There are three approaches to health economic evaluation for comparing two therapies: cost minimization, incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER), and incremental net benefit (INB). Of the three, the ICER method has long been the standard in the assessment of the cost-effectiveness analysis of a new treatment. However, due to concerns with interpretability and statistical inference inherent to the ICER statistic and its confidence intervals, authors have suggested the use of incremental net benefit (INB) approach as an alternative. The INB can be expressed either in units of effectiveness or costs. When analyzing data from a clinical trial, expressing incremental net benefit in units of cost allows the investigator to examine all three approaches in a single graph, complete with the corresponding statistical inferences. Furthermore, if costs and effectiveness are not censored, this can be achieved using common statistical procedures. The standard INB analysis assumes that the willingness-to-accept (WTA) compensation for the loss of a unit of health benefit (at some cost saving) is the same as the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for it. Theoretical and empirical evidence suggest, however, that in health care the WTA is about twice the WTP. In this thesis we show that the method of INB analysis can be adapted to capture the WTA vs WTP disparity. Using the Bayesian theory, statistical procedures are provided for the cost-effectiveness analysis in the comparison of two arms of a randomized clinical trial that allows WTA and WTP to have different values. An example that adjusts the disparity between WT A and WTP is provided. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

A set S of vertices in a graph G=(V,E) is a dominating set if every vertex in V\S is adjacent to at least one vertex in S, and the minimum cardinality of a dominating set of G is the domination number of G. A vertex v in a dominating set S is said to be very cost effective if it is adjacent to more vertices in V\S than to vertices in S. A dominating set S is very cost effective if every vertex in S is very cost effective. The minimum cardinality of a very cost effective dominating set of G is the very cost effective domination number of G. We first give necessary conditions for a graph to have equal domination and very cost effective domination numbers. Then we determine an upper bound on the very cost effective domination number for trees in terms of their domination number, and characterize the trees which attain this bound. lastly, we show that no such bound exists for graphs in general, even when restricted to bipartite graphs.

A set S of vertices in a graph G = (V,E) is a dominating set if every vertex in V \ S is adjacent to at least one vertex in S. A vertex v in a dominating set S is said to be it cost effective if it is adjacent to at least as many vertices in V \ S as it is in S. A dominating set S is cost effective if every vertex in S is cost effective. The minimum cardinality of a cost effective dominating set of G is the cost effective domination number of G. In addition to some preliminary results for general graphs, we give lower and upper bounds on the cost effective domination number of trees in terms of their domination number and characterize the trees that achieve the upper bound. We show that every value of the cost effective domination number between these bounds is realizable.

Generally  cameras  are  used  for  area  based  surveillance,  but  with  advancement  in  technology, cameras  can  be  employed  for wide  area  space  surveillance  (volumetric space surveillance). The volumetric systems require a number of cameras in order to cover a large area. Single panoramic cameras  do  not  provide  required  functionality  for  wide  area  space  surveillance  and Pan-Tile-Zoom (PTZ) cameras do not either cover wide areas.   To  meet  this challenge,  we  propose  a  cost  effective smart volumetric  surveillance system  which utilizes smaller number of cameras in order to provide a coverage of 360 degree. A test case used for this system includes detection of birds in the wind farms. The proposed approach provides a solution  for recording/preventing collision  of  birds  with  wind turbine. To  realize  the  system, a model is developed with two camera nodes. This model provides a 360 degree conical volumetric space coverage. The  system is  utilizing  a  servo  motor  with  capability  of  changing  speed  and arduino  embedded  platform for  controlling  different  functionality. After  triggering  the  camera nodes from arduino, software perform the image analysis.  This  cost  effective  and  wide  area  surveillance  system  consumes at  least half lower  power as compared  to traditional  linear  systems with  eight  cameras. It  is  worth  noting  that  the system provides  conical  shaped  area coverage  of  200  square  meters  with  height ranging  from approximately 40 to 100 meters. The system would capture images in raw format in local storage and  the test  results  show  that  saving  images  with  PNG  format  requires a small  memory  size  as compared  to BMP  and TIFF.    Experiment  results  indicate  that  surveillance  system  can  be effectively employed for detecting birds in opening places.

abstract: Lithium metal is a promising anode for the next generation lithium batteries owing to its high capacity (3860 mAh g-1) and the lowest negative reduction potential (-3.04 V). Commercial produced lithium anodes have a native rough surface which deteriorates the cycling performance of the battery. Here, an attempt has been made to deposit lithium on copper from an electrolytic cell consisting of simple electrolyte of pyridine and lithium chloride at room temperature. Water is known to react aggressively with the lithium metal, however in the electrochemical plating process, it has a significant beneficial effect in catalyzing the electrochemical reactions. The effect of trace amounts of water was investigated in air as well as in controlled atmosphere of argon, nitrogen, breathing grade dry air and ultra-zero dry air. The electrochemical products examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed the deposition might require the reduction of pyridine to facilitate the reduction of the lithium salt. Purity of the lithium film was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Materials Science and Engineering 2019

