Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis analyzes the needs of particular users of airport: transfer passengers. The object of this work has been to produce a set of design guidelines for terminals. these guidelines are framed upon a user-need survey conducted at Boston/Logan International Airport. The investigation has been organized around three important aspects: 1) how present airport terminal environments affect human behavior; 2) what are the physical characteristics and consequences of terminal design on transfer passengers; 3) how can a broader approach to the design of terminals with passengers in mind be applied. Current terminal design solutions have been "satisfactory" in terms of offering alternations for incoming and departing passengers. Very few terminals though, are prepared to cope with an increasing number of transfer passengers. This study clarifies passengers' characteristics and highlights those issues important for those who need to changed airplanes at an airport. These issues are: time involved in the transfer, means of arriving to the departing airline and the impact of the environment on the waiting passenger. the design guidelines presented as the conclusion of this study are an attempt to accommodate a set of behavioral variables to a system of physical variables. This environmental design approach is a continuing effort to include the user into the programming and design of projects. / by Marie-Claire Brillembourg. / M.S.

Type 1 innate lymphocytes comprise two developmentally divergent lineages, type 1 helper innate lymphoid cells (hILC1s) and conventional NK (cNK) cells. All type 1 innate lymphocytes (ILCs) express the transcription factor T-bet, but cNK cells additionally express Eomesodermin (Eomes). We show that deletion of Eomes alleles at the onset of type 1 ILC maturation using NKp46-Cre imposes a substantial block in cNK cell development. Formation of the entire lymphoid and non-lymphoid type 1 ILC compartment appears to require the semi-redundant action of both T-bet and Eomes. To determine if Eomes is sufficient to redirect hILC1 development to a cNK cell fate, we generated transgenic mice that express Eomes when and where T-bet is expressed using Tbx21 locus control to drive expression of Eomes codons. Ectopic Eomes expression induces cNK cell-like properties across the lymphoid and non-lymphoid type 1 ILC compartments. To investigate if T-bet is sufficient to direct type 1 ILC development into the hILC1 lineage, we also generated transgenic mice in which Tbx21 locus control drives expression of T-bet codons. Enforced T-bet expression, however, does not appear sufficient to induce hILC1-like attributes among type 1 ILCs. Subsequent to their divergent lineage specification, hILC1s and cNK cells possess substantial developmental plasticity elicited by the absence or presence of Eomes.

Patient-provided data are crucial to achieving the goal of precision medicine. These data, which include family medical history, race and ethnicity, and social and behavioral determinants of health, are essential for disease risk assessment. Despite the well-established importance of patient-provided data, there are many data quality challenges that affect how this information can be used for biomedical research. To determine how to best use patient-provided data to assess disease risk, the research reflected in this dissertation was divided into three overarching aims. In Aim 1, I focused on determining the quality of race and ethnicity, family history and smoking status in clinical databases. In Aim 2, I assessed the impact of various interventions on the quality of these data, including policy changes such as the implementation of the requirements imposed by the Meaningful Use program, and patient-facing tools for collecting and sharing information with patients. In addition to these evaluations, I also developed and evaluated a method “Relationship Inference from the Electronic Health Record” (RIFTEHR), that infers familial relationships from clinical datasets. In Aim 3, I used patient-provided data to assess disease risk both at a population level, by estimating disease heritability, and at an individual level, by identifying high-risk individuals eligible for additional screening for a common disease (diabetes mellitus) and a rare disease (celiac disease). My research uncovered several data quality concerns for patient-provided data in clinical databases. When assessing the impact of interventions on the quality of these data, I found that policy interventions led to more data collection, but not necessarily to better data quality. In contrast, patient-facing tools did increase the quality of the patient-provided data. In the absence of high-quality patient-provided data for family medical history, I developed and evaluated a method for inferring this information from large clinical databases. I demonstrated that electronic health record data can be used to infer familial relationships accurately. Moreover, I showed how the use of clinical data in conjunction with the inferred familial relationships could determine disease risk in two studies. In the first study, I successfully computed disease heritability estimates for 500 conditions, some of which had not been previously studied. In the second study, I identified that screening rates among family members that are considered to be at high-risk for disease development were low for both diabetes mellitus and celiac disease. In summary, the work represented in this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the quality of patient-provided data, how interventions affect the quality of these data, and how novel methods can be applied to troves of existing clinical data to generate new knowledge to support research and clinical care.

