Many applications require automatic image analysis for different quality of the input images. In many cases, the quality of acquired images is suitable for the purpose of the application. However, in some cases the quality of the acquired image has to be modified according to needs of a specific application. A higher quality of the image can be achieved by Image Enhancement (IE) algorithms. The choice of IE technique is challenging as this choice varies with the application purpose. The goal of this research is to investigate the possibility of the selective application for the IE algorithms. The values of entropy and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) of the acquired image are considered as parameters for selectivity. Three algorithms such as Retinex, Bilateral filter and Bilateral tone adjustment have been chosen as IE techniques for evaluation in this work. Entropy and PSNR are used for the performance evaluation of selected IE algorithms. In this study, we considered the images from three fingerprint image databases as input images to investigate the algorithms. The decision to enhance an image in these databases by the considered algorithms is based on the empirically evaluated entropy and PSNR thresholds. Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) has been selected as the application of interest. The evaluation results show that the performance of the investigated IE algorithms affects significantly the performance of AFIS. The second conclusion is that entropy and PSNR might be considered as indicators for required IE of the input image for AFIS.

<p>There are two fundamental limitations in magnetic resonance: the poor signal amplitude and the short duration before the system return to equilibrium. Hyperpolarization methods solve the problem of signal amplitude, however, the duration of the hyperpolarized signal is still limited by the spin-lattice relaxation time, T1. Disconnected eigenstates provide a mechanism by which hyperpolarization can be stored for several times T1. This thesis contributes to the knowledge of these states in four important ways. First, the decay of hyperpolarized magnetization of gas is simulated in lung tissue with a contrast agent, yielding insights about the optimal field strength for imaging. Second, I show that it is possible to rapidly discover and characterize disconnected eigenstates by showing that they can be measured without synthesizing the isotopically labeled compound. Third, I extend the spin systems that can support disconnected eigenstates by expanding the theory to include spin-1 nuclei. Finally, I show that disconnected states with long lifetimes can be populated in conjunction with hyperpolarization techniques to simultaneously yield large signal amplitudes for long durations. </p><p>Applications of hyperpolarized spin order are likely to be in complex geophysical or biological structures. Understanding the effect of the inhomogeneous fields created when such structures are placed in a magnetic field on hyperpolarized spin order is a necessity to characterize the experimental signal. An example case of hyperpolarized 3He and 129Xe diffusing through lung tissue is examined. In particular a Monte Carlo simulation tool, combined with a magnetic field map of the inhomogeneous field created by mouse lung tissue, is used to determine the dephasing rate of hyperpolarized 3He and 129Xe in the presence of SuperParamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPION). Contributions to the dephasing rate include the inhomogeneous field, the SPION magnetic field, and dephasing caused by collisions with the confining geometry. The sensitivity of either gas to SPION increases with increasing SPION concentration and decreasing field strength.