Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2006. / Description based on contents viewed June 26, 2007; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This paper presents a statistical framework which combines the registration of an atlas with the segmentation of MR images. We use an Expectation Maximization-based algorithm to find a solution within the model, which simultaneously estimates image inhomogeneities, anatomical labelmap, and a mapping from the atlas to the image space. An example of the approach is given for a brain structure-dependent affine mapping approach. The algorithm produces high quality segmentations for brain tissues as well as their substructures. We demonstrate the approach on a set of 30 brain MR images. In addition, we show that the approach performs better than similar methods which separate the registration from the segmentation problem.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Information System Success Evaluation has been a concept of interest to many organizations for decades now. The main motivation for this activity is usually from the financial view of things, that is, the main interest of an organization carrying out IS success evaluation is mainly to find out whether investing in such a system was a good business decision. This question is often answered by the realization of the direct and indirect benefits realized by deployment of using such a system. Like many organizations the government of Botswana has invested millions of Pula’s in the past number of years in acquiring and implementing different Information Systems in the various Ministries and Departments. One such system is the Vehicle Registration and Licensing System, which was deployed by the Department of Roads Transport and Safety of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication. After the VRLS implementation there has not been any formal scientific research or investigation conducted to find out the success of this Information System, especially with regards to the stakeholders who use this system for their daily jobs. This study therefore engaged in a task, which evaluated the success of the Vehicle Registration and Licensing System and answered the question of how effective the system is from the user’s point of view. A well-known Information System success evaluation model, known as the Delone and McLean IS evaluation model, was applied to test the hypothesis of this research. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the research data. The results were analyzed using a common research tool, the SPSS, including cross tabulation and chisquare tests. The findings of this study will further enrich the IS success evaluation Body of Knowledge on the key factors which can contribute to a successful or unsuccessful Information System acquisition investment. Furthermore, the researchers who will further look into this subject may find these findings very useful and also stimulating to do further research on this subject to unveil further evidence of the ingredients of an effective Information System investment which has been accepted by and accredited by its users. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Inligtingstelselsuksesevaluering is ‘n konsep wat baie organisasies nou al vir dekades interesseer. Die motivering hiervoor is hoofsaaklik geleë in finansiële redes. Organisasies wil hiermee vasstel of dit ‘n goeie besigheidsbesluit was. Hierdie vraag word dan dikwels beantwoord deur die verkryging van direkte en indirekte voordele deur gebruik te maak van so ‘n stelsel. Soos baie organisasies het die regering van Botswana miljoene pula belê in die implementering van inligtingstelsels in verskeie staatsdepartemente. Die Voertuigregistrasie en Lisensiestelsel is ‘n voorbeeld hiervan wat deur die Departement van Padvervoer en -Veiligheid van die Ministerie van Werke, Vervoer en Kommunikasie ontplooi is. Geen formele wetenskaplike navorsing is geloods na afloop van die implementering van die stelsel nie, veral nie sedert die gebruik deur motoriste nie. Hierdie studie poog juis om die effektiwiteit van die stelsel te meet, veral vanuit die verbruiker se perspektief. Die Delone en Mclean Inligtingstelselevalueringsmodel word gebruik om die hipotese van die navorsing te toets. ‘n Gestruktureerde vraelys is opgestel om data te versamel. Die SPSS as ‘n algemene navorsingsinstrument is gebruik vir analise, asook vir kruistabulasie en chikwadraattoetse. Die bevindinge van die studie sal die korpus van kennis van inligtingstelselsuksesevaluering verryk ten opsigte van die sleutelfaktore wat kan bydra tot die sukses of nie-sukses van inligtingstelselimplementering. Verdere studie in hierdie betrokke gebied word deur die navorsing gestimuleer, om veral die effektiwiteit van Inligtingstelselbeleggings te bepaal.

