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Master thesis deals with creating a new design of mobile x-ray machine. Three studies of design were created on the base of processed analysis, when the best one were chosen and developed as a final design. The final design takes into account all egonomics and technical requirements and creates a machine with less technical and more favorable view for patients. Simplification and better arranged the control panels bring easier service for operators.

Cells have been found to have an inherent heterogeneity that has led to an increase in the development of single-cell analysis methods to characterize the extent of heterogeneity that can be found in seemingly identical cells. With an understanding of normal cellular variability, the identification of disease induced cellular changes, known as biomarkers, may become more apparent and readily detectable. Biomarker discovery in single-cells is challenging and needs to focus on molecules that are abundant in cells. Lipids are widely abundant in cells and play active roles in cellular signaling, energy metabolism, and are the main component of cellular membranes. The regulation of lipid metabolism is often disrupted or lost during disease progression, especially in cancer, making them ideal candidates as biomarkers. Challenges exist in the analysis of lipids beyond those of single-cell analysis. Lipid extraction solvents must be compatible with the lipid or lipids of interest. Many lipids are isobaric making mass spectrometry analysis difficult without separations. Single-cell extractions using nanomanipulation coupled to mass spectrometry has shown to be an excellent method for lipid analysis of tissues and cell cultures. Extraction solvents are tunable for specific lipid classes, nanomanipulation prevents damage to neighboring cells, and lipid separations are possible through phase dispersion. The most important aspect of single-cell analysis is that it uncovers the extent of cellular heterogeneity that exists among cellular populations that remains undetected during averaged sampling.

Orientador: Vania Maria de Vasconcelos Machado / Resumo: A termografia infravermelha (TIV) representa um exame de imagem complementar, trata-se de uma ferramenta não ionizante e não invasiva que capta e registra a emissão térmica da superfície da pele. Apesar da grande literatura existente sobre as respostas ao estresse em cães, o potencial uso da termografia na avaliação das reações de estresse dos cães-guia em treinamento ainda não foi investigado até o momento. O propósito desse estudo foi utilizar a TIV na investigação do estresse proveniente do treinamento de cães-guia. Sendo utilizados 13 animais, adultos e em fase final de treinamento. Foram avaliados com TIV o sistema músculo-esquelético, contemplando as principais articulações e grupos musculares e correlacionando com níveis séricos de cortisol com objetivo de detectar dor e estresse nos animais avaliados. Para realização desse estudo, foi utilizada câmera termográfica Flir E60 com resolução de imagem 240 x 320 indicando, com acurácia de <0,05oC, faixa espectral 7,5 a 13 µm e emissividade de 0,98. Os resultados encontrados demonstram TIV como uma ferramenta de triagem importante na detecção precoce de alterações de temperatura superficial do corpo, apresentando correlação positiva com valores de cortisol, temperatura retal e auricular. Os resultados gerais sugerem que a TIV pode representar uma ferramenta útil para investigar dor e /ou estresse em cães, considerando-se a correlação positiva das temperaturas ocular, auricular, retal e sua comparação aos níveis de cortisol. / Abstract: Infrared thermography (TIV) represents a complementary imaging test. It is a non-ionizing, non-invasive tool that captures and records the thermal emission of the skin surface. Despite the great literature on stress responses in dogs, the potential use of thermography in the evaluation of stress responses in training dogs has not been yet investigated. The purpose of this study is the use of TIV to investigate the training-induced stress in guide dogs. In this study, thirteen adult dogs were used in the final phase of training. In this study, the skeletal muscle system was evaluated with TIV. In order to detect pain and stress in the animals evaluated, we investigated the correlation between TIV results of the main joints and muscle groups and the serum levels of cortisol. The Flir E60 thermographic camera with 240 x 320 image resolution was used, with an accuracy of <0.05 ° C, a spectral range of 7.5 to 13 μm and an emissivity of 0.98. The results showed TIV as an important screening tool for the early detection of changes in body surface temperature, showing a positive correlation with cortisol, rectal and ear (tympanic) temperature. Altogether these results suggest that TIV may represent a useful tool for investigating pain and / or stress in dogs. These assumptions are based on the positive correlation of ocular, atrial, rectal temperatures and their comparison to cortisol levels. / Doutor

The overall goal of this thesis is the development of wearable flexible optical imaging systems (We-FOISs) that can be used for diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) and tomography (DOT). The advantages of We-FOISs lie in their low-cost, portability, and simple patient-interface compared to current DOS and DOT systems. A flexible form factor provides conformal attachment even in cases where the targets such as fingers and toes have a strongly curved surface. We-FOIS technology is a scalable and expandable. Each system can be designed with multiple pairs of light sources and photodetectors depending on the needs and size of the target. The We-FOISs presented in this thesis were developed based on a modular design. The two main modules are a sensing unit and a control unit (a.k.a. sensing band and control band). Two different types of sensing units have been developed. The first type is based on inorganic optoelectronic components such as light emitting diode (LED) and silicon-photodiode (Si-PD). The second type is made with organic components such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), quantum-dot light emitting diodes (QD-LED), and organic photodiodes (OPDs). The flexible control units operate the light sources, read the intensity of the light transmitted through biological tissue, and send data to the computer. Depending on the number of pairs of light sources and photodiodes placed on the flexible sensing bands, the control units have different designs. Furthermore, a small integrating sphere system (SISS) was developed to measure the optical properties (absorption and scattering coefficients, μa and μs) of biological tissue samples and tissue-mimicking phantoms, which were to be used to calibrate the We-FOISs. The accuracy of the SISS as a function of the sample thickness was investigated by comparing a widely used inverse-adding-doubling (IAD) program and inverse-Monte-Carlo (IMC) simulations. Finally, the performance of the different We-FOISs were tested in various pre-clinical and clinical applications, including epilepsy monitoring in rat brains, monitoring of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in human feet, diagnosing systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in human fingers, and characterizing tumors in breast cancer patients. The results demonstrated the potentials of the We-FOISs for monitoring of symptoms of various diseases and for applications in point of care.

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