Die intermetallischen Verbindungen der RCu2-Serie (R = Seltenerd-Elemente) zeigen eine ungewöhnliche Vielfalt von magnetischen Strukturen in Abhängigkeit von Temperatur und äußerem Magnetfeld. Diese Vielfalt ist verursacht durch das Wechselspiel von indirekter Austauschwechselwirkung und anisotropem kristallelektrischen Feld. Die RCu2-Verbindungen kristallisieren in der CeCu2-Struktur, welche als orthorhombische Verzerrung der hexagonalen AlB2-Struktur verstanden werden kann. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, RCu2-Verbindungen mit magnetischer Röntgenbeugung bzw. resonanter magnetischer Röntgenstreuung zu untersuchen, teilweise ergänzt durch Neutronenbeugungsexperimente. Dem zur Neutronenbeugung komplementären Charakter der Röntgenmethoden entspricht es, dass dabei spezielle Details der magnetischen Strukturen untersucht werden. Zusätzlich zur Untersuchung der magnetischen Eigenschaften und Strukturen und zur Suche nach den Ursachen für die auftretenden Phasenübergänge werden magnetoelastische Kopplungen in der pseudohexagonalen Substanzgruppe betrachtet (R = Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy). Der Zusammenhang von kristalliner und magnetischer Struktur wird auch unter Variation und Mischung der Elemente auf dem Seltenerd-Platz erforscht (Tb(1-x)DyxCu2, Tb(1-x)PrxCu2, Dy(1-x)YxCu2). Für die Untersuchung des elementspezifischen Magnetismus bei Vorhandensein mehrerer magnetischer Atomsorten in einem Kristall ist dabei die resonante magnetische Röntgenstreuung die einzig verfügbare Methode. Im Tb0.5Dy0.5Cu2 wird dabei ein unerwartetes Verhalten im Temperaturverlauf der magnetischen Strukturen beobachtet. Ergebnisse aus ergänzenden Neutronenbeugungsexperimenten werden ebenfalls vorgestellt und mittels Rietveld-Verfeinerung der kristallinen und magnetischen Strukturen ausgewertet. Im Ergebnis der Arbeit sind die untersuchten magnetischen Strukturen näher bekannt. Magnetoelastische Wechselwirkungen werden unter Verwendung von Beugungsmethoden neuartig gemessen. / The intermetallic compounds of the RCu2 series (R = rare earths) show a large variety of magnetic structures depending on temperature and external field, mainly caused by the interplay of an indirect exchange interaction and the anisotropy of the crystalline electric field. The RCu2 compounds crystallize in the CeCu2 structure, which can be described as an orthorhombic distortion of the hexagonal AlB2 structure. The aim of the present work is the investigation of RCu2 compounds by using resonant and nonresonant magnetic x-ray scattering, supplemented by neutron scattering. Because of the complementarity of magnetic x-ray and neutron scattering this investigation reveals new details of the magnetic structures of the studied compounds. Magnetic properties and magnetic structures are investigated as well as magnetic phase transitions and magneto-elastic coupling in the pseudohexagonal compounds. The correlation between the crystallographic structure and the magnetic structures is studied for different rare earths (R = Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy) but also for partial substitution of magnetic rare earths by magnetic or nonmagnetic ions on the rare earth site (Tb(1-x)DyxCu2, Tb(1-x)PrxCu2, Dy(1-x)YxCu2). Resonant magnetic x-ray scattering is the only method available to investigate the element specific magnetism in crystals with different magnetic ions. By the study of the Tb resonance and the Dy resonance on Tb0.5Dy0.5Cu2 an unexpected developement of the magnetic structures with temperature is observed. The results of supplementary neutron scattering experiments are presented and analyzed by Rietveld refinement of the crystallographic and magnetic structures, mainly focussed on TbCu2. In summary, new insights into the different magnetic structures of RCu2 compounds are gained. The strong magneto-elastic coupling is studied by different scattering methods applied to this problem for the first time.

