Hip replacement surgery has experienced a dramatic evolution in recent years supported by the latest developments in many areas of technology and surgical procedures. Unfortunately complications that follow hip replacement surgery remains the most challenging dilemma faced both by the patients and medical experts. The thesis presents a novel approach to segment the prosthesis of a THR surgical process by using an Active Contour Model (ACM) that is initiated via an automatically detected seed point within the enarthrosis region of the prosthesis. The circular area is detected via the use of a Fast, Randomized Circle Detection Algorithm. Experimental results are provided to compare the performance of the proposed ACM based approach to popular thresholding based approaches. Further an approach to automatically detect the Obturator Foramen using an ACM approach is also presented. Based on analysis of how medical experts carry out the detection of loosening and subsidence of a prosthesis and the presence of infections around the prosthesis area, this thesis presents novel computational analysis concepts to identify the key feature points of the prosthesis that are required to detect all of the above three types of complications. Initially key points along the prosthesis boundary are determined by measuring the curvature on the surface of the prosthesis. By traversing the edge pixels, starting from one end of the boundary of a detected prosthesis, the curvature values are determined and effectively used to determine key points of the prosthesis surface and their relative positioning. After the key-points are detected, pixel value gradients across the boundary of the prosthesis are determined along the boundary of the prosthesis to determine the presence of subsidence, loosening and infections. Experimental results and analysis are presented to show that the presence of subsidence is determined by the identification of dark pixels around the convex bend closest to the stem area of the prosthesis and away from it. The presence of loosening is determined by the additional presence of dark regions just outside the two straight line edges of the stem area of the prosthesis. The presence of infections is represented by the determination of dark areas around the tip of the stem of the prosthesis. All three complications are thus determined by a single process where the detailed analysis defer. The experimental results presented show the effectiveness of all proposed approaches which are also compared and validated against the ground truth recorded manually with expert user input.

Geophysical investigation of the subsurface through seismic refraction and reflection methods provides an efficient and non-invasive means towards addressing geologic problems across multiple scales. Both seismic techniques, in an active-source exploration setting, involve inducing acoustic waves into the subsurface and measuring their propagation velocities and amplitudes. These measurements have physically-based relationships with the properties of the underlying strata, thus allowing changes in the seismic measurements to be interpreted with respect to changes in the subsurface geology. Two applications of the seismic method are presented in this dissertation: (1) shallow seismic refraction acquisition and processing applied to the near-surface investigations of soil and regolith, which constitute the Critical Zone (CZ), beneath the upland hillslopes of the Valles Caldera, New Mexico; (2) interpretation of 2-D and 3-D marine seismic reflection data that image the upper 10-km of the crust beneath the Southern Guinea Plateau, offshore Guinea, West Africa. In both cases, the seismic data provide necessary constraints for the generation of accurate subsurface models that permit further geophysical modeling. The near-surface results, presented in Appendix A, provided a rich dataset of weathered thicknesses across hillslopes that supported an investigation of potential relationships between CZ geologic architecture and topographic attributes. Quantified relationships suggest that calibrated predictions based on the topography can provide first-order estimates of regolith thickness across upland landscapes. These results add to the ongoing CZ-science endeavor to understand proposed links between subsurface weathering processes and their surface expressions. In Appendix B, interpretations of high-resolution 3-D seismic data have illuminated deformational structures associated with Mesozoic rifting of the Southern Guinea Plateau. The interpretations were expanded onto regional 2-D seismic profiles, permitting a regional synthesis of the southern margin’s structural evolution. Additional tectonic subsidence and forward-gravity modeling highlight the influence of Jurassic rifting on the Southern Guinea Plateau prior to Early-Cretaceous rifting and separation, as well as crustal thickness estimates from the continental shelf out towards oceanic crust. Lastly, the Guinea-Demerara conjugate plateaus, and their associated deformations, were restored to 100 Ma, revealing an apparent upper-crustal asymmetry between the two margins. Appendix C presents two seismic-exploration methodologies based on 3-D seismic reflection data: (1) the calculation and interpretation of two co-rendered volumetric seismic attributes – most-positive curvature and semblance; (2) numerically modeling the tectonic subsidence of an entire 3-D seismic survey. Both techniques are used to address the inherent difficulty in interpreting the extent to which Jurassic rifting affected the Southern Guinea Plateau. Furthermore, the numerical model of subsidence provides a new exploration technique towards qualitatively and quantitatively assisting in the assessment of potential hydrocarbon-bearing basins.

