The thesis reviews current admission control schemes in cellular IP networks. It proposes an improved version of Threshold Access Sharing and a new scheme: weight-based scheme. Finally, an admission control scheme for hierarchical cellular network is introduced.

Class of 2014 Abstract / Specific Aims: To evaluate the association of weight-based insulin dose with hypoglycemia in critically ill patients receiving continuous intravenous insulin infuions. To determine whether higher weight-based doses of insulin were associated with a higher incidence of hypoglycemia Methods: This was a retrospective, case-control study conducted at a tertiary care, academic medical center. Adult (>18 years) patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) receiving intravenous (IV) regular insulin infusions for the management of hyperglycemia between 1 January 2008 and 30 March 2013 were included. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Each patient with hypoglycemia was matched with a non-hypoglycemic control subject, based on age range and sex. Laboratory data, patient demographics, hypoglycemic events, insulin infusion data, SOFA scores, length of hospital and ICU stay, and patient outcomes were collected and evaluated. Main Results: Sixty-one patients experienced a hypoglycemic event and were matched with 61 non-hypoglycemic control subjects for statistical analysis. With the exception of ethnicity (p = 0.041) as a demographic predictor of hypoglycemia; age, sex, weight, height, and BMI were not significant. The starting insulin infusion rate and the total number of insulin units per day administered were not found to be associated with hypoglycemia, p=0.107 and p=0.357, respectively. Conclusion: This study failed to show significance in the total units per day of insulin and the incidence of hypoglycemia. There was no statistical significance in BMI between case and control groups, thus no clear conclusion can be made associating hypoglycemia with weight-based insulin dosing.

Sustaining high performance demand has led to the development of manycore processors. These manycore processors have thermal properties which are different from conventional processors. In order to understand the thermal characteristics of such manycore processors, we have developed a modeling environment with a rich set of features which can be used to used to model different scenarios in manycore processors. Using this modeling framework, we have developed a thermal management policy called 'Weight based management policy'. We have also developed a GUI based modeling tool which can be integrated into the computer architecture curriculum so as to enable students to understand the importance of thermal limitations right during the design phase.

Study One aimed to provide a current understanding of pupils’ attitudes towards people who are overweight and the prevalence and significance of weight-based unkindness in school. Methods: The study followed a mixed method, sequential qualitative and quantitative research design. Part One of the study used exploratory focus groups to ascertain that weight-based unkindness was a valid concern for children and young people, when compared against unkindness of other content. The focus group also ensured that the vignettes used in the survey (Part Two) were ecologically valid. Part Two included an existing measure of weight-stigma (attitude scale) and three sets of vignette-based questions to measure pupils’ perceptions of the frequency and severity of different incidents of unkindness. Part Two, was administered to 214 participants via a computerised survey. Results: The majority of pupils (61%) judged the overweight characters to be the least accepted. Participants also perceived significantly greater hurt, anger, embarrassment and humour to follow episodes of weight-based unkindness. Study Two aimed to better understand why, how and what is ‘different’ about pupils’ understanding of weight-based unkindness when compared to other types of unkindness. Methods: This study adopted an explorative approach to hear the lived experiences of six teachers and 29 children in two South West Primary Schools. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews, administered through focus groups (pupils) and paired interviews (teachers). Data was analysed using latent thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Results: The study found that pupils used the language of personal choice to attribute personal responsibility to overweight CYP, whilst teachers attributed this blame to their parents. Teachers espoused acceptance for the overweight whilst their behaviours implicitly reinforced the ‘thin-ideal’. Key findings are discussed from a theoretical perspective and their implication for supporting attitude change is highlighted.

