Die inhärenten elastomeren Eigenschaften von Gummiwerkstoffen sind im Vergleich zu Thermoplasten in vielen Spezialanwendungen vorteilhaft. Jedoch sind ihre schlechten Reibungs- und Verschleißeigenschaften ein wesentlicher Nachteil besonders bei tribologischen Anwendungen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden Reibung, Verschleiß und mechanische Eigenschaften von Gummiwerkstoffen, die Polytetrafluorethylen(PFTE)-Pulver enthalten, untersucht. Hauptziel war dabei die Verbesserung der Reibungs- und Verschleißeigenschaften bei weiterer Erhöhung der mechanischen Eigenschaften der Elastomere. Es ist bekannt, dass sich Reibungs- und Verschleißeigenschaften gummiähnlicher Materialien in vielfältiger Weise von den Reibungseigenschaften der meisten anderen Festkörper unterscheiden. Die Gründe dafür sind das viskoelastische Verhalten und der sehr geringe elastische Modul von Gummi. Die Verwendung von mit Elektronen modifizierten PTFE-Pulvern in Ethylen-Propylen-Dien-Monomer (EPDM) Kautschuken führt zu einer signifikanten Reduzierung der Reibung, Erhöhung der Verschleißfestigkeit und gleichzeitig zu verbesserten mechanischen Eigenschaften in Folge einer speziellen chemischen Kopplung zwischen dem modifiziertem PTFE-Pulver und dem EPDM. Gummirezeptur, Vernetzungsmethode und die viskoelastischen Materialeigenschaften beeinflussen wesentlich die tribologischen und mechanischen Eigenschaften. Morphologie, Dispersion und die chemische Kopplung des PTFE-Pulvers haben einen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Reibungs- und Verschleißverhalten. Die viskoelastischen Materialeigenschaften, d.h. Härte, E-Modul und tan delta (Verlustfaktor) der Gummimischungen sind kritische Parameter und erfordern deshalb eine Optimierung. In dieser Arbeit wurden zwei Modellsysteme untersucht, die auf zwei unterschiedlichen Kautschuktypen basieren: a) Ethylen-Propylene-Diene-Monomer (EPDM) Kautschuk und b) Polychloropren Kautschuk (CR). / The inherent elastomeric properties of rubber compounds in comparison to thermoplastics are advantageous in many special purpose applications. However, their characteristic poor friction and wear properties are of prime concern especially in tribological applications. In the present work, friction, wear and mechanical properties of rubber compounds based on PTFE powder have been investigated. The main aim was to improve the friction and wear properties while further enhancing the mechanical properties of rubber compounds. As known, friction and wear behaviour of rubber-like materials differ in many ways from the frictional properties of most other solids. The reason for this is the high viscoelasticity and very low elastic modulus of rubber. The use of electron-modified PTFE powder in EPDM results in significant improvement in reducing friction, enhancing wear resistance and simultaneously improving mechanical properties due to specific chemical coupling between modified PTFE powder and EPDM. The rubber formulation, crosslinking mode and bulk viscoelastic properties strongly influences friction, wear and mechanical properties. The morphology, dispersion, and specific chemical coupling of PTFE powder play a significant role on friction and wear behaviour. The bulk viscoelastic properties, i.e. hardness, modulus and tan delta (loss factor) of the compounds are critical parameters and therefore, requires optimization. In this work two model systems based on two different rubber matrixes i.e. Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Monomer (EPDM) and Chloroprene (CR) rubber have been investigated.

