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Pathological calcification is the localised formation of hard tissue where it should not exist. Some of these conditions, such as heterotopic ossification (HO), have complex biological pathways leading to the ordered, cellular laydown of bone, while others, such as kidney stones, are driven primarily by material chemistry. Regardless of aetiology, all such conditions lead to mineral formation in ectopic locations, causing pain and a range of disabling effects. In this thesis, hexametaphosphate (HMP), a potent multivalent cation chelator, is investigated as a potential new therapy that targets the final, mineral formation step of these conditions. This approach may be used prophylactically, but can also dissolve mineral once formed, offering a previously absent medicinal alternative to surgery. HMP, whose structure is controversial, was found to be a linear polyphosphate with an average chain length of around 15 phosphate tetrahedra, rather than a six membered ring as often stated, with the ability to chelate one divalent cation for each pair of phosphates. Colloidal alginate could be loaded with up to 0.2 M HMP for targeted delivery, and formulations exhibited shear thinning with immediate viscosity recovery. These formulations were then investigated in an Achilles tenotomy model of HO. Neither inflammation nor accumulation of HMP or alginate was observed in the treated legs or filter organs. The ability of the formulations to reduce HO was less clear, and it was found that injection of fluid increased HO, apparently regardless of composition, though the needle itself did not. HMP was also investigated as a new therapy for kidney stones, where it was found to be over 16 fold more effective at dissolving calcium stones than citrate. Further, HMP was found to impart a strong negative charge on the particles, preventing aggregation. Overall, this study has shed light on the structure of HMP, established its usefulness as a potential therapy for HO and kidney stones, developed a vehicle for its targeted delivery, and investigated its safety and efficacy in vivo.

Fundamental issues of political representation persist in modern democratic states. Policies favoured by large majorities of the population are not acted upon by elected representatives. Direct forms of democratic policymaking are increasingly used to settle policy disputes. And the amount of money in politics continues to grow. At the same time, new sources of data allow us to test the political behaviour of democratic actors in novel ways. Across three papers, this thesis explores how representation and policymaking operate in modern democratic systems and how researchers should measure political behaviour in these contexts. In Chapter 2, I ask why popular legislation is passed by direct democratic means instead of by the legislature? I use a combination of district-level voting data, ideological estimates of financial donors, and a survey of state legislators to test competing theories of ballot initiative success in the United States. I argue that direct democratic policymaking is necessary when issues lie outside mainstream policy networks. Legislators appear averse to policies that are novel, untested, or go against the preferences of their financial supporters. In Chapter 3, I show how experimentalists can make valid statistical inferences when their data contains group-level structures. I illustrate this guidance using both Monte Carlo simulations and a review of experimental publications over the past three years. In Chapter 4, I examine how campaign finance disclosure affects vote choice in both representative and direct democratic contexts. Applying the lessons of the previous chapter, I use conjoint experiments to show that while voters can use disclosure information to inform vote choice, these effects are crowded out once partisan, ideological and issue cues are made explicit. Across all three chapters, I develop inferential techniques designed to account for limitations of observed data and, in particular, incomplete data.

Many security protocols are built as the composition of an application-layer protocol and a secure transport protocol, such as TLS. There are many approaches to proving the correctness of such protocols. One popular approach is verification by abstraction, in which the correctness of the application-layer protocol is proven under the assumption that the transport layer satisfies certain properties, such as confidentiality. Following this approach, we adapt the strand spaces model in order to analyse application-layer protocols that depend on an underlying secure transport layer, including unilaterally authenticating secure transport protocols, such as unilateral TLS. Further, we develop proof rules that enable us to prove the correctness of application-layer protocols that use either unilateral or bilateral secure transport protocols. We then illustrate these rules by proving the correctness of WebAuth, a single-sign-on protocol that makes extensive use of unilateral TLS. In this thesis we also present a full proof of the model's soundness. In particular, we prove that, subject to a suitable independence assumption, if there is an attack against the application-layer protocol when layered on top of a particular secure transport protocol, then there is an attack against the abstracted model of the application-layer protocol. In contrast to existing work in this area, the independence assumption consists of eight statically-checkable conditions, meaning that it can be checked statically, rather than having to consider all possible runs of the protocol. Lastly, we extend the model to allow protocols that consist of an arbitrary number of layers to be proven correct. In this case, we prove the correctness of the intermediate layers using the high-level strand spaces model, by abstracting away from the underlying transport-layers. Further, we extend the above soundness results in order to prove that the multi-layer approach is sound. We illustrate the effectiveness of our technique by proving the correctness of a couple of simple multi-layer protocols.