</p><p>There are some general rules about what makes for a disconnected eigenstate (or singlet state) with a long lifetime. However, no systematic experimental study has been undertaken due to the cost and time-constraints of synthesizing the labeled species for study. I show that synthesis is not a barrier for characterizing the long-lived states. Instead the lifetimes may be determined by using the naturally occurring doubly-labeled isotopomer. I verified this method with two compounds, diphenyl acetylene (DPA) and diethyl oxylate (DEO). The former was determined to have a singlet lifetime TS = 251.40 ±3.16 s from the synthesized species, while the naturally occurring isotopomer yielded a lifetime TS = 202 ±55.30 s, both substantially longer than the spin-lattice relaxation time, T1 = 1.63 ±0.01s. In DEO, the lifetime from the disconnected eigenstate was determined to be TS = 14.62 ±0.76 s (synthesized), TS = 19.32 ±3.16 s (naturally occurring). This method is applied to a range of compounds ranging from simple four-spin systems, such as diacetylene (TS = 48.80 ±22.74 s, T1 = 18.66 ±1.16 s) to eight spin systems in dimethylmaleic anhydride (TS = 27.25 ±3.39 s, T1 = 9.38 ±0.43 s). Additionally, a family of compounds including naphthalene (TS = 4.37 ±0.34 s, T1 = 11.33 ±4.89 s), biphenyl (TS = 3.09 ±0.66 s, T1 = 4.69 ±0.10 s), and DPA show that the rotation of the phenyl rings and intermolecular dipole-dipole relaxation can be critical to the relaxation dynamics.</p><p>One particular method of accessing the disconnected eigenstate involves coupling a chemically equivalent spin-1/2 pair asymmetrically to an auxiliary spin-1/2 pair. I demonstrate that the disconnected state may still be accessed when the auxiliary nuclei are spin-1. This has two distinct advantages. When the auxiliary nuclei change from proton to deuterium, the couplings are reduced by a factor of ~6.5 which prevents the disconnected state from relaxing as rapidly back to equilibrium. This is demonstrated in diacetylene-d2 and DPA-d10, where the singlet lifetime was extended by a factor of ~1.7 via deuteration (TS,1H = 49 ±23 s, TS,2H = 83 ±30 s for diacetylene and TS,1H = 274 ±6.1 s, TS,2H = 479 ±83 s for DPA). Additionally, by reducing the coupling strength, deuteration allows additional structural moieties to be explored, such as RDC=CDR. One such structure is explored in trans-ethylene-d2, where the singlet character of the protons can be accessed by the reduced coupling to the deuterium. Additionally, this allows for a relatively strong deuterium-deuterium scalar coupling, requiring modification to the theory. This is carried out analytically, and implications for the relaxation properties are performed using a spin-dynamics numerical simulation. The lifetime of the disconnected state was determined to be TS = 30.2 ±12.3 s, compared to the T1 = 1.1 ±0.2 s at high concentration (270 mM), and increasing to TS = 117. ±9.80 s at low concentration (52 mM). The variation in long lifetime is attributed to intermolecular dipole-dipole relaxation.</p><p>Ultimately, the gains in lifetime from using disconnected eigenstates provide a means to the practical implementation of hyperpolarization in a wider range of experiments. A recent hyperpolarization method, Signal Amplification By Reversible Exchange in Shield Enables Alignment Transfer to Heteronuclei (SABRE-SHEATH) is shown to directly hyperpolarize long lived spin order in a diazirine containing molecule. Diazirine rings are three member N=N-C groups that can replace a methylene group and serve as a versatile MR and optical molecular tag. Hyperpolarization is accomplished by bubbling parahydrogen through a solution containing the diazirine and an iridium catalyst. Due to the chemical inequivalence of the 15N of the diazirine, hyperpolarization of longitudinal magnetization and singlet character could be observed by transfer to the high field spectrometer. Signal enhancements of over 14,000 were observed. The magnetic field strength required for buildup of magnetization and singlet character was derived and is in agreement with the experiment. The magnetization lifetime was observed to be T1 = 5.75 ±0.18 minutes and independent of field strength, while the lifetime of the singlet character was observed to be as long as TS = 30.1 ±13.4 minutes at low field (3 Gauss).</p><p>The combination of these experiments – understanding lifetimes in inhomogeneous magnetic fields that will be encountered in experiment, identification of disconnected eigenstates with long lifetimes via the naturally occurring isotopomer and extending these lifetimes even further with deuteration, and finally, the direct generation of long-lived hyperpolarized spin order – allows a measurement that required hyperpolarized spin order for the enhanced signal amplitude, to be carried out.</p> / Dissertation