Die intermetallischen Verbindungen der RCu2-Serie (R = Seltenerd-Elemente) zeigen eine ungewöhnliche Vielfalt von magnetischen Strukturen in Abhängigkeit von Temperatur und äußerem Magnetfeld. Diese Vielfalt ist verursacht durch das Wechselspiel von indirekter Austauschwechselwirkung und anisotropem kristallelektrischen Feld. Die RCu2-Verbindungen kristallisieren in der CeCu2-Struktur, welche als orthorhombische Verzerrung der hexagonalen AlB2-Struktur verstanden werden kann. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, RCu2-Verbindungen mit magnetischer Röntgenbeugung bzw. resonanter magnetischer Röntgenstreuung zu untersuchen, teilweise ergänzt durch Neutronenbeugungsexperimente. Dem zur Neutronenbeugung komplementären Charakter der Röntgenmethoden entspricht es, dass dabei spezielle Details der magnetischen Strukturen untersucht werden. Zusätzlich zur Untersuchung der magnetischen Eigenschaften und Strukturen und zur Suche nach den Ursachen für die auftretenden Phasenübergänge werden magnetoelastische Kopplungen in der pseudohexagonalen Substanzgruppe betrachtet (R = Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy). Der Zusammenhang von kristalliner und magnetischer Struktur wird auch unter Variation und Mischung der Elemente auf dem Seltenerd-Platz erforscht (Tb(1-x)DyxCu2, Tb(1-x)PrxCu2, Dy(1-x)YxCu2). Für die Untersuchung des elementspezifischen Magnetismus bei Vorhandensein mehrerer magnetischer Atomsorten in einem Kristall ist dabei die resonante magnetische Röntgenstreuung die einzig verfügbare Methode. Im Tb0.5Dy0.5Cu2 wird dabei ein unerwartetes Verhalten im Temperaturverlauf der magnetischen Strukturen beobachtet. Ergebnisse aus ergänzenden Neutronenbeugungsexperimenten werden ebenfalls vorgestellt und mittels Rietveld-Verfeinerung der kristallinen und magnetischen Strukturen ausgewertet. Im Ergebnis der Arbeit sind die untersuchten magnetischen Strukturen näher bekannt. Magnetoelastische Wechselwirkungen werden unter Verwendung von Beugungsmethoden neuartig gemessen. / The intermetallic compounds of the RCu2 series (R = rare earths) show a large variety of magnetic structures depending on temperature and external field, mainly caused by the interplay of an indirect exchange interaction and the anisotropy of the crystalline electric field. The RCu2 compounds crystallize in the CeCu2 structure, which can be described as an orthorhombic distortion of the hexagonal AlB2 structure. The aim of the present work is the investigation of RCu2 compounds by using resonant and nonresonant magnetic x-ray scattering, supplemented by neutron scattering. Because of the complementarity of magnetic x-ray and neutron scattering this investigation reveals new details of the magnetic structures of the studied compounds. Magnetic properties and magnetic structures are investigated as well as magnetic phase transitions and magneto-elastic coupling in the pseudohexagonal compounds. The correlation between the crystallographic structure and the magnetic structures is studied for different rare earths (R = Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy) but also for partial substitution of magnetic rare earths by magnetic or nonmagnetic ions on the rare earth site (Tb(1-x)DyxCu2, Tb(1-x)PrxCu2, Dy(1-x)YxCu2). Resonant magnetic x-ray scattering is the only method available to investigate the element specific magnetism in crystals with different magnetic ions. By the study of the Tb resonance and the Dy resonance on Tb0.5Dy0.5Cu2 an unexpected developement of the magnetic structures with temperature is observed. The results of supplementary neutron scattering experiments are presented and analyzed by Rietveld refinement of the crystallographic and magnetic structures, mainly focussed on TbCu2. In summary, new insights into the different magnetic structures of RCu2 compounds are gained. The strong magneto-elastic coupling is studied by different scattering methods applied to this problem for the first time.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

O avanço tecnológico percebido nos últimos anos proporcionou a utilização em larga escala de equipamentos de aquisição de imagens médicas em formato digital, tais como: raios-X, tomografia computadorizada, ressonância magnética e ultrassom. O uso desses aparelhos na rotina diária de um hospital gera um volume expressivo de dados, o que demanda soluções para armazenamento, distribuição e visualização dessas imagens. Tal papel é desempenhado por sistemas de comunicação e arquivamento de imagens - PACS - através do protocolo de comunicação DICOM, o padrão internacional para codificação e transmissão de imagens médicas. Devido à sua natureza digital, recentemente várias aplicações voltadas para o processamento de imagens médicas foram desenvolvidas, inclusive programas para processar mamografia e tomografia computadorizada de tórax tornaram-se produtos comerciais nos últimos cinco anos. Tais aplicações são