Sammanfattning Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet med denna studie var att a) undersöka om motionärer med Achilles tendinopati (AT) i mittportionen har nedsatt dorsalflexion i första metatarso-  falangealleden (MTP 1-leden) på affekterad sida jämfört med frisk b) undersöka om det finns sidoskillnader i naviculare position samt c) undersöka vilken metod - goniometermätning (GM) eller visuell estimation (VE) - som är att föredra vid mätning av dorsalflexionen i MTP 1-leden. Frågeställningarna var följande: Hur förhåller det sig med skillnaden för dorsalflexion i MTP 1-leden då affekterad sida jämförs med frisk hos motionärer med AT? Hur förhåller det sig med sidoskillnaden för fotvalvets höjd ? Hur förhåller det sig med sidoskillnaden för den vertikala rörligheten i mellanfoten? Hur förhåller det sig med mätvärdet för dorsalflexion i MTP 1-leden då affekterad sida jämförs med frisk vid användandet av respektive mätmetod (GM och VE)? Hur förhåller det sig med den samtidiga validiteten mellan VE och GM vid mätning av dorsalflexionen i MTP 1-leden? Metod: 28 patienter med unilateral AT (medelålder 39 år, symtomtid median 12 veckor), rekryterades konsekutivt. Patienterna diagnosticerades kliniskt, nedre extremitet screenades för rörelseinskränkningar i sagittalplanet, naviculares höjd (NH) mättes i två positioner och naviculare drop (ND) beräknades. MTP 1-leden fotograferades tre gånger i standardiserad mätposition och dorsalflexionen mättes med GM på fotografierna som randomiserats. Fotografierna med det högsta mätvärdet för respektive fots dorsalflexion i MTP 1-leden användes randomiserat för VE som utfördes med protokoll för standardisering. Resultat: Motionärer med AT uppvisade signifikant lägre medelvärde (p=0,015) för dorsalflexionen i MTP 1-leden på affekterad sida jämfört med frisk. Ingen signifikant sidoskillnad på medelvärdena för fotvalvets höjd (NH) eller på medelvärdena för vertikal rörlighet i mellanfoten (ND) förelåg. GM uppvisade signifikant högre medelvärde (p=0,0009) för dorsalflexion i MTP 1-leden jämfört med VE. Oavsett mätmetod (GM och VE), visade resultatet även ett signifikant (p= 0,047) högre medelvärde för dorsalflexionen i MTP 1-leden på frisk sida jämfört med affekterad. Pearson korrelation test visade r= 0,90 på frisk respektive r=0,86 på affekterad sida då metoderna VE och GM undersöktes för samvarians. Konklusion: Motionärer med unilateral AT har nedsatt dorsalflexion i MTP 1-leden på den affekterade sidan jämfört med friska. Inga sidoskillnader verkar finnas beträffande naviculare position. GM är att föredra framför VE vid klinisk mätning av dorsalflexion i MTP 1-leden, eftersom rörligheten underestimerades vid VE. / Abstract   Aim: The aim of this study was to a) investigate if recreational athletes diagnosed with midportion Achilles tendinopathy (AT) have restricted dorsiflexion in the 1st metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint on affected side, compared to non-affected, b) investigate whether there are side side differences in naviculare position and also c) investigate which method - goniometric measurement (GM) or visual estimation (VE) - is preferable in measurement for dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint. The questions were: Is there a difference for dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint when comparing the affected side with the unaffected? Is there a side difference for the height of the medial longitudinal arch? Is there a side difference for the size of midtarsal vertical movement? Are there differences between the values of dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint using the respective method (GM and VE) when comparing the affected side to the unaffected? Does the method VE exhibit concurrent validity with the method GM in measuring dorsiflexion for the 1st MTP joint? Method: 28 patients with unilateral AT (mean age 39 years, weeks of symptoms median =12) were consecutively recruted. The patients were diagnosed clinically, the lower extremity was screened for restrictions in the sagittal plane, naviculare height (NH) was measured in two positions and navicular drop (ND) was calculated. The 1st MTP joint was photographed three times in a standardized position, and the dorsiflexion was measured by GM in the photos, which were randomized. The highest value measured for dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint for each foot was used for VE, and a protocol was used to standardize. Results: There was a significantly restricted dorsiflexion (p=0.015) in the 1st MTP joint on the affected side for recreational athletes with AT. There was no significance between the height of the longitudinal arch (NH) or the size of midtarsal vertical movement (ND) when comparing the affected side to the unaffected. Using GM there was a significantly higher mean (p= 0.0009) for dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint compared to VE. The mean was also significantly higher for dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint, using GM as well as VE, on the unaffected side, compared to the affected. When the methods VE and GM were examined for covariance, Pearson's correlation test showed r = 0.90 to the unaffected side and r = 0.86 to the affected side. Conclusions: Recreational athletes with unilateral AT have a restriction of dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint on the affected side compared to the unaffected. There were no side differences found between naviculare position. GM is to be chosen over VE for clinical measurements of dorsiflexion in the 1st MTP joint, since VE underestimated the range of motion.

