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There is a present and future need for the medical isotope Actinium-225, currently in short supply worldwide.  Only a couple manufacturers produce it in very low quantities.  In roughly the past 10 years the medical community has explored the use of Ac-225 and its daughter Bismuth-213 for targeting a number of differing cancers by way of Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT). This method utilizes the alpha-decay of both Ac-225 (half-life 10 days) and Bi-213 (half-life 46 min) to kill cancerous cells on a localized basis.  Maximum energy is delivered to the cancer cells thereby greatly minimizing healthy tissue damage. This research proposes a production method using a high-energy photon spectrum (generated by a linear accelerator or LINAC) to irradiate a sample of Radium-226 (half-life 1600yrs).  The photo-neutron reaction liberates neutrons from Ra-226 atoms leaving behind Radium-225 (half-life 14.7 days).  Ra-225 decays naturally through beta emission to Ac-225.  Previous research demonstrated it is possible to produce Ac-225 using a LINAC; however, very low yields resulted which questioned the feasibility of this production method.  This research proposes a number of LINAC and radium sample modifications that could be greatly increase yield amounts for practical use. Additionally, photo-neutron cross-section data for Ra-226 was used, which led to improved yield calculations for Ra-225.  A MATLAB® model was also created, which enables users to perform quick yield estimates given several key model parameter inputs.  Obtaining a sufficient supply of radium material is also of critical importance to this research.  Therefore information was gathered regarding availability and inventory of Radium-226.  This production method would serve as a way to not only eliminate many hazardous radium sources destined for interim storage, but provide a substantial supply of Ac-225 for future cancer treatment. / Master of Science

In der vorliegenden Dissertation wurden Äußerungen des spontansprachlichen Teils des Kielkorpus auf Aussprachevariationen untersucht, die sich auf Änderungen der lokalen Sprechrate zurückführen lassen. Drei Arten von Aussprachevariationen wurden behandelt: Spektrale Charakteristika von Vokalen (1. und 2. Formant) und stimmlosen Frikativen (Center of Gravity), sowie die phonetische Annotation von häufigen Wortformen. In allen Bereichen wurden signifikante Reduktionen bei erhöhtem lokalen Tempo nachgewiesen, die sich über verstärkte Koartikulation erklären lassen. Es ist allerdings zu vermuten, dass diese Reduktionserscheinungen für die Frikative perzeptiv nicht relevant sind. Die beiden anderen Effekte liegen dagegen in einem Bereich, der in einer erschwerten Erkennung resultieren sollte. Die perzeptiven Auswirkungen wurden jedoch nicht überprüft. Bedeutsam sind die erfassten Reduktionen insofern, als dass es sich dabei um Effekte handelt, die sich nicht über Sprechstil, Wortart, Betonung oder Wortform erklären lassen, sondern innerhalb dieser Bedingungen auftreten. Gerade für unbetonte Silben und Funktionswörter ist dies überraschend, da in diesen Bedingungen generell reduzierte Varianten geäußert werden. Somit handelt es sich hier um einen Ökonomie-Effekt, der für Monophthonge relativ gesehen stärker auftritt als für stimmlose Frikative; vermutlich durch die genaueren Definitionen der artikulatorischen Gesten bei diesen Konsonanten. Unklar ist allerdings, in wie weit diese Aussprachevariationen eine direkte Folge der Sprechtemposchwankungen darstellen. Entweder sind sie durch das lokale Tempo induziert, oder weitere Faktoren müssen als ursächlich angenommen werden. Aufgrund des untersuchten Materials dürften diese Ergebnisse auch für weitere spontansprachliche Kommunikationssituationen gelten; eine Generalisierung auf weitere Sprecher ist aufgrund der Datenbehandlung möglich, nicht jedoch auf andere Sprechstile. / This thesis presents analyses of utterances taken from the Kiel Corpus of Spontaneous Speech, concerning pronunciation variation and local speaking rate. Three kinds of variation have been taken into account: spectral characteristics of vowels (1. and 2. formant frequencies) and voiceless fricatives (center of gravity), as well as the annotation of frequent word forms. For all three kinds significant reduction in pronunciation was found. This can be explained by increasing coarticulation. However, reduction of fricatives does not seem to be strong enough to be perceptually relevant. The two other effects are within a range that would result in a decreased perception. However, no perception experiments have been conducted. The effects found are of note, as they do not stem from differences in stress, part of speech or style, but occur within such conditions. Especially for unstressed syllables and functions words, this is unexpected, as variants in such conditions are usually reduced already. Hence, the results display an effect of economics, which is stronger for monophthongs than for voiceless fricatives, which might be caused by more closely defined articulatory gestures of those consonants. It remains unclear, if these variants in pronunciation are truly a result of speaking rate. Either they are really caused by local speaking rate or further factors have to be taken into account. Because of the material examined the results might hold for other situations with spontaneous speech. They can be generalized over speaker, but not over other speaking styles.