conhecidas por CAD ou diagnóstico auxiliado por computador. Sabe-se que soluções CAD podem aprimorar a eficiência e a precisão de diagnósticos clínicos detectando e/ou classificando automaticamente anormalidades e/ou doenças em exames médicos radiológicos. Entretanto, pouco esforço foi realizado no sentido de se integrar as ferramentas CAD a sistemas de comunicação e arquivamente de imagens. Para que o CAD auxilie no diagnóstico médico ele necessita processar imagens digitais que normalmente estão armazenadas no PACS. Atualmente, ainda o padrão para a utilização de sistemas especialistas em processamento de imagens médicas como CAD permanece sendo uma estação de trabalho isolada, e os resultados obtidos dos processamentos não são integrados de forma apropriada a outros sistemas de informação, tais como HIS (Sistema de Informação Hospitalar), RIS (Sistema de Informação em Radiologia) e PACS. O trabalho aqui descrito apresenta uma solução de integração CAD-PACS baseada em bibliotecas livres de de código aberto. Espera-se que essa solução possa contribuir de forma efetiva para um aumento da produtividade e melhoria dos processos na radiologia, beneficiando todo o ambiente hospitalar. / The technology evolution seen in the last years provided large adoption of digital image acquisition equipments, such as: X-rays, computed tomography, magnetic resonance and ultrasound. The use of these devices in daily hospital routine generates an expressive image data volume which demands intelligent solutions for image storage, distribution and visualization. Such role is played by picture archiving and communication systems - PACS - which make extensively use of the DICOM protocol, world industry standard for image transmission and codification in medicine. Due to its digital nature, recently several medical image processing applications were developed and some programs used to process mammography and chest computed tomography images became commercial products in the last five years. These applications are usually known as CAD or computer-aided diagnosis. It\'s known that CAD solutions may improve the diagnosis efficiency and accuracy by detecting and/or classifying automatically abnormalities and/or diseases in radiologic exams. However, little effort was done in the sense of integrating the CAD tools and picture archiving and communication systems. To really assist radiologist diagnosis CAD needs to process digital images that are usually stored in the PACS server. Nowadays, specialist image processing programs like CAD still remains being used on an isolated workstation and the processing results are not integrated in a suitable fashion to other information systems such as HIS (Hospital Information System), RIS (Radiology Information System) and PACS. The work described in this dissertation presents a CAD-PACS integration solution based on free and open source programming libraries. It\'s hoped that this solution may contribute in an effective manner to increase the productivity and improve the radiology workflow, bringing benefits to the whole hospital environment.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This study investigates how the implementation of the means of communication and Archiving Images - Picture Archiving And Communication System (PACS) could be used as information technology and communication (ITC) in medical education online. Assessing trends and potential of this new field of study, one realizes that its applications and benefits may not be restricted to medical and hospital environment, but also the learning environments using radiological images. Medical care at a distance through telemedicine consultation favors a second opinion when the distance is a critical factor, and allows many calls from happening online, for example, implementation and testing of diagnostic imaging. For this reason, one of the areas of telemedicine that have benefited most from this modality was radiology. Often the exams at a distance is the responsibility of a resident oriented so online by a specialist, as the project POA_S@UDE Hospital Materno Infantil Presidente Vargas in Porto Alegre, in the care of pregnant patients Neighborhood Restinga taking the examinations ultrasound. This experiment was assessed from a perspective of distance education, whereas residents involved in the project are doctors in training who work in a mode online, through questionnaires to specialists and residents who work or have been engaged in the project. The formation aspects of medical teaching, especially to work in online environments, development of assessment methodologies, interaction between the individuals involved, were evaluated to consider the experience to be used in medical courses as a means of distance education using PACS. / Este estudo investiga como a implementação dos meios de Arquivamento e Comunicação de Imagens Picture Archiving And Communication System (PACS) poderiam