Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oropharynx affects nearly 50,000 individuals in the United States each year, and, with the rising incidence of the human papillomavirus (HPV), the number of patients diagnosed with SCC is expected to continue to grow (American Cancer Society 2018; Coughlan and Frick 2012). Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) has traditionally been treated with wide surgical extirpation often involving removal of portions of the oral cavity, pharynx, and jaw; this kind of surgery can be disfiguring and has been associated with significant post-operative complications (Brickman and Gross 2014). In the late 20th century, clinicians began favoring the use of chemoradiation therapy instead of surgery in an effort to spare patients the morbidity associated with surgical techniques at the time (Mercante et al. 2015). While chemoradiation offers excellent survival for patients with SCC, this therapeutic strategy has been observed to have its own debilitating post-treatment side effects (Hamilton and Paleri 2017). An important advancement in the management of OPSCC occurred about 20 years ago with the advent of transoral robotic surgery (TORS), a surgical technique that uses a robotic system to operate through the natural opening of the mouth. Proponents of TORS suggest that the technology improves on conventional surgery and may provide patients with functional outcomes superior to those seen with chemoradiation with no sacrifice in survival (Yeh et al. 2015; Hay et al. 2017). This review investigates the validity of the concept that TORS has significant advantages in the modern-day treatment of OPSCC. This report includes three components. First, the TORS technology, its advantages, and its drawbacks are explained. Second, relevant medical literature is reviewed to provide an understanding of the rationale for utilizing TORS in the treatment of OPSCC. Review and analysis of published reports show that TORS can provide patients with excellent post-operative function, good quality of life, and acceptable survival rates. Notable exceptions include patients with advanced disease. Third, this review discusses future studies that will better inform caregivers about the utility of TORS in the treatment of OPSCC. TORS is a relatively new technology that seems to offer the possibility of helping to improve the lives of patients with OPSCC.

Located beyond the southern limit of glaciation in Britain, the upland granitic terrain of Dartmoor, south-west England, has been exposed to long intervals of intense periglacial activity during the Pleistocene. This region has been significant in debates about appropriate models of long-term landscape change, most notably two-phase versus single-phase models of landform evolution, and the development of tors. However, given the previous lack of quantitative techniques capable of constraining denudation and specific process rates, and thereby testing developmental models for these features, there remains much uncertainty in the interpretation of the classic landforms of the region. This study measures concentrations of the cosmogenic nuclide 10Be produced in-situ in quartz within the upper few metres of the Earth surface. These reflect the history of near-surface exposure to cosmic radiation of sampled material, and allow for the interpretation of exposure age and/or erosion rates of the land surface. This research utilises these cosmogenic nuclide values to evaluate geomorphological processes and investigate key aspects of landform development. These include the formation of tors in non-glaciated regions, the development of regolith and boulderfields under periglacial conditions, and the derivation of catchment-averaged denudation rates. This study provides the first quantitative measurement of erosion on tor surfaces in Dartmoor, with typical rates of 14-45 mm ka-1. These are relatively high and comparable to other components of the landscape. In addition, there is no clear relationship of cosmogenic nuclide concentration to tor dimensions. It is shown that the tors are dynamic landforms and simple, two-stage development is an inappropriate model. Catchment-averaged denudation rates are derived and these long-term rates of 20-94 mm ka-1 are significantly higher than modern, short-term values. Finally, downslope transport in a palaeo-periglacial blockslope is investigated using 10Be concentrations. This variety of landforms and scale of investigation facilitates an integrated approach to the understanding of catchment-scale erosional dynamics. In addition, the complex nature of landform development that is evident in the area provides challenges to the application of in-situ cosmogenic nuclides and highlights both the potential and limitations of the technique.

