Prostate cancer is prevalent among men and one of the few cancer sites where local therapies currently target the entire organ instead of tumour. MRI holds promise in accurately depicting regions of cancer burden within the prostate gland and guiding tumour-targeted diagnostics and therapeutics. The clinical performance of a novel stereotactic MRI-guided needle navigation system for prostate cancer targeting was evaluated. Mean absolute in-plane stereotactic needle-targeting error for 10 patients was 2.2 mm and mean absolute depth error was 6.5 mm, highlighting a need to improve technical accuracy of the system. Consequently, alternative stereotactic registration techniques were investigated. Metrics of performance were in-plane stereotactic needle-targeting error, depth error, and registration time. A Z-shaped fiducial motif using automated registration performed best in phantom experiments with an in-plane error of 2.0 mm and depth error of 1.0 mm. These results will guide further software and hardware development to improve clinical performance.

Haskell is a lazy functional language with a strong static type system and excellent support for parallel programming. The language features of Haskell make it easier to write correct and maintainable programs, but execution speed often suffers from the high levels of abstraction. While much past research focuses on high-level optimizations that take advantage of the functional properties of Haskell, relatively little attention has been paid to the optimization opportunities in the low-level imperative code generated during translation to machine code. One problem with current low-level optimizations is that their effectiveness is limited by the obscured control flow caused by Haskell's high-level abstractions. My thesis is that trace-based optimization techniques can be used to improve the effectiveness of low-level optimizations for Haskell programs. I claim three unique contributions in this work. The first contribution is to expose some properties of low-level Haskell codes by looking at the mix of operations performed by the selected benchmark codes and comparing them to the low-level codes coming from traditional programming languages. The low-level measurements reveal that the control flow is obscured by indirect jumps caused by the implementation of lazy evaluation, higher-order functions, and the separately managed stacks used by Haskell programs. My second contribution is a study on the effectiveness of a dynamic binary trace-based optimizer running on Haskell programs. My results show that while viable program traces frequently occur in Haskell programs the overhead associated with maintaing the traces in a dynamic optimization system outweigh the benefits we get from running the traces. To reduce the runtime overheads, I explore a way to find traces in a separate profiling step. My final contribution is to build and evaluate a static trace-based optimizer for Haskell programs. The static optimizer uses profiling data to find traces in a Haskell program and then restructures the code around the traces to increase the scope available to the low-level optimizer. My results show that we can successfully build traces in Haskell programs, and the optimized code yields a speedup over existing low-level optimizers of up to 86% with an average speedup of 5% across 32 benchmarks.

This thesis investigates a novel optoelectronic platform based on the integration of superconductive structures, such as thin films and micro-constrictions, with optical waveguides for ultra-fast and ultra-sensitive devices with applications including high-speed optical communications, quantum optical information processing, and terahertz (THz) devices and systems. The kinetic-inductive photoresponse of superconducting thin films will be studied as the basic optoelectronic process underlying the operation of these novel devices. Analytical formulation for the non-bolometric response is presented, and experimental photodetection in YBCO meander-line structures will be demonstrated. A set of superconducting coplanar waveguides (CPW) are designed and characterized, which support the operation of the devices at microwave frequencies. Microwave-photonic devices comprising a microwave transmission line and a light-sensitive element, such as a meander-line structure, are designed and measured for implementation of optically tunable microwave components. In order to support low-loss and low-dispersion propagation of millimeter-wave and THz signals in ultra-fast and wideband kinetic-inductive devices, surface-wave transmission lines are proposed, incorporating long-wavelength Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP) modes in planar metal-dielectric waveguides. The theory of superconducting optical waveguides, including analytical formulation and numerical methods, is developed in detail. The implementation of superconducting optical waveguides is discussed thoroughly, employing conventional dielectric-waveguide techniques as well as optical SPP modes. Superconductive traveling-wave photodetectors (STWPDs) are introduced as a viable means for ultra-fast and ultra-sensitive photodetection and photomixing. A modified transmission line formalism is developed to model STWPDs, where light is guided through an optical waveguide and photodetection is distributed along a transmission line. As an appendix, a systematic approach is developed for the analysis of carrier transport through superconducting heterostructures and micro-constrictions within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) framework. The method is applied to study the role of Andreev reflection and Josephson-like phenomena in the current-voltage characteristics of inhomogeneous superconducting structures. I-V characteristics are experimentally demonstrated in YBCO micro-constrictions with potential applications in millimeter-wave and THz devices.