The process of mixing tracks for a live stage performance or studio session is both time consuming and expensive with assistance of professionals. It is also difficult for individuals to remain competitive against established companies, since multiple tracks must be properly mixed in order to achieve well-enhanced elements -- generally, a poor mix makes it difficult for the listener to distinguish the different elements of the mix. The developed method during this thesis work aims at facilitating the mixing work for live performances and studio sessions. The implemented system analyzes the energy spectrum of the tracks included in the mix. By unmasking spectral components, the spectral overlap of the tracks is minimized. The system filters non-characteristic frequencies, leaving significant frequencies undisturbed. Five tracks have been used from the final mix of a successful radio song. These tracks have been analyzed and used to illustrate and validate the developed method. The system was successfully implemented in MATLAB with promising results and conclusions. The processed mix unmasks frequency content and is perceived to sound clearer compared to the unprocessed mix by a number of test individuals. The method reminds of a multi-band compressor that analyzes the spectral information between tracks. Thus, by use of inter-spectral dependencies, the thesis investigates the possibility to control the amplitudes in time by filtration in frequency domain. The compression rate in time domain is reflected in regard to a trade-off between conservation of characteristic frequencies and reduction of spectral overlaps.

In today’s drug discovery, the number of candidate drugs based on new molecular entities with poor aqueous solubility is increasing. Since poor aqueous solubility of an active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is associated with low bioavailability and thus limite their therapeutic effect, this is often a great challenge in the development of new drugs when oral administration is the preferred route of administration. A number of different strategies have been developed to circumvent this problem where salt formulations of an API is the most widely employed method. However, new strategies are needed since there is no one solution that solves this issue for all substances. In recent time, the concept of stabilizing poorly soluble APIs in their amorphous form has gained a lot of attention since amorphous compounds exhibit a higher apparent solubility compared to their crystalline counterparts. Amorphous substances are prone to crystallize if left in a non-constricted environment and thus need to be stabilized if the amorphous state is to be conserved until administration. Inorganic mesoporous materials have been proposed as an interesting type of excipients that can conserve the amorphous state of APIs. In this work, the focus was to investigate the possibilities of using a mesoporous type of magnesium carbonate to stabilize the amorphous state of different APIs. Due to the nanometer sized pores in the material, complete conservation of amorphous APIs was obtained. This resulted in both an increase in in vitro release rate and a higher solubility of the substances which may translate to both a faster onset of action and an improved therapeutic effect of the APIs in a clinical situation. The long term stability of formulations was also investigated showing promising results. The results presented in this work show that mesoporous magnesium carbonate represents an interesting type of excipient for oral formulations of APIs with poor aqueous solubility. / <p>Felaktigt ISBN 978-91-554-9702-6 i tryck version.</p>

Cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopies have earned themselves a place as one of the methods of choice for sensitive absorption measurements on gas-phase samples, but their application to liquid samples has so far been more limited. Sensitive short pathlength analysis of liquid samples is required for online analysis of microfluidic samples, which are processed in channels with dimensions of tens to hundreds of micrometres. Microfluidics is important for a range of applications including drug discovery and environmental sensing. This thesis explores the application of cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopies to short pathlength (0.010 mm to 2 mm) analysis of sub-microlitre volumes of liquids. Three experimental set-ups have been been examined. Firstly, a single-wavelength cavity ringdown (CRD) spectrometer operating at 532 nm was assembled using two 99.8% reflectivity mirrors. High optical quality flow cells with short pathlengths ranging from 0.1 mm to 2 mm were inserted into this cavity at Brewster’s angle. The detection limit of the set-up with each inserted flow cell was established using a concentration series of aqueous potassium permanganate (KMnO₄) solutions. For the 1 mm flow cell, a detection limit of 29 nM KMnO₄ or 1.4 x 10⁻⁴ cm⁻¹ was established. Several different types of microfluidic devices were also inserted into the cavity, and it was found that the losses arising from the inserted chip were highly dependent on the method of chip manufacture. The CRD set-up with inserted 1 mm flow cell was applied to the detection of two important species, nitrite and iron(II), via analyte-specific colourimetric reactions. Detection limits of 1.9 nM nitrite and 3.8 nM iron(II) were established. The second experimental set-up utilised broadband, supercontinuum light generated in a 20 m length of nonlinear photonic crystal fibre. Broadband mirrors with around 99% reflectivity over the wavelength range from 400 to 800 nm were used to form the cavity, and a miniature spectrometer was used to wavelength-resolve the time-integrated cavity output. Flow cells and microfluidic chips were inserted into the cavity either at normal incidence or at Brewster’s angle. This set-up was employed for reaction analysis of an iron complexation reaction with bathophenanthroline, and for a model organic reaction, the Diels-Alder reaction between anthracene and 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione. The same broadband set-up was also used for pH measurements using bromocresol green indicator solution. Using dual-wavelength CRD spectroscopy, the pH sensitivity was established to be around a few milli pH units. Finally, an alternative type of cavity, formed from a loop of optical fibre has been investigated. A novel light-coupler was designed and fabricated in 365 μm core diameter multimode optical fibre. Sample designs employing both direct and evanescent wave absorption were investigated in small-core and large-core optical fibres, and the lowest detection limit of 0.11 cm⁻¹ was determined in direct absorption measurements, with a pathlength of 180 μm, using our novel light coupler in 365 μm core diameter optical fibre.

This dissertation focuses on the concept of authenticity and its implications for our projects of self-creation, particularly those involving the use of "enhancement technologies" (such as stimulant drugs, "mood brighteners", or brain stimulation). After an introduction to the concept of authenticity and the enhancement debate in the first part of the thesis, part 2 considers the main analyses of authenticity in the contemporary philosophical literature. It begins with those emphasizing self-creation, and shows that, despite their merits, such views cannot adequately deal with certain types of cases, which require a third option, “true self” accounts, emphasizing self-discovery. However, it is argued that in their existing versions, accounts of this third sort are also unsatisfactory. Part 3 of the thesis proposes a new account of the "true self" sort, intended to improve upon existing ones. Common problematic assumptions about the concept of the true self are critiqued, after which a new analysis of that concept is presented, based on seven different conditions. Two specific definitions of authenticity, respectively emphasizing self-expression and the preservation of one's true self, are provided, and its relation to various associated notions, such as integrity or sincerity, are examined. Finally, part 4 looks at the implications of the previous parts for the enhancement debate. In particular, it discusses the prospect of technologically enhancing our personality and mood dispositions. Do such interventions always threaten our authenticity, as some worry? A negative answer is provided to that question. Various potential pitfalls hinted at by the inauthenticity worry are discussed and acknowledged. It is, however, argued that such enhancements could still in principle be used in a fully authentic manner, and that they have the potential to bring about genuine improvements in our mood but also to our moral capacities and our affective rationality more generally.