És un fet ben conegut que les solucions quasi-periòdiques juguen un paper rellevant a l'hora d'entendre la dinàmica de problemes amb formulació hamiltoniana, els quals apareixen en una gran quantitat d'aplicacions en astrodinàmica, dinàmica molecular, física de d'acceleradors/plasmes o mecànica celest.De forma imprecisa i imcomplerta, hom pot dir que la teoria KAM recull una serie de tècniques i metodologies per estudiar solucions quasi-periòdiques (és a dir, funcions dependents d'un conjunt de freqüències) d'equacions diferencials típicament amb formulació hamiltoniana. Tot i que la teoria KAM és ben coneguda (veure [1]), els mètodes clàssics presenten inconvenients i dificultats a l'hora d'aplicar els resultats abstractes a exemples o models concrets. Nogensmenys, a [2] es va desenvolupar un nou mètode, sense usar transformacions ni coordenades acció-angle, amb el que es poden superar molts dels inconvenients de les tècniques clàssiques. Aquest mètode fou introduit per a tors de dimensió màxima i, en la actualitat, hom considera de gran interés la seva extensió a altres contextos, com ara l'estudi de tors "sense torsió' a [4] o l'estudi de tors de dimensió inferior normalment hiperbòlics a [3]. Un dels objectius d'aquesta tesi doctoral ha estat adaptar aquests mètodes per demostrar l'existència de tors de dimensió inferior normalment el·liptics i reductibles. Les dificultats tècniques que calen superar deriven de les ressonàncies que tenen lloc entre les freqüències internes del tor i les frequències d'oscil·lació de les "direccions normals', que cal caracteritzar (mitjançant reductibilitat) per tal d'obtenir les propietats geomètriques que es fan servir en la demostració.Per altra banda, a l'hora d'estudiar un tor invariant amb dinàmica quasi-periòdica, hom pot obtenir molta informació coneixent el seu vector de freqüències. És per això que el càlcul numèric d'aquests objectes ha esdevingut un tema de molt interés durant els darrers anys i ha portat al desenvolupament de diversos mètodes. Recentment s'ha desenvolupat a [5] un mètode molt eficient per calcular nombres de rotació per aplicacions del cercle. Hom pot identificar aquest problema amb el càlcul de la freqüència d'un tor unidimensional escrit en unes bones coordenades. Bona part de la recerca realitzada en la meva tesi doctoral continua la linea de treball encetada a [5]. Concretament, donada una família paramètrica de difeomorfismes del cercle, aquesta metodología s'ha adaptat en per a calcular derivades del nombre de rotació respecte de paràmetres. Mitjançant aquesta informació hom pot implementar esquemes tipus Newton per calcular corbes invariants. Com s'ha remarcat abans, hom pot aplicar aquestes tècniques a l'estudi de corbes invariants sempre que es pugui construir una aplicació del cercle amb la mateixa dinàmica. A tal efecte, hem desenvolupat un mètode sòlidament justificat que permet evitar la dificultat pràctica de buscar unes bones coordenades pel tor, extenent així els mètodes a contextes més generals com ara aplicacions "sense torsió" o senyals quasi-periodiques.[1] R. de la Llave. A tutorial on KAM theory. In Smooth ergodic theory and its applications, volume 69 of Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., pages 175-292. Amer. Math. Soc., 2001.[2] R. de la Llave, A. Gonzàlez, À. Jorba, and J. Villanueva. KAM theory without action-angle variables. Nonlinearity, 18(2):855-895, 2005.[3] E. Fontich, R. de la Llave, and Y. Sire. Construction of invariant whiskered tori by a parametrization method. Part I: Maps and flows in finite dimensions. J. Differential Equations, 246:3136-3213, 2009.[4] R. de la Llave , A. González and A Haro. Non-twist KAM theory. In preparation.[5] T.M. Seara and J. Villanueva. On the numerical computation of Diophantine rotation numbers of analytic circle maps. Phys. D, 217(2):107-120, 2006. / It is well-known that quasi-periodic solutions play a relevant role in order to understand the dynamics of problems with Hamiltonian formulation, which appear in a wide set of applications in Astrodynamics, Molecular Dynamics, Beam/Plasma Physics or Celestial Mechanics.Roughly speaking, we can say that KAM theory gathers a collection of techniques and methodologies to study quasi-periodic solutions (that is, functions depending on a set of frequencies) of differential equations typically with Hamiltonian formulation. Although KAM theory is well-known (see [1]), classical methods present shorcomings and difficulties in order to apply the abstract results to concret examples or models. Nevertheless, in [2] a new method was developed, without using action-angle