Job-housing relations, job accessibility and commuting efficiency have been the concerns of academics and policy makers alike, and a large body of literature has been published on relevant topics. Although various hypotheses from the West have been tested in research on some Chinese major cities, most neglects the role of the hukou system, the most essential and unique institution influencing every aspect of people's daily life in China. This thesis responds to this deficiency by placing hukou at the forefront in the analysis of job-housing relations and commute. The data used in this thesis is from a household survey in Guangzhou as well as the population and economic census. Firstly, it analyses the job-housing relationship and commuting patterns in Guangzhou as well as the influence of hukou system. Secondly, it examines the spatial pattern of job accessibility in Guangzhou and accessibility inequality between local and non-local hukou holders. Also, the differential influences of land use and mobility on different hukou holders' job accessibility are evaluated. Thirdly, it estimates and compares the commuting efficiency of Guangzhou with other cities, and evaluates the roles of hukou system and other socio-economic factors in the commuting efficiency of Guangzhou. Meanwhile, the present research highlights the mechanism underlying the interactions between hukou system, job-housing relations and commute, and discusses the influences of hukou system on job/housing market and public services/welfare provisions. Taking hukou into consideration, this thesis contributes to the fields of jobs-housing relationship and commute in urban China by addressing the complex influences of local context on job-housing relations and commute as well as providing a mapping of inequalities between different hukou holders.

The status of creditor in insolvency proceedings Abstract The subject of the diploma thesis is "The status of creditor in insolvency proceedings." The purpose of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive view on the status of creditor in insolvency proceedings according to the Act No. 182/2006 Coll., (The Insolvency Act), in particular with regard to the issue of raising claims and settlement in insolvency proceedings. One of the item of focus is also participation of creditor in creditor bodies, especially at meeting of creditors and creditors' committee. The principal sources of this work are current laws, relevant literature and also current domestic case law. This thesis is divided into six main chapters, which are further divided into a particular subchapters. The first chapter presents an introduction to subject of matter. This chapter deals generally with the concept of insolvency proceeding, its subject, purpose of insolvency proceedings and the basic principles of insolvency proceedings as well. The second chapter deals with the concept of the creditor, both from the point of the view of the civil substantive law and the civil procedural law. This chapter briefly explains the concept of the individuals and participants in insolvency proceedings. The third chapter focuses on creditor bodies which...

Este trabalho introduz uma interface para estender vídeos educacionais com panoramas e navegação não-linear baseada em conteúdo. Em vídeos de e-learning convencionais, cada quadro está restrito ao subconjunto da cena capturado naquele momento. Isso torna difícil para o usuário revisitar conteúdos mostrados anteriormente, que podem ser essenciais para o entendimento dos conceitos seguintes. Localizar conteúdos anteriores nesses vídeos requer uma navegação linear no tempo, o que pode ser ineficiente. Estendemos vídeo-aulas para prover ao usuário o acesso direto a todo o conteúdo apresentado através de uma simples interface. Isso é feito pela detecção automática de pontos relevantes no vídeo e a criação de hyperlinks a partir desses pontos de maneira completamente transparente. Nossa interface constrói gradualmente um panorama clicável que mostra todo o conteúdo visto no vídeo até o dado momento. O usuário pode navegar pelo vídeo simplesmente clicando no conteúdo desejado, ao invés de utilizar a tradicional barra deslizante de tempo. Nosso panorama também pode ser exportado no final da execução, juntamente com anotações feitas pelo usuário, como um conjunto de notas de aula. A eficiência da nossa técnica foi demonstrada com a aplicação bem-sucedida a três categorias de vídeos que são representativas de todo o conjunto de vídeo-aulas disponíveis: Khan Academy, Coursera e aulas convencionais gravadas com uma câmera. Demonstramos que foi possível atingir os resultados em tempo real para vídeos de baixa resolução (320x240). No caso de resoluções mais altas, é necessário que a detecção de features (usando SIFT) seja feita em uma fase de pré-processamento. Como a parte mais custosa do nosso pipeline é extremamente paralelizável, acreditamos que a execução de vídeos de alta resolução em tempo real seja um resultado alcançável em curto prazo. As técnicas descritas nessa dissertação disponibilizam maneiras mais eficientes de explorar vídeos educacionais. Dessa forma, elas tem potencial para impactar a educação, disponibilizando experiências educacionais mais customizáveis para milhões de estudantes em todo o mundo. / This thesis introduces a new interface for augmenting existing e-learning videos with panoramic frames and content-based non-linear navigation. In conventional e-learning videos, each frame is constrained to the subset of the lecture content captured by the camera or frame grabber at that moment. This makes it harder for users to quickly revisit and check previously shown subjects, which might be crucial for understanding subsequent concepts. Locating previously seen materials in pre-recorded videos requires one to perform visual inspection by sequentially navigating through time, which can be distracting and time-consuming. We augment e-learning videos to provide users direct access to all previously shown content