Jamaican males are a high-risk population for aggressive prostate cancer (PrCa) due to genetic influences, and identifying empirical data on treatments, which provide survival benefits is a prime challenge for clinicians who manage Jamaican PrCa patients. Thus, the purpose of this investigation was to elucidate treatment effects of brachytherapy and ERBT in the survival of a Jamaican PrCa cohort. Differences in survival outcomes of brachytherapy and ERBT treated Jamaican, and White U.S.-born PrCa patients with localized PrCa were compared. The mechanism of radiation programmed cell death in PrCa carcinogenesis explained in the oxidative stress theory, was the theoretical base for interpreting the research questions. A retrospective cohort design was used, and included survival analysis of secondary data from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database. The sample size was 10,752 Jamaican and White U.S.-born prostate cancer patients diagnosed between 1992 and 2011. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard regression models confirmed that brachytherapy resulted in enhanced survival benefits to the Jamaicans, HR 0.63, 95% CI [0.55, 0.73], p < .001, but ERBT did not, HR 1.6, 95% CI [1.38, 1.84] p < .001. Hence, brachytherapy may be an appropriate treatment option for Jamaican PrCa patients. Clinicians and health care planners can utilize the results for policy decisions aimed at increasing access to brachytherapy treatments to Jamaicans. Improving access to efficient PrCa treatments could reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of PrCa among Jamaicans, decrease years of potential life lost from PrCa, and enhance the life expectancy of the Jamaican male population.

Eine der drei Säulen der Krebsbehandlung ist die Strahlentherapie. Einer der neuesten Ansätze hierbei ist die Bestrahlung mit Ionen, zurzeit insbesondere Protonen und Kohlenstoffionen. Diese Hochpräzisionstherapie erfordert ein hohes Maß an Kontrolle, da die applizierte Dosisverteilung sehr empfindlich von Dichteveränderungen im durchstrahlten Gewebe abhängt. Das bisher einzige klinisch eingesetzte Verfahren zur in vivo Überwachung der Dosisapplikation bei Ionenbestrahlungen ist die Positronen-Emissions-Tomographie (PET). Sie ermöglicht eine Verifikation der Teilchenreichweite sowie der Lage des Bestrahlungsfeldes. Die mit der PET-Methode gemessene Aktivitätsverteilung lässt sich jedoch nicht direkt mit der geplanten Dosisverteilung vergleichen. Daher ist eine Vorherberechnung der erwarteten Aktivitätsverteilung auf der Grundlage des Bestrahlungsplanes notwendig, welche dann mit der Messung verglichen wird und eine qualitative Beurteilung der Bestrahlung ermöglicht. Die Vorherberechnung der erwarteten Aktivitätsverteilung erfordert bislang die Kenntnis einer Vielzahl von Wirkungsquerschnitten. Nur für wenige dieser Wirkungsquerschnitte liegen jedoch Messdaten im benötigten Energiebereich und mit ausreichender Genauigkeit vor. Daher verwenden viele Monte-Carlo-Simulationen intrinsische Kernmodelle oder semi-empirische Modellierungen, die häufig eine unzureichende Genauigkeit aufweisen. In Fachkreisen ist bisher noch nicht geklärt, welches die optimale Ionensorte für die Tumortherapie ist. Insbesondere Lithiumionen weisen aufgrund ihrer physikalischen und radiobiologischen Eigenschaften ein großes Potenzial auf. Auch für Bestrahlungen mit diesen Ionen ist ein PET-Monitoring der Therapie erstrebenswert. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird zunächst die Anwendbarkeit der Reichweite-Verifikation mittels PET bei Bestrahlung mit Lithiumionen gezeigt. Des Weiteren wird ein Konzept zur Modellierung der Positronenemitter-Verteilung ohne Kenntnis der Wirkungsquerschnitte entwickelt. Diese Vorhersage beruht auf in Referenzmaterialien (Wasser, Graphit und Polyethylen) gemessenen tiefenabhängigen Positronenemitter-Yields, mit welchen durch geeignete Linearkombination die Verteilung der Positronenemitter in beliebigen Materialien bekannter Stöchiometrie vorausberechnet werden kann. Die Anwendbarkeit des Yield-Konzeptes wird gezeigt für Lithium- und Kohlenstoffbestrahlungen homogener Polymethylmethacrylat (PMMA) Targets sowie verschiedener inhomogener Targets. / One of the three main tumour treatment forms is radiation therapy. Here, the application of ion beams, in particular protons and carbon ions, is of growing importance. This high precision therapy requires a consequent monitoring of the dose delivery since the induced dose deposition is very sensitive to density changes in the irradiated tissue. Up to now, positron emission tomography (PET) is the only in vivo method in clinical use for monitoring the dose deposition in ion beam therapy. It allows for the verification of the particle range as well as the position of the irradiation field. The distribution of activity measured by means of PET cannot be compared directly to the planned dose distribution. Thus, a calculation of the expected activity distribution is required which then can be compared to the