Pacemaker-lead-associated right ventricular perforation is a life-threatening complication. Acute perforation usually presents within 24 hours. Patients with lead perforation are often asymptomatic but fatal complications like hemopericardium, leading to cardiac tamponade and death, are reported. Diagnosis is based on chest x-ray, computed tomography (CT) scan, and echocardiography. The management of the lead perforation is based on clinical presentation. Extraction is avoided in cases of chronic asymptomatic lead perforations because of the associated complications. Urgent intervention is needed in hemodynamically unstable patients with pericardial effusion or cardiac tamponade physiology.

A great deal of attention has recently been focused on America’s undocumented immigrants, a population estimated at around 10 million people (Passel, Capps, and Fix 2004). Much less attention has been paid (in both scholarly and academic circles) to legal immigrants, although in 2010 (the most recent year for which complete data are available), the Department of Homeland Security granted 1,042,625 permanent resident visas. Indeed, since 1994 when the government began to publish the Annual Flow Report, we have granted between 700,000 to around 1,300,000 new legal immigrant visas annually. Legal immigration into the US involves a process of varying length. That is to say, the elapsed time between applying for a permanent resident’s visa and being granted that visa can range from as little as a few months to as long as several years. It is known that the type of visa being applied for (the various types are explained later) accounts for some of the variation in processing length, and also that lost paperwork is a significant factor (Jasso 2011). This study found no evidence of discrimination in regards to the race, skin color, and religion of the survey respondents in terms of the time it took to get their visas processed. The average wait time for visa processing was about 5 years; Mexicans and Filipinos waited longer than immigrants from other countries. For various reasons discussed in the text, our current immigration system has created a twotiered family-based immigrant visa system. That is, the system gives heavy preference to family members of persons who are already legal immigrants. The preferential status of so-called family reunification visas has been a point of controversy in immigration advocacy circles and that controversy is also reviewed.

Light-framed wood structures generally have satisfied the life safety objective of the current seismic design approach. The main source of energy dissipation in such structures is the inelastic behavior of the connectors connecting framing and sheathing elements. Wood framed structures when subjected to strong ground excitations experience structural and non-structural damage which may incur large repair/replacement costs or may even render the structure out of service. Thus, it is very important to apply techniques to mitigate the seismic response of the light-framed structures and avoid large monetary losses. It is proposed to use commercially available permanent magnets, incorporated in the form of passive friction dampers, to dissipate a part of input energy induced due to strong ground motions, thereby reducing the inelastic energy dissipation demand of the lateral load resisting system. The force of attraction between the permanent magnet and ferromagnetic material like steel was utilized to produce the required friction resistance. A sliding wall configuration consisting of flexible permanent magnets and steel plates sandwiched between the plywood sheets was analyzed for its effectiveness in mitigating the response of a two story wood shear wall structure. The structural analysis program SAP2000 was used to perform nonlinear dynamic analysis of the finite element models generated using the meshing algorithms incorporated into 'WoodFrameMesh'. Nonlinear link elements available in SAP2000 were used to model the friction between the flexible magnet sheet and the steel plate. The effects of various modeling parameters on the solution of the nonlinear analysis were studied so as to arrive at appropriate values to represent the friction problem. Also the friction damped structure was analyzed to study its forced and free vibration characteristics. Further, the responses of the friction damped structure and the undamped structure were compared when subjected to different ground accelerations. The response of the friction damped structure was also compared to that of the structure in which the proposed friction dampers were replaced by normal shear walls. A huge reduction in the response of the friction damped structure was observed when compared to the response of the undamped structure. The friction damped structure was also analyzed for different values of modal damping ratios. Over all about 60-80% of the input energy was dissipated by friction damping in all the cases. The slip resistance of a flexible permanent magnet sheet was also verified in the laboratory. Above all the magnetic properties of commercially available permanent magnets and the effects of strong permanent magnets on human health were also studied. / Master of Science

No description available.