through a simple pointing interface. This is achieved by automatically detecting relevant features in the videos as they play, and assigning them hyperlinks to a buffered version in a completely transparent way. The interface gradually builds panoramic video frames displaying all previously shown content. The user can then navigate through the video in a non-linear way by directly clicking over the content, as opposed to using a conventional time slider. As an additional feature, the final panorama can be exported as a set of annotated lecture notes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by successfully applying it to three representative styles of e-learning videos: Khan Academy, Coursera, and conventional lecture recorded with a camera. We show that we can achieve real-time performance for low-resolution videos (e.g., 320x240) on a single desktop PC. For higher resolution videos, some pre-processing is required for feature detection (using SIFT). However, since the most expensive parts of our processing pipeline are highly parallel, we believe that real-time performance might be soon achievable even for full HD resolution. The techniques described in this thesis provide more efficient ways for exploring the benefits of e-learning videos. As such, they have the potential to impact education by providing more customizable learning experiences for millions of e-learners around the world.

Les pièces mécaniques fabriquées tel que les feuilles de métal et les pièces à paroi mince, ont souvent des différences géométriques significatives par rapport à leurs modèles CAD nominaux car ils ont une forme considérablement différente dans une condition d’état libre en raison de la gravité et/ou la tension résiduelle. Par conséquence, les fixtures de conformation coûteux sont traditionnellement utilisés pendant les opérations d’inspection géométriques à la phase de contrôle de qualité. L’objective de cette étude est de développer les méthodes d’inspection géométriques automatisées des pièces flexibles qui ne nécessiteraient pas d’utilisation des fixtures. / In manufacturing, quality control (QC) is an essential phase of a product’s lifecycle management (PLM) as it ensures customers receive parts within permissible tolerance ranges and free from defects. Given that all manufactured parts often have geometrical differences compared to their nominal computer-aided design (CAD) models, performing geometrical inspections becomes critical during the QC phase. Nowadays, actual measurements and defect identification during geometrical inspections have been semi-automated through the use of computer-aided inspection (CAI) software. Such software can simplify the inspection into a data acquisition task (contact-based probing or non-contact scanning of the part) followed by semi-automated procedures in a software environment. Despite their growing popularity and practicality, currently available CAI software assume the input acquired data are from a rigid part. This assumption is a major limitation given that not all manufactured parts are rigid, and in some sectors such as the aeronautical industries a considerable percentage of all manufactured components (35 to 40 percent) possess some nonrigid behavior. In other words, CAI software can only be used when a part maintains its shape in both free-state and state-of-use positions. Free-state shape is that which a part has without inspection fixture support and/or before assembly, whilst state-of-use shape is that which is defined in the nominal CAD. Although free-state and state-of-use positions are the same for rigid parts, some mechanical parts such as sheet metals and skins (thin-wall featured parts) often have significantly large geometric deviations in a free-state position compared to their nominal CAD models due to the effects of gravity and residual stress. Referring to such parts as flexible, the aforementioned deviations force the QC technicians to traditionally use a variety of inspection fixtures and conformation jigs in order to maintain flexible parts in their state-of-use position before using conventional CAI software. Without fixation, the free-state elastic geometric deviation of flexible parts would be mistaken by CAI software as plastic deformations and as a result identified as defects. With fixation, the aforementioned free-state deviations are removed before data acquisition, and whatever deviations remain can be inspected as potential defects. However, multiple disadvantages exist in using fixtures including: time consuming set-up process (e.g. 60+ hours for a skin panel in the aerospace industry), considerable purchase and operating expenses, limitations of standard fixture kits in some scenarios, big errors in CAI analysis if fixation has not been conducted correctly, etc. Such disadvantages have recently led researchers to:1) try to circumvent use of fixtures by digitally deforming (or better called registering) the acquired free-state pointcloud/mesh data of a flexible part until it superimposes onto the part’s corresponding nominal CAD model, thereby elastically deforming the data to obtain an optimal state-of-use shape whilst avoiding neutralization of any existing manufacturing defects2) and to try to introduce dedicated defect identification modules with higher degrees of automation (compared to conventional semi-automated CAI tools)In this thesis the same two goals are pursued. A bi-criterion registration method (and two algorithms/demos based upon it) is proposed to achieve the first goal, thereby enabling defect identification of flexible parts in conventional CAI software without the use of fixtures. This is followed by introducing an automated method for fast approximation of defect amplitudes (and an algorithm/demo based upon it) to achieve the second goal. Validation was conducted against a number of virtual (simulated) and experimental industrial case studies. Obtained satisfactory results reflect the effectiveness and utility of the proposed methods.