measurement. Simulation of the expected activity distribution requires the exact knowledge of various cross sections. Only a few of them have been measured in the required energy range so far. Therefore, in Monte Carlo simulations often intrinsic nuclear models or semi-empirical parametrization are used which often exhibit insufficient accuray. Among experts the question on the optimum ion species for tumour therapy is still open. Especially lithium ions exhibit a great potential due to their favourable physical and radiobiological properties. Also for these ions a PET monitoring is highly desirable. The presented work shows the feasibility of range verification by means of PET for lithium irradiation. Furthermore, a concept for modeling positron emitter distributions without the knowledge of cross sections is developed. This prediction is based on depth-dependent positron emitter yields measured in reference materials (water, graphite and polyethylene). With these data the positron emitter distribution in any material of known stoichiometry can be calculated by means of an appropriate linear combination. The feasibility of the yield concept is shown for lithium and carbon irradiation, respectively, of homogeneous polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as well as various inhomogeneous targets.

O Brasil ocupa posição de destaque no mercado de açúcar a granel e consumo elevado deste ingrediente na forma líquida, em especial pelas indústrias de bebidas e alimentos. O açúcar líquido apresenta vantagens em relação ao açúcar a granel como facilidade do manuseio e dosagem, espaço reduzido para a armazenagem, redução das perdas, custos e mão-de-obra, melhora na sanitização e grande variação possível nas proporções de diferentes misturas de açúcares. O açúcar Uquido invertido é uma solução de sacarose, glicose e frutose em água e recebe esse nome porque durante a sua produção há a inversão do poder óptico de rotação da solução. No processo produtivo do açúcar invertido existem alguns pontos que podem gerar a contaminação por microrganismos, dessa forma torna-se importante o desenvolvimento de técnicas que propiciem a sanitização eficiente desta matéria-prima. Este trabalho estudou duas técnicas alternativas de controle microbiano: a radiação gama com fonte de cobalto-60 e a radiação com feixe de elétrons. O estudo foi conduzido nas doses de 5, 10, 20, 30 e 50 kGy. O teor de sacarose apresentou decréscimo com a radiação indicando que ocorreu a quebra da ligação glicosídica com a formação de glicose e fioitose, gerando o aumento do teor de sólidos solúveis. Ocorreu a formação de compostos ácidos, confirmado pela redução de pH, que foi proporcional ao aumento da dose de radiação. As maiores doses provocaram alterações na cor do xarope pela formação de polímeros com cadeia molecular longa. A viscosidade nas amostras irradiadas com radiação gama aumentou em relação ao controle, indicando a prevalência de polimerização das moléculas, enquanto que na radiação com feixe de elétrons a polimerização foi observada somente na amostra que recebeu a dose de 50 kGy. Na análise sensorial, os julgadores apontaram diferença significativa (5%) no sabor entre o controle e as amostras irradiadas com 5 kGy, nas duas técnicas de processamento. Não foi possível identificar o efeito da radiação gama no controle de bolores e leveduras. / Brazil occupies position of prominence in the sugar market and high consumption of this ingredient in the liquid form, in special for the beverages and food industries. The liquid sugar presents advantages in relation to the bulk granulated system such as easiness of the handling and dosage, reduced space for the storage, reduction of the losses, costs and hand of workmanship, improvement of the sanitizing and great possible variation in the ratios of different mixtures of sugars. The inverted liquid sugar is a solution of sucrose, glucose and fructose in water. This ingredient receives this name because during its production it has an inversion of the optic power of rotation of the solution. In the productive process of the inverted sugar some points occur that can generate contamination by microorganisms, so its become important the development of techniques that propitiate the efficient sanitizing of this raw material. This work aims at to consider two alternative techniques of microbiologic control: gamma radiation with source of cobalto-60 and radiation with electron beam. The study was lead in the doses of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 kGy. Concentration of sucrose presented in syrup decreased with the radiation indicating the scission of glicosidic linkage in addition with the glucose and fiaictose formation, generating the increase in solids soluble. The acid compounds formation occurred, confirmed by the reduction of pH, that it was proportional with the increase of the radiation dose. The biggest doses had provoked change of color in the syrup by the long molecular chain polymers formation. Viscosity in the samples processed by gamma radiation increased in relation to the control, indicating the prevalence of polymerization of molecules, whereas in the radiation with electron beam the polymerization was only observed in the sample that received the dose of 50 kGy, In the sensorial analysis, the judges had pointed significant difference (5%) in the flavor among control and the samples radiated with 5 kGy in the two techniques of processing. The alterations provoked for the irradiation had not been enough to provide significant changes in the inverted sugar, even in the highest dose of 50 kGy. It was not possible to identify the effect of gamma radiation in the control of molds and yeasts.