variables, which allows us avoid most of the shortcomings of classical methods. This method was introduced for tori of maximal dimension and there is a current interest in extending it to other contexts, such us the study of non-twist tori in [4] or normally hyperbolic tori in [3]. One of the goals of this thesis has been to adapt this method to deal with elliptic lower dimensional tori. Theadditional technical difficulties are related to resonances between the basic frequencies of the tori and the oscillations in the "normal directions", which are characterized by means of reducibility in order to obtain the geometric properties that we require in the proof.Furthermore, in order to study quasi-periodic invariant tori, valuable information is obtained from the frequency vector that characterizes the motion. Part of the work in this thesis has been to develop efficient numerical methods for the study of one dimensional quasi-periodic motions in a wide set of contexts. Our methodology is an extension of a recently developed approach to compute rotation numbers of circle maps (see [5]) based on suitable averages of iterates of the map. On the one hand, the ideas of [5] have been adapted to compute derivatives of the rotation number for parametric families of circle diffeomorphisms, thus obtaining powerful tools (for example, we can implement Newton-like methods) for the study of Arnold Tongues and invariant curves for twist maps, if we can build a circle map using suitable coordinates. On the other hand, we have developed a solidly justified method that allows us to avoid the practical difficulty of looking for these coordinates, thus extending the methods to more general contexts such as non-twist maps or quasi-periodic signals.[1] R. de la Llave. A tutorial on KAM theory. In Smooth ergodic theory and its applications, volume 69 of Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., pages 175-292. Amer. Math. Soc., 2001.[2] R. de la Llave, A. Gonzàlez, À. Jorba, and J. Villanueva. KAM theory without action-angle variables. Nonlinearity, 18(2):855-895, 2005.[3] E. Fontich, R. de la Llave, and Y. Sire. Construction of invariant whiskered tori by a parametrization method. Part I: Maps and flows in finite dimensions. J. Differential Equations, 246:3136-3213, 2009.[4] R. de la Llave , A. González and A Haro. Non-twist KAM theory. In preparation.[5] T.M. Seara and J. Villanueva. On the numerical computation of Diophantine rotation numbers of analytic circle maps. Phys. D, 217(2):107-120, 2006.

Ce travail a pour but de proposer des outils visant `a comparer des résultats exp´erimentaux avec des modèles pour la dispersion de traceur en milieu poreux, dans le cadre de la dispersion anormale.Le “Mobile Immobile Model” (MIM) a été à l’origine d’importants progrès dans la description du transport en milieu poreux, surtout dans les milieux naturels. Ce modèle généralise l’quation d’advection-dispersion (ADE) e nsupposant que les particules de fluide, comme de solut´e, peuvent ˆetre immo-bilis´ees (en relation avec la matrice solide) puis relˆachées, le piégeage et le relargage suivant de plus une cin´etique d’ordre un. Récemment, une version stochastique de ce modèle a ´eté proposée. Malgré de nombreux succès pendant plus de trois décades, le MIM reste incapable de repr´esenter l’´evolutionde la concentration d’un traceur dans certains milieux poreux insaturés. Eneffet, on observe souvent que la concentration peut d´ecroˆıtre comme unepuissance du temps, en particulier aux grands temps. Ceci est incompatible avec la version originale du MIM. En supposant une cinétique de piégeage-relargage diff´erente, certains auteurs ont propos´e une version fractionnaire,le “fractal MIM” (fMIM). C’est une classe d’´equations aux d´eriv´ees par-tielles (e.d.p.) qui ont la particularit´e de contenir un op´erateur int´egral li´e`a la variable temps. Les solutions de cette classe d’e.d.p. se comportentasymptotiquement comme des puissances du temps, comme d’ailleurs cellesde l’´equation de Fokker-Planck fractionnaire (FFPE). Notre travail fait partie d’un projet incluant des exp´eriences de tra¸cageet de vélocimétrie par R´esistance Magn´etique Nucl´eaire (RMN) en milieuporeux insatur´e. Comme le MIM, le fMIM fait partie des mod`eles ser-vant `a interpréter de telles exp´eriences. Sa version “e.d.p.” est adapt´eeaux grandeurs mesur´ees lors d’exp´eriences de tra¸cage, mais est peu utile pour la vélocimétrie RMN. En effet, cette technique mesure la statistiquedes d´eplacements des mol´ecules excit´ees, entre deux instants fixés. Plus précisément, elle mesure la fonction caractéristique (transform´ee