Este trabalho introduz uma interface para estender vídeos educacionais com panoramas e navegação não-linear baseada em conteúdo. Em vídeos de e-learning convencionais, cada quadro está restrito ao subconjunto da cena capturado naquele momento. Isso torna difícil para o usuário revisitar conteúdos mostrados anteriormente, que podem ser essenciais para o entendimento dos conceitos seguintes. Localizar conteúdos anteriores nesses vídeos requer uma navegação linear no tempo, o que pode ser ineficiente. Estendemos vídeo-aulas para prover ao usuário o acesso direto a todo o conteúdo apresentado através de uma simples interface. Isso é feito pela detecção automática de pontos relevantes no vídeo e a criação de hyperlinks a partir desses pontos de maneira completamente transparente. Nossa interface constrói gradualmente um panorama clicável que mostra todo o conteúdo visto no vídeo até o dado momento. O usuário pode navegar pelo vídeo simplesmente clicando no conteúdo desejado, ao invés de utilizar a tradicional barra deslizante de tempo. Nosso panorama também pode ser exportado no final da execução, juntamente com anotações feitas pelo usuário, como um conjunto de notas de aula. A eficiência da nossa técnica foi demonstrada com a aplicação bem-sucedida a três categorias de vídeos que são representativas de todo o conjunto de vídeo-aulas disponíveis: Khan Academy, Coursera e aulas convencionais gravadas com uma câmera. Demonstramos que foi possível atingir os resultados em tempo real para vídeos de baixa resolução (320x240). No caso de resoluções mais altas, é necessário que a detecção de features (usando SIFT) seja feita em uma fase de pré-processamento. Como a parte mais custosa do nosso pipeline é extremamente paralelizável, acreditamos que a execução de vídeos de alta resolução em tempo real seja um resultado alcançável em curto prazo. As técnicas descritas nessa dissertação disponibilizam maneiras mais eficientes de explorar vídeos educacionais. Dessa forma, elas tem potencial para impactar a educação, disponibilizando experiências educacionais mais customizáveis para milhões de estudantes em todo o mundo. / This thesis introduces a new interface for augmenting existing e-learning videos with panoramic frames and content-based non-linear navigation. In conventional e-learning videos, each frame is constrained to the subset of the lecture content captured by the camera or frame grabber at that moment. This makes it harder for users to quickly revisit and check previously shown subjects, which might be crucial for understanding subsequent concepts. Locating previously seen materials in pre-recorded videos requires one to perform visual inspection by sequentially navigating through time, which can be distracting and time-consuming. We augment e-learning videos to provide users direct access to all previously shown content through a simple pointing interface. This is achieved by automatically detecting relevant features in the videos as they play, and assigning them hyperlinks to a buffered version in a completely transparent way. The interface gradually builds panoramic video frames displaying all previously shown content. The user can then navigate through the video in a non-linear way by directly clicking over the content, as opposed to using a conventional time slider. As an additional feature, the final panorama can be exported as a set of annotated lecture notes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by successfully applying it to three representative styles of e-learning videos: Khan Academy, Coursera, and conventional lecture recorded with a camera. We show that we can achieve real-time performance for low-resolution videos (e.g., 320x240) on a single desktop PC. For higher resolution videos, some pre-processing is required for feature detection (using SIFT). However, since the most expensive parts of our processing pipeline are highly parallel, we believe that real-time performance might be soon achievable even for full HD resolution. The techniques described in this thesis provide more efficient ways for exploring the benefits of e-learning videos. As such, they have the potential to impact education by providing more customizable learning experiences for millions of e-learners around the world.

