Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy afflicting Canadian men in 2011. Physicians use digital rectal exams (DRE), blood tests for prostate specific antigen (PSA) and transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsies for the initial diagnosis of prostate cancer. None of these tests detail the spatial extent of prostate cancer - information critical for using new therapies that can target cancerous prostate. With an MRI technique called proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI), biochemical analysis of the entire prostate can be done without the need for biopsy, providing detailed information beyond the non-specific changes in hardness felt by an experienced urologist in a DRE, the presence of PSA in blood, or the “blind-guidance” of TRUS-guided biopsy. A hindrance to acquiring high quality 1H-MRSI data comes from signal originating from fatty tissue surrounding prostate that tends to mask or distort signal from within the prostate, thus reducing the overall clinical usefulness of 1H-MRSI data. This thesis has three major areas of focus: 1) The development of an optimized 1H-MRSI technique, called conformal voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (CV-MRS), to deal the with removal of unwanted lipid contaminating artifacts at short and long echo times. 2) An in vivo human study to test the CV-MRS technique, including healthy volunteers and cancer patients scheduled for radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy. 3) A study to determine the efficacy of using the 1H-MRSI data for optimized radiation treatment planning using modern delivery techniques like intensity modulated radiation treatment. Data collected from the study using the optimized CV-MRS method show significantly reduced lipid contamination resulting in high quality spectra throughout the prostate. Combining the CV-MRS technique with spectral-spatial excitation further reduced lipid contamination and opened up the possibility of detecting metabolites with short T2 relaxation times. Results from the in vivo study were verified with post-histopathological data. Lastly, 1H-MRSI data was incorporated into the radiation treatment planning software and used to asses tumour control by escalating the radiation to prostate lesions that were identified by 1H-MRSI. In summary, this thesis demonstrates the clinical feasibility of using advanced spectroscopic imaging techniques for improved diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Carbon nanotube (CNT) forests have outstanding thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties, which have generated significant interest as thermal interface materials (TIMs). Some drawbacks to using CNTs as TIMs include poor substrate adhesion, high interface resistances inhibiting thermal transport, and lack of electrical insulation in electronic component applications. It is thus useful to be able to modify CNTs to reduce their electrical conductivity while maintaining high thermal conductivity and interface conductance, and high mechanical compliance. A recent report suggests that nanoscale oxide coatings could be applied to CNTs in forests without changing the mechanical deformation behavior of the forests. Oxide coatings could also provide environmental stability as well as better adhesion to the substrate compared to pristine CNT forests. In this study, we investigated thermal and electrical resistance of CNT forests with an oxide coating. Low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) was used to produce CNTs on high-conductivity Si substrates. Plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PALD) was used to deposit Al2O3 on individual CNTs in forests. This process was facilitated by O2 plasma pretreatment to functionalize the surface of the CNTs and nucleate oxide growth. Several analytical techniques were used to characterize the CNT-oxide composites, including scanning electron microscopy, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Thermal conductivity and thermal interface resistance were measured using a modified photoacoustic technique. The oxide coating had no significant effect on the effective thermal conductivity of the forests, in contrast to expectations of increased phonon scattering. Electrical resistivity measurements were made and a threefold increase was observed for the oxide-coated forests. This approach could emerge as a promising route to create a viable TIM for thermally conductive and electrically insulating applications.

Cette thèse porte sur les relations entre les processus SLE, les ensembles CLE et le champ libre Gaussien. Dans le chapitre 2, nous donnons une construction des processus SLE(k,r) à partir des boucles des CLE(k) et d'échantillons de restriction chordale. Sheffield et Werner ont prouvé que les CLE(k) peuvent être construits à partir des processus d'exploration symétriques des SLE(k,r).Nous montrons dans le chapitre 3 que la configuration des boucles construites à partir du processus d'exploration asymétrique des SLE(k,k-6) donne la même loi CLE(k). Le processus SLE(4) peut être considéré comme les lignes de niveau du champ libre Gaussien et l'ensemble CLE(4) correspond à la collection des lignes de niveau de ce champ libre Gaussien. Dans la deuxième partie du chapitre 3, nous définissons un paramètre de temps invariant conforme pour chaque boucle appartenant à CLE(4) et nous donnons ensuite dans le chapitre 4 un couplage entre le champ libre Gaussien et l'ensemble CLE(4) à l'aide du paramètre de temps. Les processus SLE(k) peuvent être considérés comme les lignes de flot du champ libre Gaussien. Nous explicitons la dimension de Hausdorff de l'intersection de deux lignes de flot du champ libre Gaussien. Cela nous permet d'obtenir la dimension de l'ensemble des points de coupure et des points doubles de la courbe SLE, voir le chapitre 5. Dans le chapitre 6, nous définissons la mesure de restriction radiale, prouvons la caractérisation de ces mesures, et montrons la condition nécessaire et suffisante de l'existence des mesures de restriction radiale.