Teleoperation of an unmanned vehicle is a challenging task for human operators especially when the vehicle is out of line of sight. Improperly designed and applied display interfaces directly affect the operation performance negatively and even can result in catastrophic failures. If these teleoperation missions are human-critical then it becomes more important to improve the operator performance by decreasing workload, managing stress and improving situational awareness. This research aims to develop electrical and control system of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) using an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and validate the development with investigation of the effects of force feedback devices on the teleoperation performance. After development, teleoperation tests are performed to verify that force feedback generated from the dynamic obstacle information of the environment improves teleoperation performance. Results confirm this statement and the developed UGV is verified for future research studies. Development of UGV, algorithms and real system tests are included in this thesis.

Tots els actors en sistemes de salut estan encarant la transició a la Societat Xarxa; una societat l'estructura social del qual es constitueix per xarxes alimentades per tecnologies d'informació i comunicació microelectròniques, i un paradigma tecnològic nou: Informationalisme, basat en l'augment de la capacitat humana per el tractament de la informació i comunicació feta possible per la revolució en microelectrònica, programari, i enginyeria genètica. En aquest context ample, e-salut ha emergit com un camp ample que implica la relació entre l'estructura social actual i el paradigma tecnològic nou dins dels sistemes d'assistència sanitària. A més, la Internet se ha convertit en un dels conductors d'e-salut i es podria considerar com un dels recursos principals per a la informació de salut; com a medi per interacció; com a eina per a lliurament d'assistència sanitària i salut pública. Aquestes concepcions mostren un potencial enorme per millorar la qualitat i eficiència del sistema d'assistència sanitària; redefinint salut, la medicina i el cos; transformant la relació entre agents d'assistència sanitària, i suggereix que una cosmologia mèdica.Tenint en compte aquests canvis, els propòsits de la recerca son:· Identificar i caracteritzar la presència dels actors del sistema de salut de Catalunya en Internet.· Identificar, caracteritzar i explicar els determinants de les pràctiques d'ús i socials que els actors principals del sistema de salut de Catalunya realitzant a través de les Tecnologies de la Informació i la Comunicació, especialment Internet.Per arribar a aquests objectius, es consideraven les següents preguntes d'investigació:· Quin tipus de informació i aplicacions de qualitat relacionades amb Salut s'ofereixen en la Internet?· Com pot ser caracteritzada la presència dels actors del sistema de salut de Catalunya en Internet?· Quines estan les principals barreres i incentius dels grups de suport de pacients per a l'ús d'Internet?· Quins són els usos de les TIC que fan els ciutadans pel que fa a salut i com es poden caracteritzar?· Quines estan les conseqüències d'ús de les TIC per part de les ciutadans, especialment amb Internet, respecte a la gestió de la seva salut i la relació amb els seus professionals sanitaris?· Quins són els determinants (tecnològic i no tecnològic) de la demanda de serveis de salut per els ciutadans mitjançant la Internet?· Quins són els usos de les TIC, especialment la Internet, que fan els professionals sanitaris i com es poden caracteritzar?· Quins són els determinants (tecnològic i no tecnològic) dels usos de Internet per els professionals sanitaris (Metges, Infermers i Farmacèutic)?Per a donar respostes a aquestes preguntes van ser analitzades mitjançant anàlisis estadístiques multivariants les dades recollides mitjançant enquestes telefòniques a una mostra representativa de la població catalana, enquestes online a metges, infermeres, farmacèutics i associacions de pacients així com l'anàlisi de més de 1400 webs de salut. L'anàlisi d'estadística multivariant va validar la sub hipòtesi següent:· La Internet és bàsicament un espai d'informació sobre Salut i no un espai d'interacció entre els actors del sistema; per això els webs de salut són caracteritzats per l'oferta de recursos d'informació, per la manca d'aplicacions relacionades amb comunicació o serveis i per nivells de qualitat associada amb l'actor que proporciona el recurs.· La interrelació entre accés, ús i valoració de les TIC, la demanda de serveis sanitaris i la capacitat dels individus de prendre decisions sobre la seva pròpia salut o els més propers a ells determina l'ús de Internet per accedir al sistema de salut, dons determina un perfil pacient nou anomenava l'e-pacient.