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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

Yes / During development, multipotent progenitor cells establish lineage-specific programmers of gene activation and silencing underlying their differentiation into specialized cell types. We show that the Polycomb component Cbx4 serves as a critical determinant that maintains the epithelial identity in the developing epidermis by repressing nonepidermal gene expression programs. Cbx4 ablation in mice results in a marked decrease of the epidermal thickness and keratinocyte (KC) proliferation associated with activation of numerous neuronal genes and genes encoding cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (p16/p19 and p57). Furthermore, the chromodomain- and SUMO E3 ligase-dependent Cbx4 activities differentially regulate proliferation, differentiation, and expression of nonepidermal genes in KCs. Finally, Cbx4 expression in KCs is directly regulated by p63 transcription factor, whereas Cbx4 overexpression is capable of partially rescuing the effects of p63 ablation on epidermal development. These data demonstrate that Cbx4 plays a crucial role in the p63-regulated program of epidermal differentiation, maintaining the epithelial identity and proliferative activity in KCs via repression of the selected nonepidermal lineage and cell cycle inhibitor genes.

No / We organized the first International Symposium on Skin Epigenetics at the Centre for Skin Sciences at the University of Bradford (West Yorkshire, UK) on 2nd and 3rd April 2012. The goal of the Symposium was to bring together two research communities—skin and chromatin biologists—and discuss the most important aspects of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms that control skin development and regeneration. The symposium was attended by more than 80 participants from countries across Europe, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and USA, and representing academic institutions and industry. Epigenetic regulation of gene expression programs in the skin is a novel trend in research in cutaneous biology, and several landmark papers arising in the field were published recently (reviewed in Botchkarev et al., 2012; Botchkareva, 2012; Frye and Benitah, 2012; Yi and Fuchs, 2012; Zhang et al., 2012). The Symposium program included six Keynote lectures, the inaugural John M. Wood Memorial Lecture, and six sessions that covered major levels of epigenetic regulation.