What is in common between the Kepler problem, a Hydrogen atom and a rotating black- hole? These systems are described by different physical theories, but much information about them can be obtained by separating an appropriate Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The separation of variables of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation is an old but still powerful tool for obtaining exact solutions. The goal of this thesis is to present the theory and application of a certain type of conformal Killing tensor (hereafter called concircular tensor) to the separation of variables problem. The application is to spaces of constant curvature, with special attention to spaces with Euclidean and Lorentzian signatures. The theory includes the general applicability of concircular tensors to the separation of variables problem and the application of warped products to studying Killing tensors in general and separable coordinates in particular. Our first main result shows how to use these tensors to construct a special class of separable coordinates (hereafter called Kalnins-Eisenhart-Miller (KEM) coordinates) on a given space. Conversely, the second result generalizes the Kalnins-Miller classification to show that any orthogonal separable coordinates in a space of constant curvature are KEM coordinates. A closely related recursive algorithm is defined which allows one to intrinsically (coordinate independently) search for KEM coordinates which separate a given (natural) Hamilton-Jacobi equation. This algorithm is exhaustive in spaces of constant curvature. Finally, sufficient details are worked out, so that one can apply these procedures in spaces of constant curvature using only (linear) algebraic operations. As an example, we apply the theory to study the separability of the Calogero-Moser system.

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy afflicting Canadian men in 2011. Physicians use digital rectal exams (DRE), blood tests for prostate specific antigen (PSA) and transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsies for the initial diagnosis of prostate cancer. None of these tests detail the spatial extent of prostate cancer - information critical for using new therapies that can target cancerous prostate. With an MRI technique called proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI), biochemical analysis of the entire prostate can be done without the need for biopsy, providing detailed information beyond the non-specific changes in hardness felt by an experienced urologist in a DRE, the presence of PSA in blood, or the “blind-guidance” of TRUS-guided biopsy. A hindrance to acquiring high quality 1H-MRSI data comes from signal originating from fatty tissue surrounding prostate that tends to mask or distort signal from within the prostate, thus reducing the overall clinical usefulness of 1H-MRSI data. This thesis has three major areas of focus: 1) The development of an optimized 1H-MRSI technique, called conformal voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (CV-MRS), to deal the with removal of unwanted lipid contaminating artifacts at short and long echo times. 2) An in vivo human study to test the CV-MRS technique, including healthy volunteers and cancer patients scheduled for radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy. 3) A study to determine the efficacy of using the 1H-MRSI data for optimized radiation treatment planning using modern delivery techniques like intensity modulated radiation treatment. Data collected from the study using the optimized CV-MRS method show significantly reduced lipid contamination resulting in high quality spectra throughout the prostate. Combining the CV-MRS technique with spectral-spatial excitation further reduced lipid contamination and opened up the possibility of detecting metabolites with short T2 relaxation times. Results from the in vivo study were verified with post-histopathological data. Lastly, 1H-MRSI data was incorporated into the radiation treatment planning software and used to asses tumour control by escalating the radiation to prostate lesions that were identified by 1H-MRSI. In summary, this thesis demonstrates the clinical feasibility of using advanced spectroscopic imaging techniques for improved diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Orientador: Marco Antônio Rodrigues Fernandes / Resumo: O presente estudo consiste na análise da viabilidade econômica e financeira da implantação da radioterapia de intensidade