Nuclear energy is a growing field worldwide due to its wide range of applications in various walks of life. It, however, deals with radioactive materials, specifically special nuclear material, which, if misused, could result in catastrophic consequences. In order to protect this precious resource and ensure its use for the good of mankind, safeguard systems are more important than ever. Current Market solutions are wide ranged but have a large number of disadvantages, some of which include high cost, constant updates, and incomplete efforts. The rising need of a cost effective, efficient, and integrated radioactive safeguard system serves as motivation for the solution outlined in this thesis. The thesis outlines a solution structured around the three pillars of the international safeguards program, namely, visual surveillance and motion detection, containment analysis, and non-destructive analysis. The hardware around each of these pillars work together with a clean and user-friendly application to provide a secure safeguards system that is both flexible and extensible.

For the last four decades, Si CMOS technology has been advancing with Moore’s law prediction, working itself down to the sub-20 nm regime. However, fundamental problems and limitations arise with the down-scaling of transistors and thus new innovations needed to be discovered in order to further improve device performance without compromising power consumption and size. Thus, a lot of studies have focused on the development of new CMOS compatible architectures as well as the discovery of new high mobility channel materials that will allow further miniaturization of CMOS transistors and improvement of device performance. Pushing the limits even further, flexible and foldable electronics seem to be the new attractive topic. By being able to make our devices flexible through a CMOS compatible process, one will be able to integrate hundreds of billions of more transistors in a small volumetric space, allowing to increase the performance and speed of our electronics all together with making things thinner, lighter, smaller and even interactive with the human skin. Thus, in this thesis, we introduce for the first time a cost-effective CMOS compatible approach to make high-k/metal gate devices on flexible Germanium (Ge) and Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) platforms. In the first part, we will look at the various approaches in the literature that has been developed to get flexible platforms, as well as we will give a brief overview about epitaxial growth of Si1-xGex films. We will also examine the electrical properties of the Si1-xGex alloys up to Ge (x=1) and discuss how strain affects the band structure diagram, and thus the mobility of the material. We will also review the material growth properties as well as the state-of-the-art results on high mobility metal-oxide semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) using strained SiGe films. Then, we will introduce the flexible process that we have developed, based on a cost-effective “trench-protect-release-reuse” approach, utilizing the industry’s most used bulk Si (100) wafers, and discuss how it has been used for getting flexible and semi-transparent SiGe and Ge platforms. Finally, we examine the electrical characteristics of our materials through the fabrication of high-k/metal gate MOSCAPs with SiGe and Ge as channel material. We present their electrical performance on both non- flexible and flexible platform and discuss further improvement that has to be made in order to get better behaving devices for future MOSFET fabrication.

Meat and milk from sub Saharan African cattle systems tend to have high greenhouse gas emissions intensities; this is largely due to low levels of productivity. There is a need to increase production to meet an increasing demand for livestock commodities; driven by growing populations, and growing diet variation, as incomes and urbanisation increase. Without measures to reduce the emissions intensity of production, there will be significant increases in total greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, cost-effective ways of reducing emissions intensity, whilst increasing productivity should be identified. This thesis looks to support this by providing an assessment of low-input to semi-intensified cattle production systems in Senegal, West Africa; where cattle populations are growing and efforts are being made to increase domestic milk production. The emissions intensity of protein from current production systems is calculated using a version of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM). Variation in emissions intensity is observed between current systems, which can be largely linked to feed ration quality and levels of protein productivity. Productivity improving interventions suitable for the study systems are identified, and their application to current systems modelled by altering input parameters within GLEAM. It is suggested that production systems could reduce emissions intensities by applying nutritional and health related intervention packages; through which the varying production systems could abate between 10% and 20% of their total greenhouse gas emissions whilst also making financial savings. A comparison between the current systems of production also suggests that changing the lower productivity systems to match higher producing systems would also offer substantial cost-saving emissions abatement. The thesis considers the key limitation to the use of GLEAM for modelling the application of nutritional mitigation measures, in that when nutritional improvements are made animal performance does not currently increase. Predicting how animals will respond to improved nutrition is challenging. However, a methodology is discussed, and is shown to have an important effect on the emissions abatement results. Subsequently, the thesis advocates further research to experimentally substantiate animal performance responses when nutritionally limited cattle are given improved feed regimes. Despite the study livestock keepers showing aspiration to improve the productivity of their herds, with subsequent potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the thesis recognises that the abatement potentials suggested by modelling would be restricted by the reality of production system context and constraints. Key barriers to a realisation of the productivity improvements include: a lack of financial means, limitations to resource access and affordability, and requirement for information and training concerning productivity improving options. For realisation of productivity improvements the current barriers would require further investigation, the thesis helps identify what form interventions should take.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第19697号 / 工博第4152号 / 新制||工||1641(附属図書館) / 32733 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市環境工学専攻 / (主査)教授 米田 稔, 教授 清水 芳久, 准教授 藤川 陽子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

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