ser utilizados como tecnologia de informação e comunicação (TIC) na formação médica online. Avaliando as tendências e as potencialidades deste novo campo de estudo, percebe-se que as suas aplicações e vantagens podem não se restringir apenas ao ambiente médico e hospitalar, mas também a ambientes de ensino utilizando imagens radiológicas. O atendimento médico à distância por meio da Telemedicina favorece a consulta de uma segunda opinião quando a distância é um fator crítico, bem como permite que muitos atendimentos aconteçam de forma online, como, por exemplo, na realização e exames de diagnóstico por imagem. Por esta razão, uma das áreas da Telemedicina que mais se beneficiaram desta modalidade foi a Radiologia. Muitas vezes a realização de exames à distância fica sob a responsabilidade de um residente orientado de forma online por um especialista, como acontece no projeto POA_S@UDE do Hospital Materno Infantil Presidente Vargas em Porto Alegre, no atendimento pacientes gestantes do Bairro Restinga que realizam exames de ultrassom. Esta experiência foi avaliada a partir de uma perspectiva de EAD, considerando que os residentes envolvidos no projeto são médicos em fase de formação que atuam em uma modalidade online, através de questionários aplicados com especialistas e residentes que atuam ou já atuaram no projeto. Os aspectos de formação docente dos médicos, especialmente para atuar em ambientes online, definição de metodologias de avaliação, interação entre os sujeitos envolvidos, foram avaliados para considerar a possibilidade de que a experiência fosse utilizada em cursos de Medicina como um meio de EAD utilizando PACS.

O avanço tecnológico percebido nos últimos anos proporcionou a utilização em larga escala de equipamentos de aquisição de imagens médicas em formato digital, tais como: raios-X, tomografia computadorizada, ressonância magnética e ultrassom. O uso desses aparelhos na rotina diária de um hospital gera um volume expressivo de dados, o que demanda soluções para armazenamento, distribuição e visualização dessas imagens. Tal papel é desempenhado por sistemas de comunicação e arquivamento de imagens - PACS - através do protocolo de comunicação DICOM, o padrão internacional para codificação e transmissão de imagens médicas. Devido à sua natureza digital, recentemente várias aplicações voltadas para o processamento de imagens médicas foram desenvolvidas, inclusive programas para processar mamografia e tomografia computadorizada de tórax tornaram-se produtos comerciais nos últimos cinco anos. Tais aplicações são conhecidas por CAD ou diagnóstico auxiliado por computador. Sabe-se que soluções CAD podem aprimorar a eficiência e a precisão de diagnósticos clínicos detectando e/ou classificando automaticamente anormalidades e/ou doenças em exames médicos radiológicos. Entretanto, pouco esforço foi realizado no sentido de se integrar as ferramentas CAD a sistemas de comunicação e arquivamente de imagens. Para que o CAD auxilie no diagnóstico médico ele necessita processar imagens digitais que normalmente estão armazenadas no PACS. Atualmente, ainda o padrão para a utilização de sistemas especialistas em processamento de imagens médicas como CAD permanece sendo uma estação de trabalho isolada, e os resultados obtidos dos processamentos não são integrados de forma apropriada a outros sistemas de informação, tais como HIS (Sistema de Informação Hospitalar), RIS (Sistema de Informação em Radiologia) e PACS. O trabalho aqui descrito apresenta uma solução de integração CAD-PACS baseada em bibliotecas livres de de código aberto. Espera-se que essa solução possa contribuir de forma efetiva para um aumento da produtividade e melhoria dos processos na radiologia, beneficiando todo o ambiente hospitalar. / The technology evolution seen in the last years provided large adoption of digital image acquisition equipments, such as: X-rays, computed tomography, magnetic resonance and ultrasound. The use of these devices in daily hospital routine generates an expressive image data volume which demands intelligent solutions for image storage, distribution and visualization. Such role is played by picture archiving and communication systems - PACS - which make extensively use of the DICOM protocol, world industry standard for image transmission and codification in medicine. Due to its digital nature, recently several medical image processing applications were developed and some programs used to process mammography and chest computed tomography images became commercial products in the last five years. These applications are usually known as CAD or computer-aided diagnosis. It\'s known that CAD solutions may improve the diagnosis efficiency and accuracy by detecting and/or classifying automatically abnormalities and/or diseases in radiologic exams. However, little effort was done in the sense of integrating the CAD tools and picture archiving and communication systems. To really assist radiologist diagnosis CAD needs to process digital images that are usually stored in the PACS server. Nowadays, specialist image processing programs like CAD still remains being used on an isolated workstation and the processing results are not integrated in a suitable fashion to other information systems such as HIS (Hospital Information System), RIS (Radiology Information System) and PACS. The work described in this dissertation presents a CAD-PACS integration solution based on free and open source programming libraries. It\'s hoped that this solution may contribute in an effective manner to increase the productivity and improve the radiology workflow, bringing benefits to the whole hospital environment.