O Brasil ocupa posição de destaque no mercado de açúcar a granel e consumo elevado deste ingrediente na forma líquida, em especial pelas indústrias de bebidas e alimentos. O açúcar líquido apresenta vantagens em relação ao açúcar a granel como facilidade do manuseio e dosagem, espaço reduzido para a armazenagem, redução das perdas, custos e mão-de-obra, melhora na sanitização e grande variação possível nas proporções de diferentes misturas de açúcares. O açúcar Uquido invertido é uma solução de sacarose, glicose e frutose em água e recebe esse nome porque durante a sua produção há a inversão do poder óptico de rotação da solução. No processo produtivo do açúcar invertido existem alguns pontos que podem gerar a contaminação por microrganismos, dessa forma torna-se importante o desenvolvimento de técnicas que propiciem a sanitização eficiente desta matéria-prima. Este trabalho estudou duas técnicas alternativas de controle microbiano: a radiação gama com fonte de cobalto-60 e a radiação com feixe de elétrons. O estudo foi conduzido nas doses de 5, 10, 20, 30 e 50 kGy. O teor de sacarose apresentou decréscimo com a radiação indicando que ocorreu a quebra da ligação glicosídica com a formação de glicose e fioitose, gerando o aumento do teor de sólidos solúveis. Ocorreu a formação de compostos ácidos, confirmado pela redução de pH, que foi proporcional ao aumento da dose de radiação. As maiores doses provocaram alterações na cor do xarope pela formação de polímeros com cadeia molecular longa. A viscosidade nas amostras irradiadas com radiação gama aumentou em relação ao controle, indicando a prevalência de polimerização das moléculas, enquanto que na radiação com feixe de elétrons a polimerização foi observada somente na amostra que recebeu a dose de 50 kGy. Na análise sensorial, os julgadores apontaram diferença significativa (5%) no sabor entre o controle e as amostras irradiadas com 5 kGy, nas duas técnicas de processamento. Não foi possível identificar o efeito da radiação gama no controle de bolores e leveduras. / Brazil occupies position of prominence in the sugar market and high consumption of this ingredient in the liquid form, in special for the beverages and food industries. The liquid sugar presents advantages in relation to the bulk granulated system such as easiness of the handling and dosage, reduced space for the storage, reduction of the losses, costs and hand of workmanship, improvement of the sanitizing and great possible variation in the ratios of different mixtures of sugars. The inverted liquid sugar is a solution of sucrose, glucose and fructose in water. This ingredient receives this name because during its production it has an inversion of the optic power of rotation of the solution. In the productive process of the inverted sugar some points occur that can generate contamination by microorganisms, so its become important the development of techniques that propitiate the efficient sanitizing of this raw material. This work aims at to consider two alternative techniques of microbiologic control: gamma radiation with source of cobalto-60 and radiation with electron beam. The study was lead in the doses of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 kGy. Concentration of sucrose presented in syrup decreased with the radiation indicating the scission of glicosidic linkage in addition with the glucose and fiaictose formation, generating the increase in solids soluble. The acid compounds formation occurred, confirmed by the reduction of pH, that it was proportional with the increase of the radiation dose. The biggest doses had provoked change of color in the syrup by the long molecular chain polymers formation. Viscosity in the samples processed by gamma radiation increased in relation to the control, indicating the prevalence of polymerization of molecules, whereas in the radiation with electron beam the polymerization was only observed in the sample that received the dose of 50 kGy, In the sensorial analysis, the judges had pointed significant difference (5%) in the flavor among control and the samples radiated with 5 kGy in the two techniques of processing. The alterations provoked for the irradiation had not been enough to provide significant changes in the inverted sugar, even in the highest dose of 50 kGy. It was not possible to identify the effect of gamma radiation in the control of molds and yeasts.

