Increased temperature is common after brain trauma and stroke, considered to be detrimental to outcome and usually treated with systemic cooling interventions. However, targeting cooling interventions at the head may be more logical. In addition to arterial blood, the human brain is cooled by heat loss through the skull and heat loss from the upper airways. It is these two mechanisms of heat loss which are the subject of this thesis. The initial research aim was to find out if restoring ‘normal’ airflow through the upper respiratory tracts of intubated, brain-injured patients could reduce brain temperature. Air at room temperature and humidity replicating normal resting minute volume was continuously administered nasally to 15 such patients. After a 30 minute baseline, they were randomised to receive airflow or no airflow for 6 hours and then crossed over for a further 6 hours. The airflow did not produce significant reductions in intracranial temperature (Mean -0.13 °C, SD 0.55 °C, 95% CI -0.43 to 0.17 °C). However, some evidence of heat loss through the skull was serendipitously observed. This was investigated formally in a randomised factorial trial, together with nasal airflow with enhancements (unhumidified air at twice minute volume with 20 ppm nitric oxide gas) intended to overcome some of the possible reasons for the neutral results with ‘normal’ airflow. After a 30 minute baseline, 12 intubated, brain-injured patients received enhanced nasal airflow, bilateral head fanning (8 m/s), both together and no intervention in randomised order. Each intervention was delivered for 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes washout. Mean brain temperature was reduced by 0.15 °C with nasal airflow (p=0.001, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.23 °C) and 0.26 °C with head fanning (p<0.001, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.34 °C). The estimate of the combined effect of airflow and fanning on brain temperature was 0.41 °C. Physiologically, this study demonstrated that heat loss through the upper airways and through the skull can reduce parenchymal brain temperature in brain-injured humans, that the effects are additive and the onset of temperature reduction is rapid. The most promising mechanism appeared to be heat loss through the skull and the final piece of research involved developing and initial (phase I) assessment of a convective head cooling device in healthy volunteers, with intracranial temperature measured non-invasively by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. After a 10 minute baseline, five healthy volunteers received 30 minutes head cooling followed by 30 minutes head and neck cooling via a hood and neck collar delivering 14.5 °C air at 42.5 L/s. The net brain temperature reduction with head cooling was 0.45 °C (SD 0.23 °C, p=0.01, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.74 °C) and with head and neck cooling 0.37 °C (SD 0.30 °C, p=0.049, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.74 °C). There was no significant reduction in cooling with progressive depth into the brain i.e. core brain was cooled. The main relevance of this research is physiological because it adds to knowledge and understanding of mechanisms of heat loss from the upper airways and through the skull in humans. Clinically, factors which enhance or inhibit these mechanisms may have an effect on brain temperature but the therapeutic relevance of head cooling by these methods requires further research.

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Abstract Background: Golf is a sport with a growing focus on the physical aspect of the game and its relationship to performance. Studies have determined a correlation between club head speed and performance in golf. Rotational power has proven to be an important factor for the club head speed. By examining the relationship between club head speed and rotational power, researchers has found that rotation power on the golfers dominant side have a moderate to high correlation with club head speed. Previous research has mostly investigated the peak rotational power on the dominant side. Furthermore, additional research is needed to examine the bilateral strength and its relationship to club head speed. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between peak trunk rotational power and club head speed in elite golfers, and also to study the impact of bilateral rotational strength on club head speed. Methods: The study included 27 elite golf players (21 males, 6 females) age 19±2 years. The subjects attended two sessions where the first session included a club head speed test and the second session a rotation power test in the Quantum machine. The rotational peak power ratio (dominant/non-dominant side) were ranged from 1-27 (the closer to 1, the higher order) to study a linier relationship with club head speed. Spearman’s nonparametric rank correlations coefficient (rs) was used since the data was not normally distributed. Results: There was a moderate correlation between peak trunk rotational power on the dominant side and club head speed ( rs=0.58, p=0.01). The correlation between the peak trunk rotational powers on the dominant and non- dominant side was high, rs=0.82 (p=0.01). There were no significant correlation found between the ranged rotational peak power ratio and club head speed (rs=0.30, p=0.1). Conclusion: The current study found a slightly lower correlation between peak trunk rotational power and club head speed than found in earlier studies. The golfers in this study had symmetric strength in the trunk, other studies have shown that the rotational strength in golfer´s dominant side were higher than of the non- dominant side. The result of this study indicates that balance between the sides not necessarily has a relationship with how high the golfer’s club head speed is. Future research is needed to analyze the quadratic correlation between ratio and club head speed on a more advanced level. The results of this study can, if validated, be used for further researching and understanding of club head speed and golf performance.