The electrification of automobiles has emerged as the sustainable powertrain solutionto meet United Nations sustainable development goals of sustainable cities andcommunities, affordable and clean energy, and climate action. The success of theelectrification depends on the efficiency of traction motors. Hence, the automobileindustry is dedicated to improving the performance of electrical traction machinesfor high performance and sustainability. The thesis aims to build various electricalmachine’s concept designs and quantify their behaviour on sustainability andperformance. The thesis objective is to design Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM),Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM), and Permanent Magnet SynchronousReluctance Motor (PM­SynRM). The thesis work comprises of accurate performanceestimation and optimisation of these electrical machines through a finite element based method. The in­house scripts are developed to estimate the performance, electrical losses, and efficiency of these electrical machines through flexible open-source tools. The performance of PMSM with rare-­earth magnet Neodymium Ferrite Boron(NdFeB) and without rare­-earth magnet (ferrite) is done to evaluate the role of bothmagnets in producing torque density. The SynRM is evaluated and optimized usinggenetic algorithms in the thesis. The electrical machines are designed without the useof rare-­earth magnets to eliminate the degradation of the environment and reduce thecost and weight of the motor. / The electrification of automobiles has emerged as the sustainable powertrain solutionto meet United Nations sustainable development goals of sustainable cities andcommunities, affordable and clean energy, and climate action. The success of theelectrification depends on the efficiency of traction motors. Hence, the automobileindustry is dedicated to improving the performance of electrical traction machinesfor high performance and sustainability. The thesis aims to build various electricalmachine’s concept designs and quantify their behaviour on sustainability andperformance. The thesis objective is to design Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM),Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM), and Permanent Magnet SynchronousReluctance Motor (PM­SynRM). The thesis work comprises of accurate performanceestimation and optimisation of these electrical machines through a finite element based method. The in­house scripts are developed to estimate the performance, electrical losses, and efficiency of these electrical machines through flexible open-source tools. The performance of PMSM with rare-­earth magnet Neodymium Ferrite Boron(NdFeB) and without rare­-earth magnet (ferrite) is done to evaluate the role of bothmagnets in producing torque density. The SynRM is evaluated and optimized usinggenetic algorithms in the thesis. The electrical machines are designed without the useof rare-­earth magnets to eliminate the degradation of the environment and reduce thecost and weight of the motor.   Sammanfattning på svenska / Abstract in Swedish Elektrifieringen av bilar har framstått som en hållbar drivlinelösning för att mötaFörenade Nationernas hållbara utvecklingsmål för hållbara städer och samhällen, medprisvärda och rena energi och klimatåtgärder. Framgången med elektrifieringen berorpå effektivitet på motorer för framdrivningen. Därför är bilindustrin dedikerad tillatt förbättra prestanda för elmotorer för hållbarhet och hög prestanda. Avhandlingensyftar till att bygga olika konceptdesign för elmotorer för framdrivning och kvantifieraderas beteende på hållbarhet och prestanda. Uppsatsmålet är att utforma Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM),Synchronous Reluktance Motor (SynRM) och permanent magnetassisterad SynRM(PM­SynRM). Examensarbetet består av noggrann prestationsuppskattning ochoptimering av dessa elektriska maskiner genom finit element metod (FEM). Deskripten för att hantera FEM för elektormagnetisk design är in­house utveckladeför att uppskatta flexibelt prestanda, elektriska förluster och effektiviteten hos dessaelektriska maskiner genom att använda öppen källkod. Prestanda för PMSM med en sällsynta jordartsmagnet (NdFeB) och PMSM utansällsynta jordartsmagnet (ferrit) räknades fram för att utvärdera båda magneternasroll för att producera vridmomentdensitet. SynRM och PM­SynRM maskinernautvärderas och optimeras med hjälp av genetiska algoritmer i avhandlingen.De studerade elektriska maskinerna är designad utan användning av sällsyntajordartsmagneter för att eliminera miljöförstöring och minska motorns kostnad ochvikt.