The focus of this thesis is the development of conjugated homo- and heterometallic polyyne complexes for which the opto-electronic properties may be tuned to provide potential applications in molecular electronic devices.

This thesis describes the use of counterpropagating pulse trains to quasi-phase-match high-harmonic generation (HHG). Two novel techniques for generating trains of ultrafast pulses are described and demonstrated. The first method makes use of a birefringent crystal array to split a single pulse into a sequence of pulses. The second method makes use of the time-varying polarisation of a chirped pulse passed through a multiple-order wave plate to generate a train of pulses by the addition of a polariser. It is demonstrated that this second technique can be used to make pulse trains with non-uniform pulse separation by using an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter to manipulate the higher-order dispersion encountered by the chirped pulse. The crystal array method is used to demonstrate quasi-phase-matching of HHG in a gas-filled capillary, using one and two counterpropagating pulses. Enhancements of up to 60% of the intensity of the 27th harmonic of the 800,nm driving laser light are observed. Information on the spatial and dynamic properties of the HHG process is obtained from measurements of the coherence length in the capillary. Simulations of HHG in a capillary waveguide have been performed. These agree well with the results of the quasi-phase-matching experiments. The effect of mode-beating on the generation process in a capillary and its use as a quasi-phase-matching mechanism are investigated.

Bering Sea pollock fishing is characterized by high levels of physical risk, uncertainties in wages and schedule, close and extensive interdependence on other workers, and long absences from home. This occupation leads to a way of life which is full of extremes and has unusually strong effects on the family. This study examines the effects of the occupation on the quality of family life and working life through a teamwork perspective. It is a study of the slow breakdown in cooperation among families and the enhancement of cooperation in the work setting. The breakdown in family cooperation reduces the family’s ability to respond to its members’ needs for love, inclusion, and intimacy, and has important consequences for the quality of family life. The enhancement of cooperation in the work setting contributes to the creation of important social benefits such as trust, agreement, and a sense of inclusion. These social outcomes, and improved task performance, positively influence the quality of working life. Major themes include anthropology at home and among peers, family adaptations to occupational influences, the role of story-telling in building cooperation and commitment in teams, generosity and relaxed social accounting strategies in adult socialization, and the importance of extremes in evaluating the quality of working life.

Interracial interactions between college students are responsible for important learning outcomes, however many colleges and universities have failed to purposefully encourage students to interact across racial backgrounds. As a result of a lack purposefully facilitated cross-racial interactions (CRIs), fewer interracial interactions occur on U.S. campuses and this has diminished the important learning outcomes that those interactions accrue. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore how 25 White and Asian American students, within two divergent campus settings, experienced interracial interactions. Findings demonstrated that environmental and individual characteristics shaped how students experienced CRIs. Environmental factors that influenced CRIs included the quality of the campus racial climate as well as students' perceptions of the environment. Individual characteristics that shaped how students experienced CRIs included whether students had been able to develop an advanced sense of racial identity as well as a history of pre-college CRIs. Based upon student feedback, I recommended that campuses, regardless of how structurally diverse they may be, assess the campus racial climate and implement initiatives designed to ensure that CRIs, and important associated learning outcomes, are purposefully facilitated by educators. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The damage clusters produced by low dose, 80 keV Ni+ and W+ heavy-ion bombardment of pure nickel; of two nichrome alloys (with 8% and 17%Cr); and of a ternary alloy and 321 stainless steel which have the same base composition (Fe/Ni10%/Cr17%) have been studied by means of transmission electron microscopy. In all cases where the defects could be identified with confidence they were found to be vacancy in nature. Most of the defects were identified as Frank loops, some of which had partially dissociated. The number of loops that were identified as dissociated and the average degree of dissociation were dependent on the stacking fault energy γ, being greater in the low-γ ternary alloy and the stainless steel than in the high-γ nickel and nichrome alloys. In the high-y materials a small proportion (< 5%) of perfect loops was also observed. Defect yield values were between a factor of 2 and 5 higher for W+ ion bombardment than for the corresponding Ni+ ion irradiations, but the effect on the mean defect size and cascade efficiency was much less pronounced. In the case of the Ni+ ion bombardment, the defect yields in the two nichrome alloys were lower than in pure Ni. No such effect was observed for the W+ ion irradiations, when defect yield and cascade efficiency values very similar to those of pure nickel were obtained. The defect yield in the W+ ion irradiated ternary alloy was considerbly smaller than in the nichrome alloys and there was a further major decrease in the stainless steel. These reductions in defect yields were not accompanied by a change in the mean defect size nor in the distribution of the defect sizes which were very similar in all the materials for irradiation by a given ion species. The defect yield in W+ ion irradiated Ni remained constant with increasing irradiation temperature up to ~450°C and then decreased sharply at higher irradiation temperatures. The defect yield in W+ ion irradiated Ni/Cr17% remained constant up to at least 500°C. Possible physical explanations for these results are discussed.

Breast and penis augmentations are century old processes of body modification continuing in development and practice today. This Masters thesis is a content analysis of breast and penis augmentation print and internet advertisements to explore one facet of augmentation discourse presented in public space. Relevant theoretical literature includes fetish discourse and medical discourse as existing frameworks that conceptualize augmentation predominantly as a process of body fragmentation. After reviewing this literature, I expand to blend together perspectives from three body theorists, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, as an alternate framework for embodiment. I then use content analysis to examine the data collected from 21 print sources and 27 internet sources. The data indicates fetish discourse, focusing on body fragmentation, is the dominant content in breast and penis augmentation advertisements; however, I argue in the conclusion that incorporating elements of embodiment into fetish discourse is a better perspective for future research.

This dissertation examines the relationships among earnings variability, earnings management and bond risk premia. While previous empirical accounting research has focused on the existence of earnings management which smooths earnings variability, and managerial incentives to smooth earnings, this dissertation examines a shareholder incentive for managers to smooth the variability of earnings. Recent analytical research posits that shareholders can benefit from reductions in earnings variability by a reduced risk premium, which leads to a higher price on bond issues. This dissertation examines bond pricing models which show that bondholders do prefer a lower variability of earnings, ceteris paribus. The lower variability reduces the bondholders perception of the risk of default on a bond, which in turn lowers the risk premium required by bondholders. This dissertation examines the relationships of earnings variability, earnings management and bond risk premia for a sample of 472 bonds for 127 companies. The dissertation finds that the 127 sample firms tended to reduce earnings variability 16.9%, on average, through the use of discretionary accruals. Results suggest, however, that bondholders see through earnings management and examine the underlying earnings var iability (before the use of discretionary accruals) and cash flow variability in assessing a bond's required risk premium. The study also compares separate individual and institutional bond markets and finds that there is no difference in the relationships among earnings variability, earnings management and risk premia between the two markets. There are three major contributions to this study: (1) it develops a quantitative measure of earnings variability management over many years; (2) it empirically examines a shareholder incentive for earnings variability management posited in the accounting literature and presents evidence that is inconsistent with such an incentive; (3) it examines two separate and distinct bond markets for individual and institutional markets and finds that there is no evidence of a difference in the risk premium determination between the two. The results imply that the current level of managerial discretion does not permit managers to shift wealth from bondholders to shareholders through smoothing behavior and, therefore, restricting managerial discretion does not appear necessary. However, results are also consistent with discretionary accruals having no information content in the bond markets and that cash flow variability may be sufficient for bond pricing decisions.

Farmers’ mutual insurance companies in Tennessee have in many instances been very successful while some others have failed. This investigation was therefore undertaken for the purpose of studying the present condition of these companies with their strong and weak points; to make recommendations for improving their services to their present members; and to formulate plans by which new companies may be successfully organized with resulting benefits to farmers all over the state.