Accretion Driven Outflows from Black Holes Across the Mass Scale.

Accretion driven outflows in the form of highly collimated jets and wide-angle winds carry away immense amount of material and energy from the accretion disks surrounding black holes. During my thesis, I examine the connection between the accretion onto black holes and the resulting outflows that are produced. I begin with two case studies of a supermassive and stellar-mass black hole. In the former, I examine the disk-jet connection, while in the later, I examine the accretion driven winds from the system. Both studies indicate that much can be learned from studying the sources in great detail as well as from comparing the results to other black holes, including their low or high mass counterparts, respectively. As a result, my final study examines both winds and jets across the mass scale. My study indicates that by comparing the outflows across such a large mass range, there is a common dependence of outflow power on bolometric luminosity, i.e., mass accretion rate. Consequently, this relation suggests that winds and jets may be regulated by a common mechanism. In the conclusion of my thesis, I briefly discuss future work that is left to be done in order to understand accretion driven outflows from black holes.PhDAstronomy and AstrophysicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108816/1/ashking_1.pd

Medicalization of Female Beauty: A Content Analysis of Cosmetic Procedures

Over the past decade, cosmetic procedures have significantly increased in options available for females to achieve the American cultural standards of beauty. The purpose of this study is to conduct a content analysis of brochures and to observe what cosmetic procedures are made available to female customers from plastic surgery centers, and also to examine the medical and therapeutic framing techniques used to encourage females to undergo cosmetic procedures. Three plastic surgery centers (overall response rate= 60%) located in one metropolitan area served as participants for this study. The researcher observed the locations and collected all brochures made available. Twenty - one diverse brochures were used in this study as well as the researcher locate d the websites to view any missing information of services offered not included in the brochures. A content analysis was conducted of the brochures. All of the cosmetic surgery centers were accredited and advertised each plastic surgeon’s credibility. Various invasive and noninvasive cosmetic procedures were offered by each center including procedures that focus on the face, breasts, body, and skin care. Additionally, all cosmetic surgery centers marketed their elective surgeries to females by using medical terms as well as therapeutic terms. As the rates of cosmetic procedures have significantly increased overtime, cosmetic surgeons appear to benefit from employing medical terms to diagnose beauty among their target population of healthy females. In addition, using therapeutic terms to ensure increase self - esteem among females is another beneficial framing techniqu

What is on Tap? The Role of Spin in Compact Objects and Relativistic Jets

We examine the role of spin in launching jets from compact objects across the mass scale. Our work includes a total of 37 Seyferts, 11 stellar-mass black holes, and 13 neutron stars. We find that when the Seyfert reflection lines are modeled with Gaussian line features (a crude proxy for inner disk radius and therefore spin), only a slight inverse correlation is found between the Doppler-corrected radio luminosity at 5 GHz (a proxy for jet power) and line width. When the Seyfert reflection features are fit with relativistically-blurred disk reflection models that measure spin, there is a tentative positive correlation between the Doppler-corrected radio luminosity and the spin measurement. Further, when we include stellar-mass black holes in the sample, to examine the effects across the mass scale, we find a slightly stronger correlation with radio luminosity per unit mass and spin, at a marginal significance (2.3 sigma confidence level). Finally, when we include neutron stars, in order to probe lower spin values, we find a positive correlation (3.3 sigma confidence level) between radio luminosity per unit mass and spin. Although tentative, these results suggest that spin may have a role in determining the jet luminosity. In addition, we find a slightly more significant correlation (4.4 sigma confidence level) between radio luminosity per Bolometric luminosity and spin, using our entire sample of black holes and neutrons stars. Again, although tentative, these relations point to the possibility that the mass accretion rate, i.e. Bolometric luminosity, is also important in determining the jet luminosity, in addition to spin. Our analysis suggests that mass accretion rate and disk or coronal magnetic field strength may be the "throttle" in these compact systems, to which the Eddington limit and spin may set the maximum jet luminosity that can be achieved.Comment: 14 pages, 13 Figures, ApJ Accepte

The Fundamental Plane of Black Hole Accretion and its Use as a Black Hole-Mass Estimator

We present an analysis of the fundamental plane of black hole accretion, an empirical correlation of the mass of a black hole ($M$), its 5 GHz radio continuum luminosity ($\nu L_{\nu}$), and its 2-10 keV X-ray power-law continuum luminosity ($L_X$). We compile a sample of black holes with primary, direct black hole-mass measurements that also have sensitive, high-spatial-resolution radio and X-ray data. Taking into account a number of systematic sources of uncertainty and their correlations with the measurements, we use Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to fit a mass-predictor function of the form $\log(M/10^{8}\,M_{\scriptscriptstyle \odot}) = \mu_0 + \xi_{\mu R} \log(L_R / 10^{38}\,\mathrm{erg\,s^{-1}}) + \xi_{\mu X} \log(L_X / 10^{40}\,\mathrm{erg\,s^{-1}})$. Our best-fit results are $\mu_0 = 0.55 \pm 0.22$, $\xi_{\mu R} = 1.09 \pm 0.10$, and $\xi_{\mu X} = -0.59^{+0.16}_{-0.15}$ with the natural logarithm of the Gaussian intrinsic scatter in the log-mass direction $\ln\epsilon_\mu = -0.04^{+0.14}_{-0.13}$. This result is a significant improvement over our earlier mass scaling result because of the increase in active galactic nuclei sample size (from 18 to 30), improvement in our X-ray binary sample selection, better identification of Seyferts, and improvements in our analysis that takes into account systematic uncertainties and correlated uncertainties. Because of these significant improvements, we are able to consider potential influences on our sample by including all sources with compact radio and X-ray emission but ultimately conclude that the fundamental plane can empirically describe all such sources. We end with advice for how to use this as a tool for estimating black hole masses.Comment: ApJ Accepted. Online interactive version of Figure 7 available at http://kayhan.astro.lsa.umich.edu/supplementary_material/fp