Petroleum hydrocarbons are the most widespread contaminants in the environment. Interest in the biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and compounds (PAHs/PACs) is motivated by their ubiquitous distribution, their low bioavailability, high persistence in soils and their potentially deleterious effects to human health. Identifying the diversity of microorganisms that degrade PAHs/PACs can be utilised in the development of bioremediation techniques. Understanding the mechanisms of bacterial populations to adapt to the presence of pollutants and the extent that lateral transfer of key functional genes occurs, will allow the exploitation of microbial PAC/PAH-degradative capabilities and therefore enhance the successful application of bioremediation strategies. A key aim of this study was to isolate and identify PAC-degrading bacteria for potential use in future bioremediation programmes. A series of PAC enrichments were established under the same experimental conditions from a single sediment sample taken from a highly polluted estuarine site. Distinct microbial community shifts were directly attributable to enrichment with different PAC substrates. The findings of this study demonstrate that five divisions of the Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria can degrade PACs. By determining the precise identity of the PAC-degrading bacteria isolated, and by comparing these with previously published research, this study showed how bacteria with similar PAC degrading capabilities and 16S rRNA signatures are found in similarly polluted environments in geographically very distant locations e.g. China, Italy, Japan and Hawaii. Such a finding suggests that geographical barriers do not limit the distribution of key PAC-degrading bacteria. This is significant when considering the diversity and global distribution of microbes with PAC-degradative capabilities and the potential for utilising these microbial populations in future bioremediation strategies. In the laboratory, enrichment of bacteria able to utilise PAHs has commonly been performed in liquid media, with the PAH dissolved in a carrier solvent. This study found the presence of a carrier solvent significantly affects the resultant microbial population. Although the same sediment sample was used as the bacterial source in all enrichments, different bacterial strains were obtained depending upon the presence of the carrier solvent and the PAH. This is important when considering appropriate methodology for the isolation of PAH-degrading bacteria for future bioremediation programmes. Additionally, the species comprising the resultant population of the enrichment when a carrier solvent was present were similar to previously reported PAH-degrading species. Such a finding necessitates review of previously reported PAH-degrading bacterial species that have been isolated and identified from enrichments using a carrier solvent. Understanding how bacteria acclimatise to environmental pollutants is vital for exploiting these mechanisms within clear up strategies of contaminated sites. Two major lineages of the α subunit of PAH dioxygenases were identified: Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria. Comparison of the α subunit phylogeny with the 16S rRNA phylogeny implies that the PAH-dioxygenases evolved prior to the separation of these phyla or that lateral transfer occurred in the very distant past. No evidence for lateral transfer of the α subunit between the Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria was found in the phylogenetic analyses of this research. Multiple lateral transfer events were inferred between the species of the Actinobacteria and between the classes of the Proteobacteria. The clustering of the taxa within the α subunit phylogeny indicates that lateral transfer of the α subunit gene occurred after the separation of the classes of Proteobacteria and also after the speciation of the γ-Proteobacteria. These findings reveal how bacteria have acclimatised to PAH pollutants through multiple lateral transfer events of a key PAH-degradative gene. This knowledge of the transfer of genetic material will broaden our prospects of exploiting microbial populations.