modulada (IMRT) no tratamento do câncer de próstata e comparar seus benefícios clínicos frente aos procedimentos similares custeados pelos sistemas de saúde públicos e privados. Para tanto, foram analisadas as distribuições de dose de radiação preconizadas nos planejamentos radioterápicos com as técnicas de radioterapia conformacional tridimensional (3D-CRT) e de intensidade modulada (IMRT), prescrita para 20 pacientes com câncer de próstata tratados em um serviço de radioterapia privado. Para verificação da qualidade da distribuição de dose de radiação no volume de tratamento, foram analisados os índices de homogeneidade (IH) e de conformidade (IC) de cada um dos planos radioterápicos estudados. Em comparação com a técnica 3D-CRT, a técnica de IMRT permitiu uma melhor cobertura e conformação da dose prescrita no volume alvo de planejamento (PTV), porém distribuída de forma mais heterogênea. Além disso, avaliou-se os custos financeiros para aquisição dos equipamentos de irradiação e manutenção dos tratamentos, bem como os valores de repasses feitos pelos sistemas de saúde para os procedimentos de radioterapia em próstata. / Mestre

La notion d’entropie d’intrication a eu un profond impact sur la physique théorique, particulièrement depuis ces dix dernières années. D’abord introduite afin expliquer l’entropie des trous noirs, son champ d’application s’est par la suite ouvert à une grande variété de domaines de recherche, de la matière condensée à la gravitation quantique, de l’information quantique à la théorie quantique des champs. Dans ce contexte scientifique effervescent, l’entropie d’intrication apparait comme un outil central et doit donc intensivement être étudiée. A l’origine de cette thèse se trouve le désir de mieux comprendre cette entropie. D’intéressants développements concernant les effets de bord sur l’entropie d’intrication ont vu le jour récemment. Nous proposons donc d’explorer comment le bord d’un espace affecte l’entropie, en particulier dans la situation où la surface d’intrication intersecte ce bord. Nous présentons des calculs explicites de l’entropie d’intrication en espace plat avec bords. Nous montrons que des termes induits par ces bords apparaissent dans l’entropie et nous soulignons le rôle prépondérant que jouent les conditions aux bords. Nous étudions ensuite la contribution de bord dans le terme logarithmique de l’entropie d’intrication en dimensions trois et quatre. Nous calculons en premier lieu ce terme en théorie des champs pour la théorie N = 4 de Yang-Mills, puis nous répétons ce calcul de manière holographique. Nous montrons que ces deux méthodes de calcul donnent le même résultat, si du côté théorie des champs les conditions aux bords préservent la moitié de la supersymétrie et que du côté gravité l’extension du bord dans le bulk est une surface minimale. / The entanglement entropy has had a tremendous and profound impact on theoretical physics, particularly since the last decade. First introduced in an attempt to explain black holes entropy, it has then found applications in a wide range of research areas, from condensed matter physics to quantum gravity, from quantum information to quantum field theory. In this exciting scientific context, the entanglement entropy has thus emerged as a useful and pivotal tool, and as such justifies the need to be intensively studied. At the heart of this thesis therefore lies the desire to better understand the entanglement entropy. Interesting developments during the recent years concern the boundary effects on the entanglement entropy. This dissertation proposes to explore the question of how the presence of spacetime boundaries affects the entropy, specifically in situations where the entangling surface intersects these boundaries. We present explicit calculations of entanglement entropy in flat spacetime with plane boundaries. We show that boundary induced terms appear in the entropy and we emphasize the prominent role of the boundary conditions. We then study the boundary contribution to the logarithmic term in the entanglement entropy in three and four dimensions. We perform the field theoretic computation of this boundary term for the free N = 4 super-gauge multiplet and then repeat the same calculation holographically. We show that these two calculations are in agreement provided that on the field theory side one chooses the boundary conditions which preserve half of the full supersymmetry and that on the gravity side the extension of the boundary in the bulk is minimal.