Negative School Experiences and Pain Reliever Misuse among a National Adolescent Sample

A recent public health concern is the nonmedical use of prescription drugs among U.S. adolescents. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between negative school experiences and lifetime and past year pain reliever misuse among adolescents enrolled in high school nationwide. A secondary analysis was performed using the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2017 data. Participants included 8,337 adolescents enrolled in 9th -12th grades. A total of 6.0% of high school students reported they had misused pain relievers in their lifetime, and 3.9% reported they had misused pain relievers during the past year. High school students who reported the following negative school experiences were at increased odds of reporting lifetime pain reliever misuse: liked/hated going to school (adjusted OR [aOR] = 2.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.66-2.50); felt their coursework was somewhat/very boring (aOR = 1.81, 95%CI = 1.48-2.22), seldom/never meaningful (aOR = 2.01, 95%CI = 1.64-2.45), and/or would be somewhat/very unimportant to them later in life (aOR = 1.64, 95%CI = 1.33-2.01); and had teachers who seldom/never let them know they were doing a good job (aOR = 1.71, 95%CI = 1.40-2.09). High school students who had a “D” grade average or lower (aOR = 2.69, 95%CI = 1.89-3.82) and skipped school on at least one day (aOR = 2.18, 95%CI = 1.76-2.70) were more likely to report lifetime use. Similar significant findings were reported between negative school experiences and past year pain reliever misuse. Negative school experiences are risk factors for lifetime and past year pain reliever misuse among U.S. adolescents. Programming that reduces students’ negative school experiences may create a positive environment, and in turn, reduce misuse

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Current Cannabis Use among U.S. Young Adults

Cannabis use is a significant public health issue among U.S. young adults. The objective of this study was to assess the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and current cannabis use among U.S. young adults. We conducted a secondary analysis of the 2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, which involved 498 U.S. young adults 18-24 years old who had data available for analysis on ACEs and current cannabis use. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models were fitted to examine the associations between ACEs and current cannabis use. Adjusted models included participants’ sex, race/ethnicity, education level, and household income level. One-fourth (25.5%) of participants reported current cannabis use, and 21.3% reported one ACE, 25.2% reported 2-3 ACEs, and 38.4% reported ≥4 ACEs. Unadjusted (odds ratio [OR]=4.22, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.91-9.33) and adjusted (adjusted OR=4.23, 95%CI=1.57-11.38) model results indicated that participants who experienced ≥1 ACE were at increased odds of reporting current cannabis use than participants with no ACEs. Unadjusted (OR=5.79, 95%CI=2.40-14.00) and adjusted (AOR=6.48, 95%CI=2.15-19.55) model results indicated that participants who experienced ≥4 ACEs were at increased odds of reporting current cannabis use than participants with no ACEs. Adjusted model results revealed that experiencing living with a household member who had a mental illness or sexual abuse increased the odds of reporting current cannabis use. Results demonstrated relations among ACEs and current cannabis use in young adulthood, especially among those who experienced ≥4 ACEs and experienced living with a household member who had a mental illness or sexual abuse

Physical Pain and Participation in Organized Activities Among U.S. Adolescents

Chronic physical pain is a public health problem among adolescents in the United States. One important consideration for adolescent healthy development is participation in organized activities. Therefore, the study objective was to examine the associations between repeated or chronic physical pain and participation in organized activities overall and by activity type including sports, clubs, and other organized activities (e.g., dance) among U.S. adolescents. This secondary analysis utilized the 2018-2019 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) combined two-year dataset, and included 24,680 adolescents ages 12-17 years. We conducted unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analyses to examine the relationships between adolescent physical pain and participation in organized activities overall and by type (sports, clubs, other organized activities). Nearly 14% of adolescents had physical pain in the past 12-months. Unadjusted logistic regression model results indicated that adolescents with physical pain were less likely to participate in organized activities (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.66, 0.99) compared to adolescents without physical pain. Concerning specific organized activity type, unadjusted (OR = 0.73, 95%CI = 0.61, 0.86) and adjusted (aOR = 0.83, 95%CI = 0.70, 0.99) model results indicated that adolescents with physical pain were less likely to participate in sports compared to adolescents without physical pain. The current study found that adolescents with physical pain had lower odds of overall participation in organized activities, and specifically sports, when compared to adolescents without physical pain. Findings should be considered when developing and implementing pain prevention and treatment programming for adolescents in school and community settings