Les rapports entre les systèmes juridiques français et maghrébins en matière de conjugalité sont marqués par la divergence. Alors que dans les pays du Maghreb, sous le poids des traditions et de l’influence religieuse, le couple et la famille ne se conçoivent que dans les liens du mariage, en France, la laïcisation du droit a laissé apparaître un système de conjugalité à la carte. Mariage hétérosexuel, mariage homosexuel, PACS ou concubinage, dans l’exemple français les individus ont un droit d’option quant à leur mode d’union. À une époque où les flux migratoires ne cessent de croître, ces différences de régulation de la conjugalité soulèvent d’innombrables difficultés, notamment celle de la circulation des individus et de leur statut personnel. Certains théoriciens pensent que cette divergence est irréductible puisqu’elle exprime un choc des civilisations. Or, en réalité, il s’agit d’un décalage engendré par la différence dans les rythmes des évolutions socio-juridiques. Sous le poids du multiculturalisme, de l’influence des droits fondamentaux et des défis économiques, ce décalage tend aujourd’hui à se résorber. Incidemment, cela démontre que le rapprochement entre les systèmes juridiques français et maghrébins est envisageable en matière de conjugalité / '

Polycyclic aromatic compounds are ubiquitously distributed pollutants in the aquatic and terrestrial environment containing harmful properties on creatures such as carcinogenicity, teratogenicity and toxicity, but are not so well analyzed yet. In the present study, the embryotoxic and teratogenic effects of selected hydroxylated and methylated PACs on the embryonal development of Danio rerio as an aquatic model organism were analyzed with the Fish Embryo Toxicity Test (FET) and the Tail Length Test (TLT) to obtain information on the toxic and teratogenic impact of the tested PACs on the environment. Two of the five tested PACs, 9-MA and DMBA, showed embryotoxic respectively teratogenic effects on the embryonal development of the zebrafish. The embryotoxicity of 9-MA was indicated in the high mortality rate of the exposed zebrafish embryos, whereas the teratogenic effect of DMBA was revealed in the emergence of sub-lethal malformations during the embryonal development such as a shortened tail length, tail curvatures, tail tip deformity or the formation of edema on the yolk sac and pericard as well as abnormal heartbeat and blood circulation. The high mortality rate of the zebrafish embryos exposed to 9-MA did not increase over the exposure time of 96h, which suggests that the chorion of the zebrafish egg could not protect the embryo at all against the strong embryotoxic effect of 9-MA. The sub-lethal malformations of the zebrafish embryos exposed to DMBA could be induced to the metabolic activation of AhR-agonist DMBA through the AhR-pathway or the accumulation of the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine due to the inhibitory function of DMBA on the ACh-Esterase, which caused a neuromuscular system defect or uncontrolled contractions of the axis musculature. Further research, may focus on the mode of action of PACs such as 9-MA and DMBA and their impact on organisms in order to take reasonable precautions to avoid or to diminish the uptake of PACs from the environment.