Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-182) and index.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Dallas, 2006. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-173)

ABSTRACT Sub-Saharan Africa is thought to be undergoing a health (or epidemiological) and demographic transition, moving from a pattern of disease dominated by infection, perinatal illness and other diseases of poverty, to one dominated by noncommunicable disease, in particular vascular disease. If such a transition is occurring, then the burden of vascular disease including stroke will increase. Stroke is a heterogeneous condition and it is likely that the nature of stroke (pathological types, subtypes, and causes) will change during this transition. However, little is known about the burden and nature of stroke in Sub-Saharan Africa, as it is now. This information is essential to inform health services to appropriately plan and deliver health care for the future, to develop strategies for stroke prevention, and to test the theory of the health and demographic transition. My overall aim was to assess and compare the burden and nature of stroke in rural and urban South Africa, and to establish whether there is any evidence of a health transition. Specifically I aimed to: • review what is known about stroke in Sub-Saharan Africa; • establish the prevalence and nature of prevalent stroke in rural South Africa; • compare the nature of hospital-based stroke in urban and rural stroke patients; • compare the nature of urban hospital-based stroke in different population groups; and • validate two stroke scores in the urban stroke register to enable us to diagnose pathological stroke type in rural stroke patients who do not have access to brain imaging. Methods: The following methods were used to achieve these aims: • I systematically searched the literature for, and critically reviewed, studies of stroke from Sub-Saharan Africa (literature review). • The rural Agincourt Health and Population Unit demographic surveillance site was screened for stroke using two questions during the annual census. Anyone who screened positive for stroke was examined to decide whether they had had a stroke (stroke prevalence study). • The Tintswalo Hospital Stroke Register was established to ascertain and assess rural stroke patients over 20 months (rural hospital-based stroke), and • The Johannesburg Hospital Stroke Register similarly established to assess urban stroke patients over 23 months (urban hospital-based stroke). • The accuracy of the Siriraj and Guy’s Hospital stroke scores was compared to the CT brain scan “gold-standard” in the Johannesburg Hospital Stroke Register. Results: Using these approaches I found that: • Very little is currently known about the burden and nature of stroke in Sub- Saharan Africa. • The prevalence of rural stroke was about half that found in high-income countries, and double that found in Tanzania. However, disabling stroke was at least as prevalent as it is in high-income countries. • Both rural and urban black South Africans are probably in early phases of the health transition, and this is impacting on the nature of stroke, particularly the cause of cardioembolic stroke. • Neither the Siriraj nor Guy’s Hospital stroke score are sufficiently accurate for use in epidemiological studies or clinical management of stroke in Sub- Saharan Africa. Conclusion: There is already a heavy burden of stroke in Sub-Saharan Africa, and there is some evidence of a health transition in the black population. However, it is not possible to accurately assess the burden and nature of stroke without communitybased incidence studies using early brain imaging to distinguish ischaemic stroke from cerebral haemorrhage. Until we have these studies, we will never know the precise burden and nature of stroke, the effect of the health transition, or the optimal approach to preventing a stroke epidemic in our population.

Seismic imaging of sub-basalt sedimentary layers is difficult due to high impedance of the basalt layer, the roughness of the top and bottom of the basalt layer and sometimes the heterogeneities within the basalt layer. In this thesis we identify specific problems within the modern imaging technology which limit sub-basalt imaging. The basic framework for the identification of this limitation is that we are able to group most basalt layers into the following four categories: A basalt layer having smooth top and bottom surfaces. A basalt layer having rough top and bottom surfaces. Small-scale heterogeneities within the basalt layer. Intra-basalt velocity variation due to different basalt flows. All the above models of basalt layers obviously have high impedance with respect to the surrounding sedimentary layers. These four models encapsulate all the possible heterogeneities of basalt layers seen in areas like the Voring and More basins off mid- Norway, basins in the Faroes, W. Greenland, Angola and Brazil margins, and the Deccan Traps of India. In this work, problems in seismic processing and imaging specific to these models have been presented. For instance, we have found that the application of the multiple attenuation technique, which first predicts the multiples and then subtracts them from the data, using least-squares criteria, can be effective for all the models except for the model, which has intra-bedded layers within the basalt. The failure in the second case is due to the destructive interference of multiple scattering from the intra-bedded layers within the basalt and the multiples located below the primary associated with the top of the basalt layer. This interference degrades the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the multiples contained in the data, whereas the predicted multiples, which are constructed from the reflectors above the basalt, have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio. Our recommendation is to subtract the predicted multiples from the data using either leastabsolute- value criteria or any other higher-order-statistics-based criteria.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Middle East, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Johnson, Thomas H. "March 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 23, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Afghanistan, State Capacity, Governance, Solidarity Groups, Resistance, Tribal Structure, Monarchy, Amir Abdur Rahman, Iron Amir, Communist, PDPA, Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Mujahedeen, Taliban, Islamists, Hamid Karzai, Counterinsurgency, Insurgency, Statemaking, State building, United Islamic Front, Northern Alliance, Pashtun Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-166). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1961. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105).