De grandes variations physiologiques s’opèrent tout au long du développement de l’enfant et touchent toutes les étapes du devenir du médicament dans l’organisme. Ces changements physiologiques vont être à l’origine de l’importante variabilité interindividuelle des paramètres pharmacocinétiques chez l’enfant. Il est donc essentiel de connaître la pharmacocinétique des différentes molécules administrées ainsi que la variation des paramètres associés. Dans ce but, la pharmacocinétique de population semble être la méthode de choix. L’approche de population contrairement aux études pharmacocinétiques classiques peut se réaliser à partir de très peu de prélèvements sanguins par patient obtenus à des délais variables, ce qui représente un grand intérêt du point de vue éthique. La pharmacologie des antirétroviraux reste très peu connue chez l’enfant et très peu d’information est disponible sur l’efficacité des doses pédiatriques actuellement recommandées. Nous avons modélisé la pharmacocinétique de population de la lamivudine chez l’enfant et montré que les enfants les pluslégers donc les plus jeunes étaient potentiellement sous-exposés avec la dose recommandée et nous avons proposé une posologie plus adaptée. Nous avons également pu, pour la première fois, proposer des doses chez le nouveau-né car jusqu’alors les doses n’étaient basées que sur des hypothèses de maturation physiologique par rapport à l’adulte. Des doses pédiatriques pour le ténofovir ont pu être déterminées pour la première fois à partir de la modélisation de sa pharmacocinétique. La dernière étape de ma thèse a été consacrée à l’utilisation de l’approche de population dans un cadre pharmacocinétique et pharmacodynamique : un modèle reliant les concentrations de la lamivudine, de la didanosine et de l’efavirenz à l’efficacité virologique de cette trithérapie chez l’enfant nous a permis d’élaborer un score prédictif de l’échec de la thérapie très puissant et prometteur quant à son utilité dans la prise en charge thérapeutique des enfants infectés par le VIH. / Large physiological variations are observed throughout the development of children, these variations are involved in all steps of the fate of the drug. These physiological changes induce a high interindividual variability of pharmacokinetic parameters in children. Thus, it is important to study the pharmacokinetics of various compounds administered in children as well as the variation of associated parameters. For this purpose, population pharmacokinetics seems to be well adapted. The population approach unlike conventional pharmacokinetic studies can be performed with very few blood samples per patient obtained at different times, which presents a great interest in terms of ethics in children. The pharmacology of many antiretroviral drugs remains unknown in children and very few information is available on the effectiveness of currently recommended pediatric doses. A population pharmacokinetic model of lamivudine in children has been performed and we found that the youngest children were potentially underexposed with the recommended dose and an appropriate dosage has been proposed. For the first time, doses for newborns have been proposed as well; indeed the current lamivudine doses are based on physiological maturity assumptions derived from adults. Pediatric doses for tenofovir were proposed also for the first time thanks’ to population modeling. In the last part of this thesis we use the population approach to perform a pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic model linking the concentrations of lamivudine, didanosine and efavirenz to virologic efficacy in children. A composite score has been derived from the model and provided a high predictive performance to treatment failure. This score seems to be very useful in the therapeutic management of HIV-1 infected children.

The current study sought to explore the effects of eating behaviors on mental health and the internalization of attitudes toward one's appearance. This was performed through a survey distributed through a global online market research firm, Dynata, and gathered 495 eligible participants. Of those, 78 represented the plant-based group, and 417 represented the non-plant-based group. Each completed the survey containing sections with the Mizes Anorectic Cognitions Scale (MACS) to assess if they were at low or high risk for having/developing an eating disorder, a section determining if participants were plant-based (defined as a regimen that encourages whole, plant-based foods and discourages meats, dairy products, and eggs as well as all refined and processed foods (Tuso et al., 2013)) or not, and asking what their perceived benefits were from their plant-based (or lack of plant-based) diet, a section on the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance (SATAQ-4), and finally, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS). The status of participants being plant-based or non-plant-based was analyzed as this study sought to explore past research that found plant-based diets to be physically and mentally beneficial (Beezhold et al., 2014; Benefits of Plant-Based Diets, 2021; Daneshzad et al., 2019). A series of statistical tests were conducted on SPSS 28 to analyze which groups (high risk for E.D. and plant-based, high risk for E.D. and non-plant-based, low risk for E.D. and plant-based, or low risk for E.D. and non-plant-based) were statistically significant compared to one another. The findings revealed the plant-based group to contain higher percentage of high risk for eating disorder participants. The plant-based group, regardless of high risk, was negatively associated with higher levels of scores on four out of the five sections including internalization of attitudes towards appearance, weight-based pressures from family, weight-based pressures from peers, and higher levels of reported depression, anxiety, and stress. Pressures felt from the media did not display a statistically significant level of difference between any of the high/low risk and plant-based to high/low risk and non-plant-based. The results were interpreted using social learning theory, which proposes that humans have evolved an advanced capacity for observational learning, enabling them to acquire knowledge, attitudes, values, emotional proclivities, and competencies through information conveyed by a rich variety of actual and symbolic models (Bandura, 2002). This allowed for cause and effects to be hypothesized for why the plant-based group was negatively associated with worse mental health and internalization of attitudes towards appearance. Among these hypothesized causes included participants adopting a plant-based diet due to its growing social media popularity, users learning from observation and leading to aquired knowledge, attitudes, values, and beliefs on the diet. Furthermore, those with an obsession of clean-eating could have led many high-risk for E.D. participants to fulfill their internalized thin-ideal and pressure from family and peers regarding appearance through this popular diet they have observed through social media, which would be consistent with previous studies (Holmgren, 2017; Stewart & Ogden, 2020). Limitations include the small sample size of plant-based dieters without equal representation of low to high risk for E.D.s, along with the limitation on not knowing the reasoning why each participant is plant-based (ethical, environmental, health, diet purposes, or due to social learning and popularity) nor for how long they have adhered to this lifestyle. Future research should expand this study to more locations, analyze for differences based on age groups, and build upon the current study to allow for more generalizability.

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