Design rework includes unnecessary repetition in design tasks to correct design problems. Resolving design matters in advance, through in-depth understanding of the design planning and rework issues and development of effective predictive tools could contribute to higher business profit margins and a faster product time-to-market. This research aims to develop three novel and structured methods to predict the design rework occurrence and effort at the very early design stage, which may otherwise remain undiscovered until the testing and refinement phase. The major contribution obtained from the Design Rework Probability of Occurrence Estimation method, DRePOE, is the development of design rework drivers. The developed drivers have been synthesised with data from interview results, direct observations, and archival records obtained from eleven world-class aerospace and automotive components manufacturers. To predict the probability of occurrence, the individual score of each driver was compared against historical records utilising the analogy-based method. The Design Rework Effort Estimation method, DREE, was developed to interconnect functional structures and identify failure relationships among components. A significant contribution of The DREE method is its capability to assess the design rework effort at the component level under the worst-case scenario. Next a Prioritisation Design by Design Rework Effort Based method, PriDDREB, was developed to provide a tool to forecast the maximum design rework given the constraint. This method provides a tool to determine and prioritise the components that may require a significant design rework effort. The three methods developed were validated with an automotive water pump, a turbocharger, and a McPherson strut suspension system in accordance with the validation square method. It is demonstrated that DRePOE, DREE, PriDDREB methods can offer the product design team a means to predict the probability of design rework occurrence and assess the required effort during the testing and refinement phase at the very early design phase.

In this dissertation, we study minimax hypothesis testing in high-dimensional regression against sparse alternatives and minimax estimation of average treatment effect in an semiparametric regression with possibly large number of covariates.

Many chemical processes need large computation time to simulate. It has been observed that the speed of a process simulation depends to a large extent on evaluation of certain important functions in the system to be simulated. One such function is K-value estimation function which involves heavy vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations. Because of large number of K-value calculations, there can be a bottleneck in simulation convergence. Thus within process simulation applications computational speed is often emphasized and accuracy is compromised. In situ adaptive tabulation or ISAT, a storage and retrieval technique is proposed for speeding up K-value estimation in a process simulator (CHEMCAD®) using the input-output data. C language code is developed to implement ISAT algorithm for this application. The C code is then converted into Dynamic link library to be able to be used vii by main CHEMCAD® code as required. The overall testing with different K-value databases gave promising results improving computational time while maintaining accuracy. / text

published_or_final_version / Statistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

The objective of this work is to estimate and simulate organ uptake variability and correlations using measured data from the FastSPECT II Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) imaging system. We will investigate various methods that attempt to determine organ-uptake within a set of organs in a digital phantom; these methods include Region-of-Interest, Gauss-Markov, Wiener, and Reconstruction Estimation algorithms. In addition to the estimators, we will also test whether moving the phantom with respect to the imaging system and gathering multiple images from different positions will improve the performance of our estimators. The variations and correlations in the object will be modeled using Gaussian distributions with first and second-order statistics known exactly. We will present a mathematical formulation of this model, in a texture-free context, as well as some results on image-quality assessment. The object model will be the MOBY digital mouse phantom; the 4-D MOBY Mouse Model is a digital phantom developed by Paul Segars\citep{moby}, which provides a useful digital model for nuclear-medicine and CT imaging.