Injuries to the brain are the leading cause of permanent disability and death. Survivors of acquired brain injury (ABI) experience cognitive impairments and emotional problems. These often persist into community rehabilitation and are among the most significant needs for those in chronic stages of rehabilitation. There is a dearth of research providing evidence of music therapy addressing cognitive deficits and emotional needs in a holistic approach. This research answers the question how can brief group music therapy address cognitive functional gains and emotional needs of people with acquired brain injury. A mixed methods design was used to investigate the effect of 16 sessions of weekly group music therapy on attention and memory impairments, and emotional needs of ten ABI survivors in community rehabilitation. Quantitative data were collected to determine the effect of treatment on attention and memory functioning, mood state, and the satisfaction of emotional needs. Qualitative data were collected to reveal survivors’ experiences of brain injury and brief group music therapy. Analysis of the data showed that the intervention improved sustained attention (p<.05, r=.80) and immediate memory recall (p>.05, r=.46), and that the effect of treatment increased with dosage. Overall, the intervention was more effective than standard care, and cognitive functional gains continued after treatment for some ABI survivors. The intervention addressed emotional needs of feeling confident (p<.05, d=.88), feeling part of a group (p<.05, d=.74), feeling productive/useful (p<.05, d=.90), feeling supportive (p<.05, d=.75), feeling valued (p<.05, d=.74), and enjoyment (p<.05, d=.34). Improvements in these domains were observed in the immediate term and over the course of therapy. Music therapy enabled emotional adjustment through the development of selfawareness and insight. This study offers a music therapy method to deliver a holistic approach in rehabilitation. It demonstrates that music therapy can provide a cost effective, holistic treatment for ABI survivors.

Enhancing low light videos has been quite a challenge over the years. A video taken in low light always has the issues of low dynamic range and high noise. This master thesis presents contribution within the field of low light video enhancement. Three models are proposed with different tone mapping algorithms for extremely low light low quality video enhancement. For temporal noise removal, a motion compensated kalman structure is presented. Dynamic range of the low light video is stretched using three different methods. In Model 1, dynamic range is increased by adjustment of RGB histograms using gamma correction with a modified version of adaptive clipping thresholds. In Model 2, a shape preserving dynamic range stretch of the RGB histogram is applied using SMQT. In Model 3, contrast enhancement is done using CLAHE. In the final stage, the residual noise is removed using an efficient NLM. The performance of the models are compared on various Objective VQA metrics like NIQE, GCF and SSIM. To evaluate the actual performance of the models subjective tests are conducted, due to the large number of applications that target humans as the end user of the video.The performance of the three models are compared for a total of ten real time input videos taken in extremely low light environment. A total of 25 human observers subjectively evaluated the performance of the three models based on the parameters: contrast, visibility, visually pleasing, amount of noise and overall quality. A detailed statistical evaluation of the relative performance of the three models is also provided.

The effectiveness of drug abuse treatment for clients coerced into care remains controversial. Some studies find clients with legal pressure do better than those without legal pressure, while others report the exact opposite. Opposing views are often fueled by the wide-ranging models that guide delivery of addiction treatment. The present study examined how participants with and without legal pressure to attend treatment responded to a motivational (MET) vs. traditional (TAU) form of addiction treatment. Additionally, the predictive value of the Readiness to Change (RTC) score, from the URICA, was assessed across days of substance use and treatment retention. Legal status was shown to have a significant effect on days of primary substance use per week and treatment retention, regardless of intervention condition. The RTC score was shown not to be predictive of days of primary substance use or treatment retention. Research and clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

This study explored the application of compost onto a small loblolly pine tree forest in northeast Texas. Its purpose was to determine if the application of various amounts of compost would provide for accelerated rates of growth for the trees. Soil parameters were also monitored. A total of 270 trees were planted and studied in a northeast Texas forest ecosystem. Compost rates of 5, 25, and 50 tons per acre with either soil or compost backfill were utilized and compared to a control without compost. Nonparametric and parametric ANOVA and Chi-Square tests were utilized. The results indicated that greater application rates retained greater moisture and higher pH levels in the soil. Compost applications also yielded a greater survival rate as well as larger tree height and diameter when compared to the control. The 25 ton/acre application backfilled in native soil achieved the greatest average in height and diameter when compared to the averages for the control plot. Greater growth differences for the 25S application can be attributed to additional nutrients coupled with a stable pH consistent with native soil acidity.