This thesis addresses three problems related to image registration, prediction and tracking, applied to Angiography and Oncology. For image analysis, various probabilistic models have been employed to characterize the image deformations, target motions and state estimations. (i) In Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA), having a high quality visualization of the blood motion in the vessels is essential both in diagnostic and interventional applications. In order to reduce the inherent movement artifacts in DSA, non-rigid image registration is used before subtracting the mask from the contrast image. DSA image registration is a challenging problem, as it requires non-rigid matching across spatially non-uniform control points, at high speed. We model the problem of sub-pixel matching, as a labeling problem on a non-uniform Markov Random Field (MRF). We use quad-trees in a novel way to generate the non uniform grid structure and optimize the registration cost using graph-cuts technique. The MRF formulation produces a smooth displacement field which results in better artifact reduction than with the conventional approach of independently registering the control points. The above approach is further improved using two models. First, we introduce the concept of pivotal and non-pivotal control points. `Pivotal control points' are nodes in the Markov network that are close to the edges in the mask image, while 'non-pivotal control points' are identified in soft tissue regions. This model leads to a novel MRF framework and energy formulation. Next, we propose a Gaussian MRF model and solve the energy minimization problem for sub-pixel DSA registration using Random Walker (RW). An incremental registration approach is developed using quad-tree based MRF structure and RW, wherein the density of control points is hierarchically increased at each level M depending of the features to be used and the required accuracy. A novel numbering scheme of the control points allows us to reuse the computations done at level M in M + 1. Both the models result in an accelerated performance without compromising on the artifact reduction. We have also provided a CUDA based design of the algorithm, and shown performance acceleration on a GPU. We have tested the approach using 25 clinical data sets, and have presented the results of quantitative analysis and clinical assessment. (ii) In External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT), in order to monitor the intra fraction motion of thoracic and abdominal tumors, the lung diaphragm apex can be used as an internal marker. However, tracking the position of the apex from image based observations is a challenging problem, as it undergoes both position and shape variation. We propose a novel approach for tracking the ipsilateral hemidiaphragm apex (IHDA) position on CBCT projection images. We model the diaphragm state as a spatiotemporal MRF, and obtain the trace of the apex by solving an energy minimization problem through graph-cuts. We have tested the approach using 15 clinical data sets and found that this approach outperforms the conventional full search method in terms of accuracy. We have provided a GPU based heterogeneous implementation of the algorithm using CUDA to increase the viability of the approach for clinical use. (iii) In an adaptive radiotherapy system, irrespective of the methods used for target observations there is an inherent latency in the beam control as they involve mechanical movement and processing delays. Hence predicting the target position during `beam on target' is essential to increase the control precision. We propose a novel prediction model (called o set sine model) for the breathing pattern. We use IHDA positions (from CBCT images) as measurements and an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) for state estimation. The results based on 15 clinical datasets show that, o set sine model outperforms the state of the art LCM model in terms of prediction accuracy.