Submitted by ISABELLA PAZIAM FERNANDES NUNES null (ipaziam@me.com) on 2018-03-14T12:47:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao - nunes ipf.pdf: 3167962 bytes, checksum: bd9df494a7b84197900f4be8d90cd090 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Pizzani null (luciana@btu.unesp.br) on 2018-03-19T11:47:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 nunes_ipf_me_bot.pdf: 3167962 bytes, checksum: bd9df494a7b84197900f4be8d90cd090 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-19T11:47:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 nunes_ipf_me_bot.pdf: 3167962 bytes, checksum: bd9df494a7b84197900f4be8d90cd090 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-23 / O presente estudo consiste na análise da viabilidade econômica e financeira da implantação da radioterapia de intensidade modulada (IMRT) no tratamento do câncer de próstata e comparar seus benefícios clínicos frente aos procedimentos similares custeados pelos sistemas de saúde públicos e privados. Para tanto, foram analisadas as distribuições de dose de radiação preconizadas nos planejamentos radioterápicos com as técnicas de radioterapia conformacional tridimensional (3D-CRT) e de intensidade modulada (IMRT), prescrita para 20 pacientes com câncer de próstata tratados em um serviço de radioterapia privado. Para verificação da qualidade da distribuição de dose de radiação no volume de tratamento, foram analisados os índices de homogeneidade (IH) e de conformidade (IC) de cada um dos planos radioterápicos estudados. Em comparação com a técnica 3D-CRT, a técnica de IMRT permitiu uma melhor cobertura e conformação da dose prescrita no volume alvo de planejamento (PTV), porém distribuída de forma mais heterogênea. Além disso, avaliou-se os custos financeiros para aquisição dos equipamentos de irradiação e manutenção dos tratamentos, bem como os valores de repasses feitos pelos sistemas de saúde para os procedimentos de radioterapia em próstata. / The present study consists in analyzing the economic and financial viability to establish the intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in the treatment for prostate cancer and compare its clinical benefits to similar procedures funded by public and private health systems. In order to do so, the radiation absorbed-dose distributions recommended in the radiotherapy plans with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) techniques, prescribed for 20 patients with prostate cancer treated in a private radiotherapy clinic, were evaluated. To verify the quality of the radiation dose distribution in the treatment volume, the homogeneity index (HI) and the conformity index (CI) of each radiotherapy plans studied were analyzed. In contrast to the 3D-CRT technique, the IMRT technique allowed a better coverage and conformation of the radiation dose prescribed in the planning target volume (PTV), but distributed in a more heterogeneous way. It was also evaluated the financial costs for the acquisition of the irradiation equipment and for the maintenance of the treatments, as well as the values of the on-lending made by the health systems for the radiotherapy procedures for the prostate.

The study of conformal symmetry is motivated through an example in statistical mechanics and then rigorously developed in quantum field theories in general spatial dimensions. In particular, primary fields are introduced as the fundamental objects of such theories and then studied in the formalism of radial quantization. The implications of conformal invariance on the functional form of correlation functions are studied in detail. Conformal blocks are defined and various approaches to their analytical and numerical calculation are presented with a special emphasis on the one-dimensional case. Building on these preliminaries, a modern formulation of the conformal bootstrap program and its various extensions are discussed. Examples are given in which bounds on the scaling dimensions in a one-dimensional theory are derived numerically. Using these results I motivate the technique of using the extremal functional bootstrap which I then develop in more detail. Many technical details are discussed and examples shown. After a brief discussion of conformal field theories with a boundary I apply numerical methods to find constraints on the spectrum of the 3D Ising model. Another application is presented in which I study the 4-point function on the boundary of a particular theory in Anti-de-Sitter space in order to approximate the mass spectrum of the theory. / O estudo da simetria conforme é motivado através de um exemplo em mecânica estatística e em seguida rigorosamente desenvolvido em teorias de campos quânticos em dimensões espaciais gerais. Em particular, os campos primários são introduzidos como os objetos fundamentais de tais teorias e então estudados através do formalismo de quantização radial. As implicações da invariância conforme na forma funcional das funções de correlação são estudadas em detalhe. Blocos conformes são definidos e várias abordagens para seu cálculo analítico e numérico são apresentadas com uma ênfase especial no caso unidimensional. Com base nessas preliminares, uma formulação moderna do programa de bootstrap conforme e suas várias extensões são discutidas. Exemplos são dados em que limites nas dimensões de escala em uma teoria unidimensional são derivados numericamente. Usando esses resultados, motivei a técnica de usar o bootstrap funcional extremo, que depois desenvolvo em mais detalhes. Diversos detalhes técnicos são discutidos e exemplos são apresentados. Após uma breve discussão das teorias de campo conformes com fronteiras, eu aplico métodos numéricos para encontrar restrições no espectro do modelo de Ising em 3D. Outra aplicação é apresentada em que eu estudo a função de 4 pontos na fronteira de uma teoria particular no espaço Anti-de-Sitter, a fim de aproximar o espectro de massa da teoria.