In November 2016, 38 sinkholes formed due to subsurface erosion above undermined ground on Donkerhoek farm near Sasolburg. The fact that the sinkholes formed more than 24 years after mining in the area ceased, emphasised the need for a method to predict the likelihood of sinkhole formation due to subsurface erosion. This is especially relevant for mining houses required to quantify their mine closure risks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanisms and soil properties involved in the formation of the 38 sinkholes on Donkerhoek farm through a fieldwork and laboratory testing programme and develop a method to predict the likelihood of sinkhole formation. Three areas were selected for test pit excavation: an area with large sinkholes, one with small sinkholes and a third with no sinkholes but with a history of subsidence crack formation. The same mechanism of sinkhole formation was observed in both the large and small sinkhole areas: at the soil-rock interface, soil was being eroded into a subsidence crack in the rock, resulting in an upwards migrating cavity and the eventual formation of a sinkhole on surface when the cover over the cavity collapsed. This was the first time that this mechanism was observed in the Sasolburg area, having previously only been identified in the Secunda area. The laboratory tests, carried out on samples obtained during the fieldwork, included foundation indicator, dispersivity, XRF and XRD, soil water retention curves, consolidated undrained triaxial and permeability tests. By comparison of the results from the different study areas, it was concluded that the larger sinkholes form in areas with highly dispersive soils, higher clay content, higher swell potential and a higher capacity to retain suctions when wetted. The following soil properties and factors were identified as the main contributors to sinkhole formation: • The strength of the lid, which is highly influenced by the unsaturated behaviour of the lid material. The lid strength determines the sinkhole diameter; • The erodibility of the material which is influenced by dispersivity and the material obtaining a crumb structure due to desiccation; • The activity of the soil, which influences the volume changes during drying and thereby the width and depth of desiccation cracks; and • The thickness of the soil layer overlying the rockhead. With the critical factors identified, the Van der Merwe method to predict sinkhole size was used as basis to develop an index method to predict the likelihood of sinkhole formation due to subsurface erosion above undermined ground. The method considers combinations of the following factor groups to express a high or low likelihood of the formation of large or small sinkholes in a particular area: • The strength of the lid material, mainly influenced by the unsaturated behaviour of the soil; • The capacity for cavity formation (CCF), which combines the dispersivity, erodibility and activity of the soil; and • The influence of the thickness of the soil layer overlying the rock, evaluated by calculating the ratio between crack width in the rock and the soil layer thickness. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Civil Engineering / MEng (Geotechnical Engineering) / Unrestricted

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This thesis presents an application of a numerical formulation incorporating the effects of joints, cracks, and fractures to a soil subsidence predictions problem, and the extension of that formulation to combined discrete slip planes and jointed media continua formulations. The results obtained are compared to each other and to a physical centrifuge simulation performed previously on the same problem.

Ground subsidence is today very common. It can occur due to man-made or natural causes. Today, it is most common that subsidence occurs in urban areas, and there the causes are almost exclusively man-made, including groundwater extraction, construction under or above ground. This can lead to damage of buildings or other constructions and lead to large costs for reparation. To avoid this, subsidence must be detected in an early stage. Therefore, this thesis work will study the most effective way to detect and measure subsidence using dInSAR, GNSS and levelling. The thesis work will contain a literature study, a compilation of cases comparing the methods and a quantitative comparison of data, called case Stockholm. The main focus of case Stockholm is to compare the RMS error for the datasets and to determine how well the linear regression of the datasets cohere. The literature study and the case compilation presents the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods, where dInSAR’s strength is the ability to measure large areas at once while the weakness is the inability to detect small movements within a large movement. The possibility to measure individual points of interest is the strength of both GNSS and levelling, where the most time-consuming method, levelling, also has the highest accuracy. In case Stockholm, the linear regression for dInSAR mostly follows the linear regression for GNSS and levelling. However, irregular levelling measurements that do not follow the general ground subsidence is missed by dInSAR and the amplitude of the dInSAR measurements differ from both GNSS and levelling measurements. This confirms the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the literature study. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the most effective way of using dInSAR, GNSS and levelling is to first screen large areas for any movement using dInSAR. Later only the areas that display movement of any sort is measured with either GNSS or levelling depending on demands on accuracy. / Sättningar i mark är något som idag är väldigt vanligt. De sker antingen av naturliga orsaker eller skapas av människans påverkan på marken. Idag är den vanligaste förekomsten av sättningar i eller i närheten av stora städer där upptagning av grundvatten samt konstruktion ovan och under mark påverkar marken i så stor utsträckning att skador på byggnader och konstruktioner kan uppstå. För att undvika stora reparationskostnader så är det nödvändigt att upptäcka sättningarna i ett så tidigt skede som möjligt. Denna studie kommer därför behandla möjligheten att på ett så effektivt sätt som möjligt upptäcka och mäta sättningar med hjälp av dInSAR, GNSS och avvägning. Detta kommer göras genom en litteraturstudie, en sammanställning av andra praktiska fall där de tidigare nämnda metoderna jämförts med varandra samt en kvantitativ jämförelse av data över Stockholm. I den kvantitativa jämförelsen kommer vikten ligga på att jämföra metoderna baserat på RMS fel samt hur väl de linjära approximationerna följer varandra för de olika metoderna. Litteraturstudien tillsammans med sammanställningen av de praktiska fallen ger en bred bild av metodernas styrkor och svagheter, där dInSARs styrka ligger i förmågan att läsa av stora områden men dess svaghet är att små individuella rörelser inom en stor rörelse inte kan fångas upp. Styrkan för GNSS och avvägning är punktinmätning, där avvägning har den högsta noggrannheten, men också är mest tidskrävande. Den kvantitativa jämförelsen av data bekräftar styrkorna och svagheterna för metoderna då det var tydligt att dInSAR till största del fångar upp samma markrörelse som både GNSS och avvägning. Det som skiljer dInSAR från GNSS och avvägning är amplituden av mätningarna samt det faktum att vissa avvägda mätningar som visar en annan rörelse än den generella inte fångas upp av dInSAR. Slutsatsen som kan dras från detta är att det mest effektiva sätt att upptäcka och mäta sättningar är att till en början grovt granska stora områden för eventuell rörelse med användning av dInSAR och att sedan, där rörelse uppmäts, göra noggrannare punktmätningar med antingen GNSS eller avvägning, beroende på önskad noggrannhet.

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