L'objectif général du travail de cette thèse est de proposer des méthodes robustes pour permettre d’obtenir des critères sur l’évolution de la pathologie tumorale à partir d’études dynamiques. Actuellement, l’appréciation de l’efficacité d’un traitement antiangiogénique (destruction des vaisseaux alimentant la tumeur) repose principalement sur l’imagerie fonctionnelle dont l’objectif est de quantifier la microcirculation tumorale à partir d’acquisitions dynamiques de perfusion. Cependant, différentes limites concernant le suivi de la réponse précoce des lésions par imagerie existent (mauvaise maîtrise des mouvements respiratoires, pas de consensus sur les paramètres permettant de quantifier la microcirculation tumorale, estimation paramétrique faite à partir de données extrêmement bruitées et pour un grand nombre de zones - une estimation par voxel de la séquence dynamique d’images). Dans un contexte clinique extrêmement contraignant, nous avons mis en place un cadre rigoureux comprenant l’ensemble des étapes nécessaires pour une caractérisation plus fiable de la microcirculation tumorale à partir de séquences d’images acquises sous perfusion de produit de contraste : les contributions principales de cette thèse couvrent ainsi l’optimisation des paramètres de reconstruction, le développement d’une méthode de recalage adaptée à nos données, la sélection argumentée d’un modèle de perfusion et enfin le développement d’une méthode robuste d’estimation des paramètres. Ces travaux permettent d’envisager l’utilisation des modèles de perfusion pour la caractérisation et la prédiction de la réponse d’un patient à différents traitements antitumoraux. / The main objective is to propose robust methods to allow estimation of functional markers reflecting the tumor evolution from dynamic studies. Currently, in this domain, assessing of the efficiency evaluation of an anti-angiogenic therapy (destruction of vessels which feed the tumor) is mainly based on the functional imaging of the microcirculation, which the objective is to quantify the tumor microcirculation by dynamic acquisitions with injection of contrast product. However, several limitations are present (lack of control of the breathing movement, no consensus on the parameters permitting the quantification of tumor microcirculation, parameter estimation computed from noisy data and a large number of regions - one estimation by voxel or group of voxel of the dynamic image sequence). In a restrictive clinical context (noisy data, few number), we have developed a complete pipeline with a set of necessary steps to a reliable characterization of the tumor microcirculation from dynamic perfusion image sequence: the main contributions of this thesis cover the reconstruction parameters optimization, the development of a registration method, the argued selection of a perfusion model and the development of a robust method of parameter estimation. With these works, we can envision the utilization of these perfusion models to the characterization and the prediction of the therapy response of a patient

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a summarized commentary about registration, review and settlement of the claims in the insolvency proceedings and about individual types of claims. The second aim of this thesis is to evaluate pros and cons of currently efficient Insolvency Act. The domestic case law has been the primary source of the thesis. However, relevant literature and laws have been reflected as well. The thesis is divided into five chapters, more important chapters are divided into particular subchapters. The first chapter deals with the concept of insolvency proceedings and its purpose. It is also focused on the basic principles of insolvency proceedings and initiation of insolvency proceedings. The second chapter contains a description of the concept of claim and elementary classification of claims in insolvency proceedings, which are divided into different groups. Furthermore, detailed interpretation of each group is explained including process of their registration. The third chapter is the principal chapter of this thesis because it provides a comprehensive view into registration of claims in the insolvency proceedings through the term of insolvency application of the debt, formal and content requisites of this application, disposition of claims and finally also through possible...