Thesis (M.M.) Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Frank Gunderson, Florida State University, College of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 6-26-07). Document formatted into pages; contains 99 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>Sub-Saharan Africa is a region where extreme poverty is prevalent in spite of the regions apparent commitment to the philosophy of human rights, in that all fifty-three countries in the region ratified the African Charter in addition to several international human rights instruments ratified by countries in the region. This state of affairs is traceable to the lack of or ineffective enforcement mechanism of the human rights obligations of countries in the region. Too much attention had been given to post facto intervention of human rights in form of judicial enforcement of these rights to the neglect of other effective methods of enforcement which can be employed in addition to curial enforcement of the rights for a more effective result. This neglect and the ensuing increase in poverty level prompted this research which was aimed at identifying additional methods of pro-active rights enforcement mechanism and the roles of human rights lawyers in their utilisation to reduce poverty in the region.</p>

Dans ce travail, nous nous intéressons à la spectroscopie optique par réflexion d’une vapeur diluée de césium infiltrée dans des opales artificielles Langmuir-Blodgett. Après une étude microscopique de la structure des opales, nous rapportons des expériences de réflexion, transmission et diffraction (sans atomes) effectuées sur diverses opales, dans le but d’explorer la propagation du champ lumineux dans ces milieux. En effectuant des expériences de réflexion sélective, nous observons que pour une polarisation TM, le signal atomique s’annule à 45° et à l’angle de Brewster, et entre ces deux zéros le signe du signal est inversé. Cet effet était prédit théoriquement mais n’avait jamais été observé. Nous rapportons aussi les expériences de spectroscopie par réflexion d’une vapeur infiltrée dans diverses opales et pour différentes longueurs d’onde. Sur des opales multicouches, nous observons des spectres sub-Doppler en incidence oblique, dont la forme est sensible à l’incidence, la polarisation et la longueur d’onde. Ces spectres ont été interprétés comme une signature d’un confinement tridimensionnel. Les expériences sur une opale multizone montre que sur une opale monocouche, nous observons aussi un signal sub-Doppler où il n’y a pas de confinement tridimensionnel. / In this work, we are interested in reflection optical spectroscopy of diluted cesium vapor infiltrated in Langmuir-Blodgett artificial opals. After a microscopic study of the structure of opals, we report experiments of reflection, transmission and diffraction (without atoms) carried out on various opals, with the aim of exploring the propagation of the light field in these media. By carrying out selective reflection experiments, we observe that for a TM polarization the atomic signal vanishes at 45° and the Brewster angle, and between these two zeros the sign of the signal is reversed. This effect was predicted theoretically but had never been observed. We also report the experiments of reflection spectroscopy of a vapor infiltrated in various opals and for different wavelengths. On multi-layered opals, we observe sub-Doppler spectra in oblique incidence, the shape of wich in sensitive to incidence, polarization and wavelength. These spectra were interpreted as a signature of a three-dimensional confinement. Experiments on a multi-zone opal show that on a monolayer opal, we also observe a sub-Doppler signal where there is no three-dimensional confinement.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Evangelos M. Falaris, Dept. of Economics. Includes bibliographical references.