Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 63).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2007. / Supervisors: Ching-Long Lin, Larry J. Weber. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-162).

No description available.

We present a novel framework to exert a topology control over a level set evolution. Level set methods offer several advantages over parametric active contours, in particular automated topological changes. In some applications, where some a priori knowledge of the target topology is available, topological changes may not be desirable. A method, based on the concept of simple point borrowed from digital topology, was recently proposed to achieve a strict topology preservation during a level set evolution. However, topologically constrained evolutions often generate topological barriers that lead to large geometric inconsistencies. We introduce a topologically controlled level set framework that greatly alleviates this problem. Unlike existing work, our method allows connected components to merge, split or vanish under some specific conditions that ensure that no topological defects are generated. We demonstrate the strength of our method on a wide range of numerical experiments.

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This thesis describes the measurement of high g-forces, in the range of 400-800g's occurring in a spinal construct during the breaking of the set-screw head using a manual torquing instrument. The measurements were validated using a high speed camera. The design torque (11 N-m) required for breaking the set-screw was compared with the torque calculated from the distortion energy theory for material fracture (9.9 N-m) and an actual measurement using a torque wrench (11.3 N-m). A comparison between the manual and powered instruments showed a 27.68% reduction in g-forces and a 36.42% reduction in die-down time while using the powered instrument. 8.52% less energy was felt on the adjoining screw. The consistency in the powered instrument is higher because the standard deviation using the manual instrument is 8.46, compared to the powered instrument which was 8.31. Also 25g's was recorded on the surgeon's wrist and elbow. Based on previous work done, the external work done by the surgeon was about 60-120 KJ. The onset of fatigue was apparent in consecutive break events as illustrated by the change in EMG parameters over time.

Rapidly shrinking technology node and aggressive scaling of voltage have increased the probability of soft errors. In the current deep sub-micron technology, a small inaccuracy in computing the probability of occurrence of a soft error results in an unacceptably large chip failure rate. We propose a method that considers timing information to determine accurately the probability of SET propagation resulting into an error. Disjoint covers of appropriately formulated functions are used for the probability computations in order to consider re-convergent paths in the circuit. The probabilities are calculated at the output gate at different time instants that SET can propagate within a latching window considering electrical attenuation. Bayes' theorem is used to model the SET injection. The method is extended to consider multiple SETs. A novel method is proposed to enhance SET propagation probability and is shown how it can assist the hardening process. A method to determine a set of patterns is also proposed that must be applied at the inputs to determine propagation characteristics of the SET that are meaningful for hardening purposes. A heuristic based on the probabilistic framework for SET propagation is proposed to diagnose (on-line or off-line) the location and time of strike based on errors observed at multiple points. The proposed diagnostic framework requires a new approach to calculate the probability for SET propagation to multiple non-independent variables. It is shown experimentally that the error appearances at multiple observable points help in SET diagnosis. The time performance of the proposed diagnostic framework is compared against an alternative implementation. This is particularly important in on-line diagnosis. The proposed methods are experimentally verified on ISCAS and ITC benchmarks considering both fixed gate delays and probability distribution function gate delays .