Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. David C. Banks, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Computer Science. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 27, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-62). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1979. / Contract no.: N00014-77-C-096; NR 083-004. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-133).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Geology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 19-26).

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1979. / Contract no.: N00014-77-C-096; NR 083-004. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-133).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Zhang, Zhuomin, Committee Chair ; Joshi, Yogendra, Committee Member ; Lee, Kok-Meng, Committee Member ; Gallivan, Martha, Committee Member ; Zhao, Yiping, Committee Member.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / An important topic in autonomous vehicle related research in recent times is road departure warning (RDW) and road keeping assistance (RKA). RDW or RKA should be able to recognize and avoid roadside objects. Standard tests are needed to evaluate the performance of RDW and RKA feature of cars from different manufacturers. To avoid damage to the cars under test and the test environment during testing, there is a need of soft, durable and reusable surrogate targets representing various real roadside objects such as curb, concrete divider and metal guardrail. These surrogate objects should have representative characteristics of real roadside objects from the point of view of various commonly used object detection sensors on the vehicles such as camera, radar and LIDAR. Transportation Active Safety Institute (TASI) at Indian University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) is in the process of developing surrogate concrete divider, curb metal guardrail and grass that should be recognized as real roadside objects by LIDAR sensors, can be crashed without damage to the test vehicle and can be reused even after multiple crashes. The first step is to understand what the representative roadside objects should look like from the point of view of LIDAR units using laser of various wavelengths, and the next step is to design surrogate objects that successfully emulate the properties of the real roadside objects. Reflectance of an object is an important property for LIDAR detection. This thesis describes an approach for the determination of infrared reflectance property of concrete, metal guardrail and grass for different LIDAR view angles. Various samples of each of these roadside objects were evaluated. Based on these measurements, the suggested reflectance of surrogate roadside objects in the common LIDAR wavelength range of 800-1100 nm is specified. Finally, the design of surrogate roadside objects that satisfy these requirements is described, and the infrared reflectance of these surrogate objects are compared to the suggested reflectance bounds for different LIDAR view angles.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in Canada and is typically treated with surgical resection of the tumor. To ensure good prognosis and limit metastases no cancer cells can be left behind during resection. This project uses time-resolved fluorescence and diffuse reflectance to differentiate cancerous and non-cancerous lung tissue. These differences could be used during surgical resection of tumor to ensure no positive margins are present. Using a bi-modal spectroscopy device, BEAR, optical properties were determined for 36 tumor, 36 fibrotic and 9 normal lung tissue samples. Most optical parameters showed statistically significant differences between tumor and other tissue types. Metabolic based optical parameters showed statistically significant differences between fibrotic and normal tissue while non-metabolic based parameters showed no difference. As surgical margins are likely to be between tumor and fibrotic tissue the results demonstrate success and promise for implementing this system. Future work using fresh samples would develop the system further and would be a step closer to in vivo use during surgery. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer and is typically treated by surgically removing the tumor. To improve survival all cancer cells must be removed which can be challenging. This project uses light to extract properties that can differentiate cancerous and non-cancerous lung tissue. These differences could be used during surgery to ensure no cancer cells remain. The project tests this system on 36 tumor, 36 fibrotic and 9 normal lung tissue samples. Most parameters showed significant differences between tumor and other tissue types. Given that often times the surgical boundaries are between tumor and fibrotic tissue the results demonstrate promise in implementing this system. Future work using fresh samples would develop the system further and bring it one step closer to being used during surgery.

Soil chemical and physical properties are important to farm productivity, and they vary within fields, so farmers are interested in managing inputs like fertilizer according to local soil conditions within fields. Thus, they must have knowledge of soil conditions of interest, which have historically been measured at a few locations with tedious soil sampling and laboratory analyses. Advantageous to farmers would be a measurement method that provided more geographically detailed information at similar or lower cost. Remote and ground-based optical sensing are possibilities for gathering detailed soil information rapidly and inexpensively. This study considers the possibility of optically measuring soil characteristics. The first objective was to determine relationships between spectral reflectance in the 250- to 2500-nm range and the following soil constituents: clay, sand, Ca, K, Mg, Na, P, Zn, and acidity (pH). The second objective was to find wavebands for estimating certain soil properties, with the goal of sensor development. Physical, chemical, and spectral-reflectance measurements were made on 969 soil samples collected from two Mississippi fields over two years. Reflectances were averaged over 50-nm wavebands and analyzed with simple- and multiple-linear regression and canonical correlation in relation to soil properties. No single waveband was highly correlated to any soil property in this study, but waveband groups exhibited strong correlations with some soil properties. Clay was the only property consistently strongly correlated (R2 ¡Ý 0.50) to waveband groups over different fields and years. In general, waveband groups that were most highly correlated with a specific soil property in one field in one year were not similar to waveband groups most highly correlated with that property in a different field or year. Thus, it was difficult to select a waveband group for sensor development regarding a specific soil property. However, a group of nine promising wavebands was considered for estimating clay, and results for data in this study indicated the feasibility of grossly estimating clay content with spectral reflectance. Canonical correlation analysis demonstrated strong correlations among certain groups of soil-properties and wavebands. Clay appeared as the most promising property for sensor development from this portion of the study also.