Thesis (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Todd R. Weatherford, Andrew A. Parker. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39). Also available online.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics)--Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Nancy M. Haegel, Gamani Karunasiri. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-45). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

see document / Master of Science

The pre-Botzinger complex (pBC) is a sub-circuit of the respiratory central pattern generator. The pBC is required for eupnea and is contained in a transverse slice of the ventrolateral medulla. In the slice, pBC cells are responsible for generating the respiratory rhythm, and hypoglossal motoneurons (HMs) are responsible for transmitting the rhythm out of the brainstem to the muscles. Understanding how the transverse slice rhythm is generated and transmitted is a first step in understanding how this process occurs in vivo. To understand this network, we developed ionic current models of the individual network components and explored how the various ion channels affect single-cell firing characteristics and network dynamics. First, we used the considerable amounts of experimental data from neonatal HMs to develop an HM model. The model was used to explore the roles of ion channels in shaping the complex dynamics of the neonatal HM action potential (AP) and to investigate the age-dependent changes in HMs. We used a genetic algorithm to optimize the HM model to more closely fit experimental measures of AP shape. A comparison of feature-based and template-based fitness functions revealed that a feature-based fitness function performs best when optimizing the HM model to fit characteristics of the neonatal HM AP. Next, we used our existing pBC models to understand how different ionic currents affect rhythmogenesis in the pBC. Our results indicate that intrinsic bursters increase the robustness of rhythm generation in the pBC. Finally, we developed an improved pBC neuron model and explored how various ion channels affect bursting dynamics at the single-cell level. The HM and pBC models developed in this study will be used in future network models of the transverse slice.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-106).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:41:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:03:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:44:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:06:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 06889.pdf: 2660879 bytes, checksum: 1ad6cb9abd7b6c1a92d40f0b7cb82b55 (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP / FAPESP:97/12485-4

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:41:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:03:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / No presente trabalho foi estudada a resposta de diodos epitaxiais (EPI) e fusão zonal (FZ) como dosímetros on-line em tratamentos radioterápicos com feixe de fótons na faixa de megavoltagem (diodo tipo EPI)e ortovoltagem (diodos tipo EPI e FZ). Para serem usados como dosímetros os diodos foram encapsulados em sondas de polimetilmetacrilato preto (PMMA). Para as medidas da fotocorrente os dispositivos foram conectados a um eletrômetro Keithley® 6517B no modo fotovoltaico. As irradiações foram feitas com feixes de fótons de 6 e 18 MV (acelerador Siemens Primus®),6 e 15 MV (acelerador Novalis TX®) e 10, 25, 30 e 50 kV de um equipamento de Radiação X Pantak/Seifert. Nas medidas com o acelerador Siemens Primus® os diodos foram posicionados entre placas de PMMA a uma profundidade de 10,0 cm e com o acelerador Novalis TX® mantidos entre placas de água sólida a uma profundidade de 5cm. Em ambos os casos, os diodos foram centralizados em campos de radiação de 10 × 10 cm2, com distância fonte superfície (DFS) mantida fixa em 100 cm. Para as medidas com os feixes de fótons deortovoltagem os diodos foram posicionados a 50 cm do tubo em um campo de radiação circular de 8 cm de diâmetro. A linearidade com a taxa de dose foi avaliada para as energias de 6 e 15MV do acelerador Novalis TX® variando-se a taxa de dose de 100 a 600 unidades monitoras por minuto e para o feixe de 50 kV variando-se a corrente do tubo de 2 a 20 mA. Todos os dispositivos apresentaram respostas lineares com a taxa de dose e dentro das incertezas, independência da carga com a mesma. Os sinais de corrente mostraram boa repetibilidade, caracterizada por coeficientes de variação em corrente (CV) inferiores a 1,14%(megavoltagem) e 0,15%(ortovoltagem) e em carga menores que 1,84% (megavoltagem) e 1,67% (ortovoltagem). Foram obtidas curvas dose-resposta lineares com coeficientes de correlação linear melhores que 0,9999 para todos os diodos. / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP