoptic nucleus and subregions of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus responsible for neuroendocrine and autonomic function. CRH mRNA levels did not vary as a function of burying activity in the central nucleus of the amygdala, the anterior division of the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis, nor in the paraventricular nucleus. These findings suggest a role for central AVP and OT in mediating differential defensive behaviors, and demonstrate the utility of using a pain free test of conditioned defensive burying as a framework for exploring individual differences in behavioral coping and neuroendocrine capacity.

The shock prod defensive burying test has proven incredibly reliable and instrumental in determining the underpinnings of normal anxiety in rodents. Largely ignored in tests of defensive burying, however, is the capacity for individual animals to display marked variations in active and passive coping behaviors. To unmask the neurobiological correlates of this behavioral differentiation, rats were exposed to a mousetrap that was remotely triggered upon approach to remove the quality of pain. This design invited striking variations in defensive burying behavior levels, in which some rats either buried robustly or showed little to no levels of defensive burying. Furthermore, differences in burying behavior were associated with marked differences in the central expression of arginine vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT). Thus, relative to animals showing no significant levels of defensive burying activity, rats showing sustained elevations in defensive burying expressed higher levels of AVP mRNA and increased numbers of androgen receptor positive cells in the medial amygdala and posterior bed nuclei of the stria terminalis, brain regions that integrate emotional appraisal and sensory information. In contrast, animals showing little to no defensive burying responses expressed relatively higher levels of AVP and OT mRNA within the supraoptic nucleus and subregions of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus responsible for neuroendocrine and autonomic function. CRH mRNA levels did not vary as a function of burying activity in the central nucleus of the amygdala, the anterior division of the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis, nor in the paraventricular nucleus. These findings suggest a role for central AVP and OT in mediating differential defensive behaviors, and demonstrate the utility of using a pain free test of conditioned defensive burying as a framework for exploring individual differences in behavioral coping and neuroendocrine capacity.

No description available.