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I DEVELOPED A NEW HIGH THROUGHPUT DUAL CHANNEL HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING CONFIGURATION BASED ON ACOUSTO-OPTIC TUNABLE FILTER. THE DEVELOPED IMAGING SYSTEM WAS CHARACTERIZED AND EVALUATED IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER CONVENTIONAL CONFIGURATIONS. THE NEW IMAGING SYSTEM PROVED HIGHER THROUGHPUT WITH RESPECT TO THE CURRENTLY USED CONFIGURATIONS.THE IMAGING SYSTEM WAS THEN USED TO QUANTITATIVELY ASSESS AND PRECISELY CLASSIFY SKIN ERYTHEMA INDUCED ARTIFICIALLY ON VOLUNTEERS AND NATURALLY ON SKIN CANCER PATIENTS DUE TO RADIOTHERAPY TREATMENT. / Recent cancer statistics show that 40% of Canadians might contract cancer during their life and 25% of Canadians might die due to cancer. In skin, head and neck cancers, surgery and radiation therapies are the most prevalent treatment options, while radiation therapy is the most commonly used approach. A common problem in radiation therapy is tumors behave differently against ionizing radiation. For instance, with the same dose, some tumors are fully damaged or shrunk, while others are less affected. The difference in individual tumor response to therapy is transformed into a research question: how to quantitatively assess tumor response to radiation and how to tune radiation therapy to achieve full destruction for tumor cells? Few past studies addressed the question, although no definite answer was realized. This work is a part of a project that investigates the hypothesis that radiation response of skin is correlated to individual tumor response. In the case of high correlation, the skin’s faster response to ionizing radiation can be used to modify the irradiation dose to achieve the maximum destruction of individual’s tumor. To examine the project hypothesis, radiation-induced skin redness or erythema was selected as an acute skin reaction to being objectively quantified. Hence, the overall goal of the research thesis work is to objectively assess and precisely quantify radiation-induced erythema or radiation dermatitis. Skin erythema was assessed formerly by multiple optical and non-optical modalities. The current gold standard is the visual assessment (VA). Unfortunately, VA lacks objectiveness, precise communication, and quantification. To push the limitations of VA and past techniques, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was proposed to be used for erythema assessment. The work detailed in this thesis aims to create more confidence in HSI to be utilized toward objectively quantify skin erythema. To reach this goal, initially, a new high-throughput dual channel acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF)-based-HSI instrument was developed for monitoring radiation dermatitis. AOTF-HSI instrument design, implementation, and full characterization are presented. Second, the developed AOTF-HSI instrument is evaluated against a liquid crystal tunable filter (LCTF) instrument. Third, to be prepared for clinical operation, the AOTF-HSI equipment was used to classify an artificially-induced erythema on healthy volunteers in an exploratory study. A robust linear discriminant analysis (LDA)-based classification method was developed for the purpose of image classification. Finally, HSI instrument and LDA classification method were utilized in a preliminary clinical study to properly monitor and precisely quantify radiation dermatitis for skin cancer patients. In the clinical study, erythema indices were computed using Dawson’s method. Least square fitting was used to fit the acquired absorbance data, and thus quantify the hemoglobin concentration change along the study duration. Moreover, LDA was used to contrast spectral and digital imaging for erythema classification. In sum, the work documented in this thesis was willfully directed to achieve an efficient, portable, user-friendly hyperspectral imaging system which has the opportunity to be a benchtop in the clinical daily procedure in the near future. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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The Human form can be translated and diagrammed in multiple components, such as movement, structure, emotion, and tendency. As the art of dance redefines the limits of the body, these characteristics can be directly applied to the development of and progression through an architectural space. By abstracting movement of the human body, an architectural form can be derived. Observing movement of the human body through an architectural space provides potential design insight and direction. Taking the existing components of the skin and bone in the human body, a structural form and potentially limitless skin for a building can be obtained. How does movement occur within a space and how can an architectural space be designed to 'move'? / Master of Architecture

A study was conducted on the measurement of skin friction, the least under-stood component of drag. Skin friction is considered the "last frontier" in drag reduction for supersonic flight, but to understand skin friction, it must be accurately measured. This study utilized the direct measuring technique for skin friction. A small de-vice, termed a skin friction gage, measures the stress on a cantilever beam topped with a movable surface piece as a shear flow passes over the flush surface. The improvement of these devices for various flow fields is ongoing. A problem that arose with many designs was leakage of a gap-filling liquid. The typical direct measuring skin friction gage uses oil in a gap between the cantilever beam and the encasement to dampen vibrations, to create an even flow over the surface, and for temperature compensation. In high speed testing the oil leaks out; therefore, a gage with rubber to fill the gap instead of oil was introduced This study employed a finite element method model to fully understand the strains involved with the rubber and the skin friction gage. The development of a calibration device, called the Calibration Rig, for the rubber skin friction gages was constructed. The Calibration Rig was successful, but deemed to be more cumbersome than initially expected. This led to the development of a thin rubber sheet to cover the face of the gage instead of rubber filling the entire gap. More finite element method modeling was done to finalize the design of a gage with a rubber sheet. The design consisted of a plastic skin friction gage with an approximately 0.015 in. thick rubber sheet, a 0.0625 in. wide gap between the floating head on the cantilever beam and the encasement to be filled with oil, and semi-conductor strain gages to measure the beam deflection. Vibration tests were performed to determine if the rubber sheet produced the required damping. These tests were successful, and so much so, that the oil for damping was not necessary. However, supersonic wind tunnel tests at Mach 2.4 which were done at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, initially yielded unfavorable results. The rubber sheet failed during the violent process of starting and unstarting of the tunnel. More study on the adhesive mounting of the rubber sheet to the skin friction gage face is needed. / Master of Science

Skin is a very broad topic that allows discovering and exploring all the possibilities of what skin can be. Furthermore, skin is much known for its flexibility that can shape and wrap almost every object we can think of. At the beginning of my thesis research about skin, I thought I knew enough about it to start, but I discovered later on that skin is not a surface. Moreover, I directed myself into exploring more and more about skin and its characteristics. I built many models to help me understand some of the natural identity of skin and related materials. Those models became a concept for my project - a museum of skin instruments - in Alexandria, Virginia where I implied the mechanism of different skin instruments in each building. Exploration and experiments were the key to develop my design process. / Master of Architecture