This series of projects aims to explore the potential role of strategic flexibility in cognitive aging, and whether this construct can serve as an effective mechanistic proxy for cognitive reserve. Study 1 introduces the task designed for this series, based on stimuli from a classic test of fluid reasoning and formatted as a task-switching paradigm to explore strategic characteristics in a structured way. This study suggests that such a task is subject to age-related effects. Study 2 introduces a redesigned version of this task, matching it more closely to existing paradigms of task-switching, and explores how covariates interact with measured performance. Study 3 draws upon an existing sample of extensive neuropsychological and neuroimaging data, and aims to describe the associations among this set of data and measures of strategic flexibility. Results overall indicate that age negatively affects strategic flexibility, but cognitive reserve may mitigate this impairment.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Quality of life (QoL) questionnaires have been suggested as the most appropriate way to measure the effectiveness of low vision rehabilitation. However, several research studies have not been able to detect differences in effectiveness between rehabilitation strategies. The hypothesis of this study is that there are other factors, unrelated to vision, influencing the scores obtained in these questionnaires and masking the changes achieved by rehabilitation. The suggestion is that patients' realistic acceptance of, and successful adaptation to, their visual loss is influenced by psychosocial factors such as; personality, religious beliefs, social support, general health (i.e. mental and physical), understanding of their eye condition, level of education, and financial status. Concurrently, a parallel study was conducted with children. As with the adult arm, the aim of the study was to understand whether quality of life, and social behaviour and relationships in children with a visual impairment were related to the vision loss, vision rehabilitation, or non-visual factors. Patients attending the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital low vision clinic between May 2009 and August 2010, were recruited: 448 patients between 18 and 96 years old, with best-corrected binocular visual acuity smaller or equal to6/18, and 62 children between 5 and 16 years old. Telephone delivery of previously validated questionnaires was used with adult patients and parents of child patients; face-to-face interviews were completed by children. Both studies showed how psychosocial factors were stronger determinants of quality of life in people with low vision, than traditional low vision rehabilitation using optical aids. In the case of adults, physical and mental health appeared to be major predictors of quality of life, adaptation to the vision loss and participation restriction. In the case of children, visual acuity at distance and near, contrast sensitivity (CS), age, and parents' coping strategies appeared to determine quality of life and children behaviours. The final element of this work was a pilot study to attempt to address issues causing poor quality of life. Seventy-one participants who scored low in the Low Vision Quality of Life Questionnaire (LVQOL-25) (i.e. below 62.5) were given the opportunity to enrol for the Expert Patient Programme, which is a self-management programme aimed at adults with chronic health problems or disabilities. Only 2 participants expressed an interest in the programme, and none of them actually took part.

Liu Lin. / "January 2006." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-135). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death worldwide and the atherosclerotic process that precedes CVD starts during childhood. Physical activity (PA), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and exercise are well known as preventive strategies for CVD. One possible mechanism for such prevention is the role of PA, CRF and exercise on the arterial and autonomic systems. The aim of this thesis was to investigate using observational and experimental studies the role of PA, CRF and exercise on the autonomic and arterial systems of healthy adolescents. Chapter 4 systematically reviewed observational cross-sectional studies and provided level one evidence for a significant and positive association between resting parasympathetic function and moderate-to-vigorous PA in youth. Chapter 4 also indicated that gaps exist in the literature such as the associations between PA intensities, CRF and heart rate variability (HRV). These findings were furthered in Chapter 5 which showed that vigorous PA (VPA) and moderate PA (MPA) were positively related with HRV at rest and cardiac autonomic recovery following exercise in adolescents. In Chapter 6 a high-fat meal was used aiming to increase CVD risk in the postprandial state, and it was demonstrated that PA levels and CRF are not significantly associated with postprandial HRV and arterial stiffness in adolescents. Aiming to investigate possible associations between the vascular and autonomic system, measures of baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) were introduced. Chapter 7 showed that BRS and its autonomic and vascular components present a between-day coefficient of variation lower than 20% whilst within day coefficient of variations were lower than 34% in adolescents. In Chapter 8 acutely following high- and moderate-intensity interval exercise a decrease in blood pressure was observed concomitantly with decreases in BRS. This was mainly mediated by decreases in the autonomic modulation, and the duration of the decreases in blood pressure was higher following high-intensity interval exercise. Chapter 9 extended these findings by demonstrating that the changes in BRS following the ingestion of glucose was not altered by the high or moderate-intensity exercise performed before glucose ingestion. Chapter 10 showed that following four weeks of high-intensity exercise interval training no improvements were observed in BRS and its autonomic and vascular components at rest or acutely following exercise. Collectively, the present thesis contributes significantly to the literature by providing novel evidence in healthy adolescents on the role of PA intensities, CRF and exercise on the arterial and autonomic systems at rest, acutely following exercise and in the postprandial state. The results gathered in this thesis indicate potential of the autonomic and vascular function as targets of CVD risk reduction in youth.