· La interrelació entre l'ús intensiu de les TIC, de manera especial la Internet, la valoració positiva per els professionals d'aquestes tecnologies en relació amb les seves activitats de treball els seus pacients, l'ús intensiu de la informació i una orientació del treball cap a la recerca determina un perfil professional nou anomenat el professional sanitari en Xarxa.Aquesta tesi va validar la seguent hipòtesi general: La interacció entre estructura social, l'augment de flux d'informació i les TIC provoca una transformació en pràctiques socials i en el comportament dels actors del sistema de salut. / All the actors in healthcare systems are facing the rise of the Network Society; a society whose social structure is made up of networks powered by microelectronic-based information and communication technologies, and a new technological paradigm: Informationalisms, based on the augmentation of the human capacity forof information processing and communication made possible by the revolution in microelectronics, software, and genetic engineering. In this broad context, e-health has emerged as a broad field which involves the relationship between the current social structure and the new technological paradigm within the healthcare systems. Furthermore, the Internet has become one of the drivers of e-health and could be considered as one of the main resources for health information; as a medium for interaction; as a tool for healthcare delivery and public health. Those conceptions reveal a tremendous potential for improving the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system; redefining health, medicine and the body; transforming the relationship among healthcare agents, and suggest a new medical cosmology called e-scaped medicine. Taking into account these changes, the aims of the research were:· Identify and characterize the presence of the actors of the Catalonian healthcare system in the Internet.· Identify, characterize and explain the determinants of the use and social practices that the principal actors of the healthcare system carry out through ICT, specifically that of the InternetTo reach these objectives, the follow research questions were considered:· What type of quality information and applications related with Health are offered on the Internet?· How can the presence of the healthcare system's actors on the Internet be characterized?· Which are the main barriers and incentives of patient support groups for Internet use?· What are the ICT uses of the citizens with regard to health and how can they be characterized?· What are the consequences of citizen ICT use, specifically that of the Internet, regarding the management of their health and the relationship with their healthcare professionals?· What are the determinants (technological and non-technological) of the demand of healthcare services by citizens via the Internet?· What are the uses of ICT, especially the Internet, by healthcare professionals and how can they be characterized?· What are the determinants (technological and non-technological) of the uses of the Internet by health care professionals (Physicians, Nurses and Pharmacist)?Empirical data to answers these questions are based on telephone survey to population, online surveys to physicians, nurses, pharmacists and patient support groups and on a static snapshot analysis of health related webs. Multivariate statistics analysis was carried out to validate the following sub hypothesis:· The Internet is basically an information space on Health and not an interaction space between the actors of the healthcare system; therefore health webs are characterized by the offer of information resources, by the lack of applications related with communication or services and by levels of quality associated with the actor who provides the resource.· The interrelation between access, use and assessment of ICT, healthcare services demand and the capacity of the individuals to take decisions over their own health or those closest to them determines the use of the Internet to access to the health system, a new patient profile called the e-patient.· The interrelation between the intensive use of ICT, specially the Internet, the positive assessment by healthcare professionals of these technologies in relation with their work activities and their patients, the intensive use of the information and professional work oriented towards research determines a new professional profile called the Networked healthcare professional.And the general hypothesis:· The interaction between social structure, the increase of information flow and ICT causes a transformation in social practices and in the behaviour of the actors of the healthcare system