Simulative tests, such as asphalt pavement analyzer (APA), Hamberg rut tester etc. have been widely used to evaluate the performance of asphalt mixtures. However, simulative tests to evaluate the performance of the mixtures cannot give fundamental properties of Asphalt Concrete (AC) due to the complex stress and strain fields. On the other hand, due to the availability of high-performance computing systems and software, numerical techniques are gaining popularity. This dissertation presents a computational simulation method of the APA tests in order to evaluate the rutting potential of asphalt mixtures based on actual microstructure reconstructed from X-ray tomography images. In the study, the microstructure of AC is obtained through the analysis of X-ray images, which included the digital information of the microstructure for the scanned specimen. In the simulations the three phases, mastic (asphalt binder with mineral filler), aggregates, and voids are assigned with different material properties. Aggregates are modeled as an elastic material, and air voids are removed during the loading steps. The adopted two-layer model is only used to represent the rate and temperature dependent behavior of the mastics. The parameters are obtained with inverse methods. Based on the sensitivity analysis of the parameters, an iterative procedure is performed to optimize the parameters using the experimental measurement and results of the model simulations. A parametric study is also conducted to study the effect of major parameters such as the stiffness ratio of the networks on the macro response of the model. The simulation results obtained shows a good agreement with the experimental results. The dissertation also presents a method to measure micro strains in asphalt mixture. An automated procedure using tomography images to reconstruct three-dimensional particles is developed. The translations of the particles are obtained from the coordinate differences of particles' mass centers before and after the APA testing. The micro and macro strains in the mixture are calculated based on the particle translations. A good correlation is found between measured strains and experimental result. / Ph. D.

One of the basic questions of concern in mathematical biology is the long-term survival of each species in a set of populations. This question is particularly puzzling for a natural system with omnivory due to the fact that simple mathematical models of omnivory are prone to species extinction. Omnivory is defined as the consumption of resources from more than one trophic level. In this work, we investigate three omnivory models of increasing complexity. We use the notion of permanent coexistence, or permanence, to study the long-term survival of three interacting species governed by a mixture of competition and predation. We show the permanence of our models under certain parameter restrictions and include the biological interpretations of these parameter restrictions. Sensitivity analysis is used to obtain important information about meaningful parameter data collection. Examples are also given that demonstrate the ubiquity of omnivory in natural systems. / Ph. D.

In this paper, a model to estimate personal savings is constructed using an estimate of permanent income. Traditional approaches to studying aggregate personal savings depend on many independent variables that serve as the determinants of personal saving. Because some of the determinants used in such approaches can be difficult to obtain, estimating aggregate saving in this manner can be time-consuming and arduous. Using an estimate of permanent income based on Friedman's Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH), this paper creates a model to estimate personal savings and tests the model by examining the Marginal Propensity to Save (MPS) that is derived from it. Permanent income was estimated using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) method and aggregate personal savings is estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS). The empirical evidence reveals that savings estimates and marginal propensities to save are consistent with results obtained studies using conventional approaches except during periods in which a wealth effect occurs. During such periods, additional variables need to be added to the model to account for a wealth effect. This analysis therefore serves to further validate the PIH and shows that it can be applied to studying household savings as well as consumption. / Master of Arts

A new hybrid machine having variable reluctance and permanent magnets (PMs) is presented. The machine makes use of the features of a PM machine and variable reluctance machine. The resulting machine is doubly salient and has a structure free of flux reversals. Unlike conventional doubly salient permanent magnet machines (DSPMs), the one proposed in this report is driven by unipolar currents and uses an asymmetric converter which is used to drive switched reluctance machines. The reason to have a new hybrid machine without the drawbacks of conventional flux-reversal-free-stator SRMs and conventional DSPMs is also described. Conventional doubly salient permanent magnet machines which are driven by alternating currents, do not use reluctance torque and have flux reversals in the stator iron. Homopolar flux at the peak flux density lowers hysteresis and eddy-current loss, since the machine's core operates in only one magnetizing quadrant. Due to unbalanced forces in conventional stator-flux-reversal-free machines, their deployment in industrial and end-user applications has been hindered. The presented hybrid machine has balanced radial forces. Therefore, it maintains the advantages of conventional stator-flux-reversal-free machines while shedding its disadvantages. The proposed machine has significantly increased power density and is more electromechanically efficient than its predecessor. A experimental prototype motor has been designed and built. Its static torque characteristics correlated well with predicted data. Experimental operation of the drive under open loop speed control shows the efficiency to be 90.8% under non-ideal driving conditions. In the current energy conscious environment and market, this motor because of its high efficiency has a significant role in reducing the energy consumption in household, industrial and automotive applications requiring electric motors. / Ph. D.

No description available.