Objectives: The inverse relationship between QT interval variability (QTV) and T wave amplitude potentially confounds QT variability assessment. We quantified the influence of the T wave amplitude on QTV in a comprehensive dataset and devised a correction formula. Methods: Three ECG datasets of healthy subjects were analyzed to model the relationship between T wave amplitude and QTV. To derive a generally valid correction formula, linear regression analysis was used. The proposed correction formula was applied to patients enrolled in the Evaluation of Defibrillator in Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation trial (DEFINITE) to assess the prognostic significance of QTV for all-cause mortality in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy. Results: A strong inverse relationship between T wave amplitude and QTV was demonstrated, both in healthy subjects (R2 = 0.68, p < 0.001) and DEFINITE patients (R2 = 0.20, p < 0.001). Applying the T wave amplitude correction to QTV achieved 2.5-times better group discrimination between patients enrolled in the DEFINITE study and healthy subjects. Kaplan-Meier estimator analysis showed that T wave amplitude corrected QTVi is inversely related to survival (p < 0.01) and a significant predictor of all-cause mortality. Conclusion: We have proposed a simple correction formula for improved QTV assessment. Using this correction, predictive value of QTV for all-cause mortality in patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy has been demonstrated.

This dissertation investigates the process of forced eviction (i.e., gentrification) and its influence on Harlem culture. The study quantifies four (4) significant factors involved in the influencing of a paradigm shift. The study explicitly examines the historical and traditional cultures of Harlemites' when framed in the theoretical context of unmet human needs. In this study, unmet human needs in association with theoretical constructs have demonstrated strong correlations in relation to altering attitudes that affect complex thought and human behavior. This study reports the empirical results and the investigated associations of theoretical constructs as they pertain to the various hypotheses outlined in this dissertation. Analytical measurements used in this study include both descriptive and inferential statistics. The sample population was 300 and six (6) statistical tools are used to examine and analyze the data. This study will show that correlations and regression results suggest unmet human needs shape the observation on the preconceptions of culture and the findings are conclusive. Psychological characteristics moderately influence culture and congruent with Maslow's and Burton's human needs theories. The researcher postulates that the theoretical models used in the study and working hypotheses in this exposition can be used in guiding impending research.

The purpose of this study was to examine and explore the meanings, structures and essence of the lived experience of Muslim women via an Islamic theoretical (Kalam) framework. The study's goal was to describe a detailed and comprehensive description of how Muslim women use Islam to promote gender equality and improve treatment within their daily lives. The critical importance of gleaning a better understanding of Islam and the perceived invisibility of Muslim women motivated the researcher to undertake this study. The research study included a qualitative phenomenology research approach. Data were collected from multiple sources: observations, semi-structured individual interviews and transcriptions from participants from various and diverse geographical locations, educational levels, sects, socio-economic backgrounds, and nationalities. Inductive analysis allowed for the emergence of patterns and themes in relation to Muslim women and gender equality within Islam. An Islamic theoretical (Kalam) model provided a conceptual framework for the study, which allowed participants to discuss acquiring and/or achieving gender equality within Islam without separating their religion from their respective traditions and cultures. Thirteen significant themes emerged from the research that helped to illustrate how Muslim women can employ Islam to promote gender equality while improving their lives. The anticipated results of this research study may also be useful in improving gender relations within Islam by serving as a roadmap to resolving conflict between Muslim women and Islamic clerics and scholars.

As of May 2016, the U.S. State Department officially declared a priority date for all green cards for applicants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that capped the number of visas granted to individuals from these three countries to just 10,000 per year. This inherently created a two to three-year backlog for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status applicants from these countries as well, meaning that SIJS petitioners will remain undocumented for periods of up to six years until their petition is adjudicated by USCIS and their priority date arrives. I research whether the increasingly difficult path to obtaining permanent residency through a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status petition is a result of a change in federal administrations––– between former President Obama’s covert mechanisms of marginalization and deportation of Central Americans to the overtly anti-immigrant rhetoric stemming from Trump––– or if SIJS backlogs are an inevitable phenomenon resulting from U.S. imperialism in Central America throughout the 20th century. I ground my research on pre-existing literature that explains the legal processes of obtaining permanent residency through a SIJS petition and include scholars’ criticisms of the interpretation of the policy by state and federal courts. To exemplify the complications that youth face while petitioning for SIJ status, I also incorporate the perceptions and experiences of several attorneys who have represented SIJS applicants and my own interpretations of how judges treat SIJS applicants courtrooms throughout Los Angeles County.