Guided wave techniques have great potential for the structural health monitoring of plate-like components. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of combining laser-ultrasonic techniques with time-frequency representations to experimentally develop the dispersion relationship of a plate; the high fidelity, broad bandwidth and point-like nature of laser ultrasonics are critical for the success of these results. Unfortunately, laser ultrasonic techniques are time and cost intensive, and are impractical for many in-service applications. Therefore this research develops a complementary digital signal processing methodology that uses mounted piezoelectric elements instead of optical devices. This study first characterizes the spatial and temporal effects of oil coupled and glued piezoelectric sources, and then develops a procedure to interpret and model the distortion caused by their limited bandwidth and finite size. Furthermore, it outlines any inherent difficulties for time and frequency domain considerations. The deconvolution theory for source function extraction in the time - and frequency domain under the presence of noise is provided and applied to measured data. These considerations give the background for further studies to develop a dispersion relationship of a plate with the fidelity and bandwidth similar to results possible with laser ultrasonics, but made using mounted piezoelectric sources.

In this thesis, we proposed general forms of eigen-mode analysis for multilayer optical waveguides. This study discussed the periodic structure in transverse direction and used the slowly varying envelope approximation to approximate the wave function. Firstly, we presented a general method for analyzing the multilayer nonlinear optical waveguide structure by using modal theory. The nonlinear optical waveguide is a medium whose refractive index changes with the electric field intensity. The general method can also be degenerated into some other special cases for analyzing multilayer nonlinear optical waveguide. Secondly, a general method for analyzing the multilayer optical waveguides with photonic metamaterials characterized by simultaneously negative dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability was studied. The research pointed out explicitly that the three-layer planar waveguide with photonic metamaterials could support forbidden regions. The complete set of modes of all possible solutions for the TE wave in photonic metamaterials optical waveguide was found. The transverse electric field distributions and dispersion relations in multilayer optical waveguides can be obtained by using these general forms. Finally, we used the general forms to design an all-optical mode converter which composed of a pair of multibranch optical waveguides. The analytical and numerical results show excellent agreement.

Flexible printed circuits (FPCs) have a flexible character, so the topic for high accuracy and speed of drill is important. We will create an automatic system that joins vision-guided function to accomplish the challenge object of high quality and low cost. The system must contain two sub-systems, which are the machine position control and the image recognition. The machine position control system basis framework moves to position after getting hole-position with different methods and scheme of trajectory planning. The image recognition system framework exports correction to machine position control system that integrates the technique of charge-coupled device (CCD), light source design, snap an image in region of interest (ROI) with image grabber card, pattern match that uses normalized cross correlation (NCC) algorithm. We can proof that the system can achieve the expected goal of high speed and accuracy of drill.

The possibility and feasibility of experimental detection of localized defects in tubes using laser-induced ultrasonic wave approach through Thermo Acousto Photonic Non Destructive Evaluation (TAP-NDE) and Signal processing through wavelet transform is examined in this research. Guided waves in cylindrical surfaces provide solutions for detection of different defects in the material. Several experiments were conducted to this respect. Wave propagation in both axial and circumferential directions was studied. The dispersive wave propagation of ultrasonic waves in hollow cylinders has been investigated experimentally, primarily for use in non-contact and nondestructive inspections of pipes and tubes. The laser ultrasonic waves propagated in cylindrical waveguides are particularly attractive because of their unique characteristics in the applications of nondestructive evaluation (NDE). Contrary to studies making use of only axially symmetric guided waves in hollow cylinders, here are analyzed also nonaxisymmetric waves. The analysis of data is made by using the Gabor wavelet transform. The capability of modeling the guided wave dispersion in hollow cylinders is used in developing guided wave experimental techniques for flaw detection. Good agreement was obtained when comparing the dispersion spectra between theory and experimentation. Measurement of group velocities of guided waves, which are obtained directly from the wavelet transform coefficients, can be used to determine allocation and sizing of flaws.

This exploratory mixed methods study addressed the types of gains students made when engaged in one of two forms of inquiry. Gains were measured on three levels: conceptual understanding, the process of scientific investigation, and use of practical reasoning skills. One hundred-thirty 8th grade students from a rural public school in East Texas participated in this study. Classes of students were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: guided inquiry or authentic student research learning. Non parametric statistical analysis and constant comparative qualitative analysis were used to triangulate pre-tests and post-tests, student journals, and student drawings to address the research questions. Findings support greater gains in conceptual understanding of domain specific content in a highly scaffolded guided inquiry. Further authentic scientific research learning was more effective for developing understanding of scientific investigation as a process and application of knowledge through practical reasoning skills.

Thesis (M.S.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-46). Also available on microfilm.

The thesis that follows is performed in collaboration with Nitator in Oskarström.The factory in Oskarström focuses on laser cutting, robotic welding and surfacetreatment of steel for the automotive industry. The project aims to streamline the flow of materials in production by automatingthe movements of the forklifts, running to and from the interlayer, and betweenworkstations. The project started with a systematic literature search. The literature searchshowed the research position around the AGV-system. Also a review of studentliterature was made, so that a suitable method for practical implementation couldbe developed and applied. Selected method uses both quantitative and qualitativeapproaches, which is analyzed by using triangulation. The work has resulted in a modified layout of the current facility in Oskarströmthat can be used for the implementation of the AGV-system. It has also resulted inthe tender documents and profitability calculation from several of AGV-suppliers.