This thesis examined the validity of allometric models (Y = aXbg) in scaling physiological and human performance data (Y) for differences in body size (X). 1) Anaerobic performance. External peak power output (PPO) derived from supramaximalleg ergometry was compared in young adult males and females, using a multivariate allometric model. Estimated fat free mass (FFM) and thigh muscle-and-bone cross-sectional area served as indicators of involved musculature. Male PPO was greater than female (P < 0.05), after allometric adjustment for body size differences. This finding is questionable, however, as the within-gender goodness-of-fit values for the regression models were very poor. 2) Cardiac dimensions. The proper relationships between echocardiographic dimensions [left ventricular (LV) mass, and LV internal dimensions] and various indicators of overall body size [height, body mass (BM), FFM, and body surface area (BSA)] were examined in young, apparently healthy, adult males and females. Scaling by FFM was associated with the least residual error in these samples. The obtained relationships were generally dimensionally consistent, that is, LV mass proportional to FFM to the first power, and LV internal dimensions related to the 1/3 power ofFFM. 3) Methodological issues. The multivariate allometric scaling of peak oxygen uptake by height and BM was investigated. Regression diagnostics revealed that the obtained exponents were unstable, and potentially numerically inaccurate, due to severe collinearity between height and BM in the sample. For elite weightlifting performance, detailed examination of the allometric regression residuals revealed that the model was poorly specified. Re-specification of the model using secondorder polynomials provided the optimal scaling of this data set.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis demonstrates the possible cutoff sample size point that balances goodness of es-timation and study expenditure by a practical cancer case. As it is crucial to determine the sample size in designing an experiment, researchers attempt to find the suitable sample size that achieves desired power and budget efficiency at the same time. The thesis shows how simulation can be used for sample size and precision calculations with survival data. The pre-sentation concentrates on the simulation involved in carrying out the estimates and precision calculations. The Kaplan-Meier estimator and the Cox regression coefficient are chosen as point estimators, and the precision measurements focus on the mean square error and the stan-dard error.

When human skeletal remains are found in prehistoric, historic, or forensic contexts, establishing age at death is an important step in reconstructing life histories, building demographic profiles, and identifying victims. Reliability for adult skeletal age estimations is generally lower than ideal, especially for individuals over the age of 40 years. A factor rarely considered in age estimation is that of body size; namely, how individuals of varying body sizes experience skeletal aging. This thesis explores the variables of BMI, stature, and body mass to quantify the influence of error from body size on adult skeletal age estimates. Eight age estimation methods were tested on 764 adult skeletons from the Hamann-Todd and William Bass Collections. These individuals were documented to have ranged in stature from 1.30m to 1.93m and body mass from 24.0kg to 99.8kg. Each age estimation method was evaluated separately. Analyses show that underweight individuals have the most error associated with their age estimations for all methods. All methods under-age underweight individuals by 5 to 15 years compared to average and obese individuals. The Kunos et al. method is the most reliable rib method, and the Lovejoy et al. and Suchey-Brooks methods are the most reliable pelvic methods. The İşcan et al. fourth rib method under-ages individuals by the highest degree compared to all other methods. The DiGangi et al. method is the most unreliable method with low accuracy (over twenty years) and high bias scores (under-aging individuals by almost 20 years). Body mass has a stronger influence on age estimation than stature. Studies have shown that body mass has a strong impact on bone resorption and remodelling rates, regardless of nutrition, and that tissue type (i.e. fat vs. muscle), physical activity, and mechanical loading influence bone remodelling. Skeletal remains of underweight individuals have fewer age markers while obese individuals show an increase in surface texture degeneration and osteophytic lipping. This is the first study to show that body size influences skeletal age estimation, and that age estimations are significantly different between weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing joints.

The research analyzes the bridge load stress effects resulting from international bridge formulae and truck size and weight regulations in Europe. This is done with a view to identifying issues that may need to be considered in the development of a European Bridge Formula (EUBF) conforming to European Directive truck configurations for the regulation of truck size and weight limits associated with international travel between European Union (EU) member states. The level of efficiency of bridge formulae vary depending on the design criteria used in the development of the formula, the compatibility to the jurisdiction’s infrastructure and truck fleet characteristics, and the method of implementation as part of the regulation and by operators in the trucking industry. The EUBF should limit imposed critical bending moment and shear stresses on single and continuous span bridges of varying lengths (5, 20, and 50 metres) in accordance to design live loads specified in the Eurocode. The analysis of bridge load effects imposed by European Directive truck configurations in this research, provide the basis for the development of a EUBF.

Recent research results on buffer sizing challenged the widely used assumption that routers should buffer millions of packets. These new results suggest that when smooth Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) traffic goes through a single tiny buffer of size O(logW), then close-to-peak throughput can be achieved where W is the maximum window size of TCP flows. But the current routers have the buffer size much larger than that. It is shown that, we can reduce the buffer size by a factor of √N when the traffic is somehow smooth, where N is the number of flows. So, the main goal of this thesis is to show some directions on how the buffer size can be reduced in Internet routers. In this research, we adopted some measures like different packet sizes, different network scenarios, different buffer sizes, various link delays to see the performance of small buffers with the presence of both TCP and UDP traffic. / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

The extraction of bitumen (heavy oil) from the oil sands is predominantly achieved through a water-based technology. This involves a slurrying process, typically called conditioning, which is categorized into three equally important steps: bitumen-sand liberation, bitumen coalescence, and air-bitumen attachment. Previous studies found that bitumen recovery was dependent upon process variables such as energy dissipation rate, temperature and caustic addition. Correlations between bitumen droplet size and recovery have also been established; however no investigations linking the aforementioned process variables to the resultant bitumen droplet size had been performed. This work investigates the development of a Batch Extraction Unit built specifically for this investigation as well as a study of the bitumen droplet size as a function of the rate of mechanical energy input. / Chemical Engineering