The thesis considers Felix Guattati's notion of transversality, Fernand Deligny anti-pedagody, and Brigid Brophy's novel In Transit (1969) to argue that the terms of subsumption and stratification have the potential to address the conceptual apparatus of the avant-garde to avoid certain foreclosures concerned with the rhetoric of revolutionary transformation traditionally associated both with vanguardism in a politico-ideological sense and with the avant-garde as an aesthetic and critical project. To unlock the critical potential of the terms of subsumption and stratification in regard to the avant-garde, the theoretical framework of Félix Guattari and Fernand Deligny developed as a result of their clinical experience with psychotic and autistic patients, respectively, is used to foreground how subsumption and stratification are inherent in the notions of transversality, group subjectivity, assemblage of enunciation, signification, schizoanalysis, tracing, and mapping. Using these, the thesis argues that in order to address the theoretical foreclosures associated with the notion of the avant-garde, the latter should be viewed in the light of the complementary operations of subsumption and stratification. To substantiate the argument, the thesis juxtaposes Félix Guattari's notion of transversality,...

When studying pressure-gain combustion and wave rotor combustors, it is vital that any experimental model accurately reflect the real world conditions/applications being studied; this not only confirms previous computational and analytical work, but also provides new insights into how these concepts and devices work in real life. However, mixture stratification can have a noticeable effect on multiple combustion properties, including flame propagation, pressure, ignition time delay, and more, and this is especially true in constant-volume combustion chambers. Because it is beneficial to model wave rotor systems using constant-volume combustors such as what is employed in the IUPUI Combustion and Propulsion Research Laboratory, these stratification effects much be taken into account and reduced if possible. This study sought to find an effective method to reduce stratification in a rectangular constant-volume combustion chamber by means of manual recirculation pump. Spark-ignited flames were first produced in the chamber itself and studied using schlieren and color videography techniques as well as quantitative pressure histories. After determining the pump's effectiveness in reducing stratification, it was next employed when a hot jet of combustion products from a separate combustion chamber was used as an ignition source instead of the spark plug - a process typically employed in real wave rotor combustors. Lastly, the pump was used to study the leakage from the system for future test cases in order to offer further recommendations on how to effectively use the recirculation system. This process found that key properties significant to wave rotor development, such as time ignition delay, were affected by these stratification effects in past studies that did not account for this detail. As such, the pump has been permanently incorporated into the wave rotor model, as stratification is a vital. Additionally, significant fuel leakage is possible during rotational pre-chamber cases, and this should be address before proceeding with such experiments in the future. To combat this, the pump system has been reduced in volume, and suggestions have been provided on how to better seal the main rectangular chamber in the future.

The purpose of this research was to determine relationships among depression, anxiety, self-rated physical and mental health, self-advocacy, internalized homophobia, and quality of patient-provider communication to satisfaction with health care interactions. These were measured while controlling for select demographic variables: age; ethnicity; urban or rural domicile; relationship status; household income; highest educational attainment; health insurance; disclosure to health care provider as a gay man; reason for last healthcare visit; and, general health self-rating. The specific aims of this study were to: 1) identify general characteristics of gay men in this sample; 2) examine how levels of satisfaction with health care differed by each characteristic; 3) assess relationships between each potential predictor of satisfaction and the level of satisfaction; and, 4) determine the relationship between each predictor and satisfaction after controlling for the most significant covariate(s). A quantitative study was conducted in which 42 adult gay men participated. The author hypothesized that gay men who reported lower levels of depression, higher self-rated physical and mental health, lower levels of anxiety, higher self-advocacy scores, lower levels of internalized homophobia, and stronger evaluations of patient-provider communication would report more positive satisfaction with health care interactions. The hypothesis was supported by results of this research. This research established that variables with the strongest effect on gay men’s satisfaction with health care interactions were whether the patient had revealed his sexual orientation to the provider, how he rated his anxiety, and how he rated the quality of communication with his provider. These results emphasize the importance of health care providers’ awareness of specific psychosocial factors that influence communication during care of gay men, who understand their sexual orientation places them at a disadvantage when receiving health care services. Despite the pursuit of equitable, high quality, and satisfying health care, its achievement has been hampered by barriers that gay men encounter. Understanding those barriers while addressing health related needs of gay men will be important for providers who seek to improve satisfaction with health care interactions.