Parenting is one of the most salient influences in children's development, particularly during early childhood. Substantial theoretical and empirical evidence has linked sociodemographic risk to compromised parenting, and has contributed to the development of two-generation programs to support low-income parents and their young children. Despite decades of research on these families, little is known about how styles of parenting change across time, how children's emotion regulation influences parenting styles, or how risks predict longitudinal stability and change to parenting. Furthermore, it is unclear how one two-generation program, Early Head Start, promotes positive parenting styles and buffers against contextual risks. The aim of the three papers in this dissertation study is to describe maternal parenting within a low-income sample, by linking longitudinal trajectories of parenting to contextual risks, Early Head Start, children's emotion regulation (ER), and risk for child maltreatment. Guided by the bioecological model, and components specific to the Ecological-Transactional Model of Child Maltreatment (Cicchetti et al., 2010), these three papers indicate specific risks that are most salient to exhibiting unsupportive parenting behaviors: family conflict, maternal depression, and attitudes and beliefs that indicate risk for child physical abuse. Furthermore, the papers highlight important methodological considerations for the study of parenting at risk, children's ER, as well as for clinicians assessing risk. The three papers, collectively, highlight the complex interplay of determinants of parenting, including sociodemographic characteristics, psychological factors, interpersonal relationships, child effects, family-level characteristics, and Early Head Start involvement.

Increasing urbanization is often accompanied by problematic changes in watershed hydrology. Decreasing surface permeability can lead to increased overland flow volumes, which may spread surficial contaminants and increase the strain on municipal stormwater infrastructure. This study examines a mixed-use property in the Proctor Creek watershed in Atlanta, Georgia, to better understand how land-management practices influence soil overland flow potential. Field saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs) measurements were collected from soils 1) subjected to compaction, 2) in urban agricultural use, and 3) under common lawn maintenance. Mean values were 9.1E-7 cm/s, 2.2E-4 cm/s, and 9.0E-6 cm/s respectively. Measurements were collected in-situ with the use of the Aardvark constant-head permeameter. Statistical analyses indicated a substantial difference in Kfs based on land-management practices and that urban farming can increase soil Kfs and limit overland flow. Additional analysis revealed no significant difference in grain-size distributions suggesting land-management practices controlled Kfs, not soil texture.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Evaluation einer neuen, softwarebasierten Volumetrie auf Basis von CT Datensätzen vorgestellt. Die experimentelle Studie findet vor dem Hintergrund der Kopf-Hals-Onkologie statt und basiert auf der zunehmend in den Vordergrund tretenden Evidenz des Tumorvolumens als prognostischer Marker für Patienten mit Kopf-, Halsmalignomen. Als eine der Methoden zur Volumetrie pathologischer Strukturen gilt die diameterbasierte Schätzung. Dem gegenüber steht die perimeterbasierte bzw. softwarebasierte Volumetrie. Diese ist zwar aufwändiger, hat jedoch den Vorteil bei irregulär begrenzten Strukturen wie beispielsweise Tumoren genauere Ergebnisse zu liefern. Ziel der Studie war es, die Genauigkeit und Grenzen der Volumetrie mittels dieser Methode zu bestimmen. Hierzu wurden Patienten, die für eine chirurgische Resektion und Neck Dissection im Rahmen ihres Kopf-Hals- Karzinoms vorgesehen waren, rekrutiert. Mehrere Lymphknoten wurden selektiert und mittels Software volumetriert. Im Anschluss an die Resektion wurden diese Lymphknoten nach dem archimedischen Prinzips vermessen. Die so gewonnenen realen Volumina wurden der perimeterbasierten und softwarebasierten Volumetrie gegenüber gestellt. Hierbei zeigte sich eine sehr gute Übereinstimmung der softwarebasierten mit den realen Volumina, wie der Pearson Korrelationskoeffizient (r=0.96) sowie die Bland-Altman Analyse zeigten. Weiterhin konnte ein minimaler Diameter von 0.95cm definiert werden, bis zu dem die softwarebasierte Volumetrie mit der momentan verfügbaren CT Bildgebung als verlässlich gelten kann.

This thesis investigates the development of an animatronic robot with the objective of showing how modern animatronic models created as special effects have roots in models created during the scientific and mechanical revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is noted that animatronic models that are available today have not been described in any great detail and most are covered by industrial secrecy. This project utilises technologies developed during the latter part of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st century to create the design of the animatronic robot. The objective of the project is to bring effective designs for animatronic robots into the public domain. The project will investigate a large variety of different mechanisms and apply them to various functioning parts of the model, with the design and method of each of these functions discussed. From this, one main part of the project, the jaw, will receive the focus of construction. Once the construction is complete this will be evaluated against what improvements and changes could be made for future iterations, with a revised design produced based on what has been learned.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Molecular Biology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Medicine / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Clinical Oncology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy