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Myocardial disarray is a likely focus for fatal ventricular arrhythmia in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Measuring the extent of this disarray could provide a better and more mechanistic marker of arrhythmic sudden cardiac death (SCD). Disarray may be inferred by using diffusion tensor cardiac magnetic resonance (DT-CMR), a novel non-invasive imaging technique which allows tissue microstructure to be assessed in vivo - something previously only possible in post-mortem specimens. DT-CMR probes the underlying myocardial architecture by characterising the three-dimensional process of water molecule diffusion as it is impeded by myocytes and interstitium. Thus, diffusion imaging surpasses the usual limits imposed by image resolution. Disarray together with other structural and ionic HCM defects are likely to cause irregularities in myocardial depolarisation and repolarisation to produce an abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG). Computational techniques such as machine learning could objectively learn from and make predictions on HCM ECG morphology, to identify distinct phenotypes within this heterogenous disease. The overall aim of this thesis was to characterise the underlying HCM substrate using in vivo DT-CMR imaging and machine learning of high-fidelity digital ECGs. Diastolic fractional anisotropy (FA), a parameter calculated from the diffusion tensor, was established as a marker of coherent myocyte alignment which demonstrated a mid-wall ring of high FA in healthy controls, corresponding to circumferentially-aligned mid-wall myocytes. In HCM, this ring was disrupted by reduced FA, despite the presence of normal helix angles which represents preserved transmural helical arrangement of myocytes. These findings are in concordance with published histology demonstrating that firstly, disarray and fibrosis invade circumferentially-aligned mid-wall myocytes at the interventricular insertion points and hypertrophied segment. And that secondly, the average myocyte orientation within the septal mid-wall remains circumferential despite disarray. FA was reduced in HCM compared to controls. Reduced FA in HCM was due to disarray and fibrosis. Markers of fibrosis, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and extracellular volume imaging, were both significant predictors of FA, in line with fibrosis contributing to low FA. Yet FA adjusted for fibrosis remained reduced in HCM, suggesting that low FA is likely to represent disarray after accounting for fibrosis. Reduced FA was associated with ventricular arrhythmia in HCM, even after correcting for fibrosis and hypertrophy. Phenotyping using machine learning of ECG morphology revealed four distinct HCM phenotypes. One phenotypic group with primary T wave inversion not secondary to QRS abnormalities had increased risk scores for SCD and increased extent of coexisting septal and apical hypertrophy compared to the other phenotypes. In conclusion, DT-CMR can reveal the microarchitecture of the beating left ventricle. I propose that diastolic FA is the first in vivo marker of disarray. Computational ECG phenotyping captures abnormal anatomical and ionic mechanisms and provides insights into HCM heterogeneity. Both techniques may provide independent risk factors as current clinical risk predictors do not capture the underlying pathophysiology intrinsically linked to arrhythmic risk in HCM.

Faith formation of children in a post-Christian America and balancing chasing American dream and obeying the Missio Dei poses insurmountable challenges to African immigrant families. This study analyzes works of scholars Karen-Marie Yust, Marva J. Dawn and Marjorie J. Thompson on faith formation and the family, and Andrew Kirk, Athyal and Nyce, Christopher J. Wright regarding Missio Dei. Bible texts on mission and faith formation are discussed. Through an exploratory study of focus group discussions and observation and document analysis, this study argues that the family, church and community need to unite and work together as interrelated systems to advance the mission of God. While parents still want to form the faith of their children amidst living in a post Christian environment, a myriad of challenges still hamper their efforts in faith formation of their children. Parents therefore need to become intentional in developing the faith of their children in the home, church, community and schools.

This dissertation presents a comparative analysis of incumbency advantage across developed democracies. In particular, it examines two variants of incumbency advantage: 1) the extra electoral benefits that political parties gain from fielding incumbent candidates (incumbency advantage for political parties) and 2) the electoral advantage that individual incumbents enjoy over non-incumbent candidates of the same party (incumbency advantage for individual candidates). For each type of incumbency advantage, this dissertation offers three distinctive contributions. First, it provides comparable estimates of both types of incumbency advantage across different electoral systems. The existing literature lacks appropriate estimates of either type of incumbency advantage that are comparable across different electoral systems. This dissertation furnishes fully comparable estimates — the first of its kind — and makes it possible to conduct a systematic comparative analysis of incumbency advantage. Second, it develops a theory of electoral systems' impact on the magnitude of incumbency advantage. This theory is partly based on the theory of personal-vote incentives, since the personal vote is one of the critical sources of incumbency advantage. However, the theory developed in this dissertation highlights an important departure from the personal-vote theory, because the personal-vote incentives do not always translate into actual electoral gains from personal-vote building activities. This new theory of comparative incumbency advantage advances our knowledge of the consequences of electoral systems and illuminates the important distinction between the personal-vote incentives and the actual electoral gains. Third, it provides an elaborate multiple-country empirical analysis, based on the newly compiled dataset of district- and candidate-level election results in ten developed democracies (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom). This empirical analysis constitutes by far the most extensive cross-national analysis of incumbency advantage based on the detailed aggregate election data. The dissertation also presents a few significant implications for the relationship between electoral systems and accountability. In particular, the clear distinction made between incumbency advantage for political parties and incumbency advantage for individual candidates makes it possible to derive specific implications for the collective accountability of parties and the individual accountability of legislators, respectively.