Freshwater lakes constrain its methane (CH4) emissions through CH4 oxidation. CH4 includes three carbon (C) isotopes; the stable isotopes 12C,13C and the unstable and more uncommon isotope 14C. Methanotrophs (i.e. methane oxidizing bacteria) oxidize the lighter isotope more rapidly. Changes in relative isotopic composition can therefore be used to calculate how much CH4 is oxidized in a system. This study investigates an annual CH4 oxidation in a freshwater lake. Water samples and bubbles of CH4 gas were collected once a month, from March to November, in lake Gundlebosjön. The CH4 gas was separated from the water samples with a headspace extraction technique. The concentration and isotopic composition of CH4 was analyzed in a cavity ring down spectrometer. The isotopic data was used in two mathematical models, based on open-steady state and closed systems. It was found that the stable isotope method to estimate CH4 oxidation was only useful during periods when clear concentration and isotope differences could be observed in the water column. CH4 oxidation could only be estimated in the water column in August, and in the surface layer in June and July. / Utsläppen av metan (CH4) från sötvattensjöar begränsas genom CH4 oxidation. Det är två stabila kolisotoper som dominerar i CH4; 12C och 13C. Den ostabila kolisotopen 14C finns även i CH4, men den är mer ovanlig i naturen. Metantrofer (metanoxiderande bakterier) oxiderar den lättare kolisotopen snabbare. Förändringar i isotopsammansättningen kan användas för att beräkna hur mycket CH4 som oxideras i ett system. Denna studie undersöker en årlig CH4 oxidation i en sötvattensjö. Vattenprover och bubblor av CH4-gas samlades en gång i månaden, från mars till november, i Gundlebosjön. CH4 gasen separerades från vattenproverna med en ”headspace extraction” teknik. Koncentration och isotopsammansättningen av CH4 analyserades i en ”cavity ring down spectrometer”. Isotopdata användes i två matematiska modeller, baserade på öppet-stabilt tillstånd och stängt system. Den stabila isotopmetoden för att uppskatta CH4 oxidation var endast användbar under perioder då tydliga skillnader i koncentrationen och isotopsammansättningen kunde observeras i vattenpelaren. CH4 oxidation kunde endast uppskattas i vattenpelaren i augusti, och i vattenpelarens ytskikt i juni och juli.

We studied the dietary behavior and health status of a population that lived in the context of rapid change, including the development of the economic and political structures of states, the adoption of Christianity as well as the subsequent disruption of social structure and the recovery of society. Carbon (δ13 C) and nitrogen (δ15 N) isotopic values were measured in a sample of 189 adult individuals of both sexes and 74 animals representing different socio-economic contexts (power centers versus the hinterlands) and chronology: the Great Moravian (9th -10th century AD) versus late Hillfort (11th century AD) period. A sample of 41 sub-adults aged 0-6 years, representative of both Great Moravian power centers (Mikulčice) and its rural hinterlands (Josefov), was selected for isotopic analyses of breastfeeding and weaning behavior. Data on growth and frequency of nonspecific stress indicators (cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, and endocranial lesions) were analyzed in a sub-adult group. In adults, we focused on dental health (caries, periapical lesions, dental wear, and periodontal disease), the presence of cribra orbitalia and estimated adult stature. Isotopic data of the adult sample showed that the Great Moravian population had a terrestrial diet with a substantial proportion of C4 plants....

This study is focused on dietary reconstruction according to stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen in bone and tooth collagen. The material used for this study is represented by set of 46 skeletons of adult individuals from 6th church's burial site in Mikulčice, which belong to the Great Moravian era (9th -10th century). Isotopic values are discussed in relation to the formation of social roles and health status. The presence and eventually degree of severity of some non-specific stress indicators and pathologies (Cribra orbitalia, presence of tooth caries, caries intensity, linear enamel hypoplasias, dental wear and length od femur) was observed. The results of isotopic analysis suggest, that diet in this population sample was based on terrestrial sources, both animal and plant protein. Plants in Great Moravian diet belonged to C3 and C4 group. C4 group of plants in Mikulčice was represented by millet (Panicum miliaceum), which supports the hypothesis of "Millet - typical crop of old Slavs" (Reitsema and Kozlowski, 2013). Millet was consumed mainly in childhood. Significant differences between diets of high social class and rest of population was found with people of higher social rank consuming more animal protein. These differences were created in childhood and persisted to adulthood....