Petroleum exploration and development are capital intensive and smart economic decisions that need to be made to profitably extract oil and gas from the reservoirs. Accurate quantification of uncertainty in production forecasts will help in assessing risk and making good economic decisions. This study investigates the effect of combining dynamic data with the uncertainty in static data to see the effect on estimates of uncertainty in production forecasting. Fifty permeability realizations were generated for a reservoir in west Texas from available petrophysical data. We quantified the uncertainty in the production forecasts using a likelihood weighting method and an automatic history matching technique combined with linear uncertainty analysis. The results were compared with the uncertainty predicted using only static data. We also investigated approaches for best selecting a smaller number of models from a larger set of realizations to be history matched for quantification of uncertainty. We found that incorporating dynamic data in a reservoir model will result in lower estimates of uncertainty than considering only static data. However, incorporation of dynamic data does not guarantee that the forecasted ranges will encompass the true value. Reliability of the forecasted ranges depends on the method employed. When sampling multiple realizations of static data for history matching to quantify uncertainty, a sampling over the entire range of realization likelihoods shows larger confidence intervals and is more likely to encompass the true value for predicted fluid recoveries, as compared to selecting the best models.

A annual nergy production analysis was undertaken to compare wind resources and annual energy production as estimated by WAsP and Windsim. Nordex Sverige AB has designed a wind farm with the help of WAsP and this study will involve the examination of this site with Windsim. Two site formations are of interest, one with the same class of turbine and one with a mix of two turbine types. The study is interested in the effect on annual energy production as estimated by the different software of employing a hybrid layout using wind turbines of different height.The results showed that whilst initial estimations of total energy production without wake losses appear very similar between WAsP and Windsim the ways in which the software are treating individual turbines within the planned farm can be quite different because of different physics. The analysis of the „hybrid‟ turbine layout showed significant increases in estimated annual energy production when a turbine with a higher tower and larger rotor diameter was used in a hybrid arrangement. Estimated annual energy losses on the turbines that were not changed in favour of a larger turbine were small. However, no great benefit in estimated turbine efficiency was achieved through the mixing of turbine types with different hub heights. The gains in annual energy production estimated by both software are however significant with increased production of 18 % across the entire farm when comparing the „hybrid‟ layout to a farm based on only the smaller of the two turbine types.

Pose estimation is a common problem in computer vision. The pose is the combination of the position and orientation of a particular object relative to some reference coordinate system. The pose estimation problem involves determining the pose of an object from one or multiple images of the object. This problem often arises in the area of robotics. It is necessary to determine the pose of an object before it can be manipulated by the robot. In particular, this research focuses on pose estimation for initialization of position-based visual servoing. A closely related problem is the correspondence problem. This is the problem of finding a set of features from the image of an object that can be identified as the same feature from a model of the object. Solving for pose without known corre- spondence is also refered to as the simultaneous pose and correspondence problem, and it is a lot more difficult than solving for pose with known correspondence. This thesis explores a number of methods to solve the simultaneous pose and correspondence problem, with focuses on a method called SoftPOSIT. It uses the idea that the pose is easily determined if correspondence is known. It first produces an initial guess of the pose and uses it to determine a correspondence. With the correspondence, it determines a new pose. This new pose is assumed to be a better estimate, thus a better correspondence can be determined. The process is repeated until the algorithm converges to a correspondence pose estimate. If this pose estimate is not good enough, the algorithm is restarted with a new initial guess. An improvement is made to this algorithm. An early termination condition is added to detect conditions where the algorithm is unlikely to converge towards a good pose. This leads to an reduction in the runtime by as much as 50% and improvement in the success rate of the algorithm by approximately 5%. The proposed solution is tested and compared with the RANSAC method and simulated annealing in a simulation environment. It is shown that the proposed solution has the potential for use in commercial environments for pose estimation.