de Fourier) de ces d´eplacements. Notre travail propose un outil d’analyse pour ces expériences: il s’agit d’une expression exacte de la fonction caract´eristiquedes d´eplacements de la version stochastique du mod`ele fMIM, sans oublier les MIM et FFPE. Ces processus sont obtenus `a partir du mouvement Brown-ien (plus un terme convectif) par des changement de temps aléatoires. Ondit aussi que ces processus sont des mouvement Browniens, subordonnéspar des changements de temps qui sont eux-mˆeme les inverses de processusde L´evy non d´ecroissants (les subordinateurs). Les subordinateurs associés aux modèles fMIM et FFPE sont des processus stables, les subordinateursassoci´es au MIM sont des processus de Poisson composites. Des résultatsexp´erimenatux tr`es r´ecents on sugg´er´e d’´elargir ceci `a des vols de L´evy (plusg´en´eraux que le mouvement Brownien) subordonnés aussi.Le lien entre les e.d.p. fractionnaires et les mod`eles stochastiques pourla sous-diffusion a fait l’objet de nombreux travaux. Nous contribuons `ad´etailler ce lien en faisant apparaˆıtre les flux de solut´e, en insistant sur une situation peu ´etudiée: nous examinons le cas o`u la cinétique de piégeage-relargage n’est pas la mˆeme dans tout le milieu. En supposant deux cinétiques diff´erentes dans deux sous-domaines, nous obtenons une version du fMIMavec un opérateur intégro-diff´erentiel li´e au temps, mais dépendant de la position.Ces r´esultats sont obtenus au moyen de raisonnements, et sont illustrés par des simulations utilisant la discrétisation d’intégrales fractionnaires etd’e.d.p. ainsi que la méthode de Monte Carlo. Ces simulations sont en quelque sorte des preuves numériques. Les outils sur lesquels elles s’appuient sont présentés aussi. / We propose tools for to compare experimental data and models for anomalousdispersion in porous media.The “Mobile Immobile Model” (MIM) significantly improved the descrip-tion of mass transport in natural porous media. This model generalizes theadvection-dispersion equation (ADE) by assuming that fluid and solute parti-cles can be found in mobile on immobile states, exchanging matter accordingto first order kinetics. Moreover, it has a stochastic version. Nevertheless,the original MIM does not represent the power-law decrease of some break-through curves observed in some media, better described by a fractionalversion, the “fractal MIM” (fMIM) which assumes a different kinetics. Theacronym “fMIM” denotes partial differential equations (p.d.e.) involving afractional integral with respect to time, having solutions falling-off as powerof times, asymptotically. It keeps in similarity with the fractional Fokker-Planck equation (FFPE). As this equation, the fMIM describes the evolutionof the probability density function of stochastic processes, namely Brownianmotion sujected to a time change that is the hitting time of a stable sub-ordinator, strictly stable or not, according FFPE or fMIM is considered.Using probabilistic arguments and numerical simulation, we extend this re-sult to the case when the transport parameters and the time scales of thetime change vary in space. P.d.es are well suited for comparing with tracer tests data. Yet, they arenot very useful to discuss signals recorded by pulsed field gradient (PFG)nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), a technique which measures the char-acteristic function (Fourier transform) of molecular displacements betweentwo fixed instants. For to process such data, we derive an expression of thecharacteristic function of the displacements of Brownian motions subordi-nated by the hitting times of stable subordinators, i.e. of processes whosedensity satisfies FFPE of fMIM. We also consider time changes that are hit-ting times of composite Poisson processes (CPP), which correspond to theoriginal version of the MIM.

The subject of this master’s thesis is depictions of Old Norse mythology and related motifs in the visual arts during the period 1775–1855. The main question of this research is how the motifs were visualized and how the depictions are related to the classical tradition. Three artworks are objects of detailed study: Johann Heinrich Füssli’s painting Thor Battering the Midgaard serpent (1790), Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg’s The death of Balder (1817) and Nils Jacob Blommér’s painting Näcken and the daughters of Ägir (1850). The paintings are compared with literary sources and analyzed in relation to classicism as well as ideas about history and the Old Norse. It is argued that symbols, themes and compositions from the classical tradition, such as the heroic nude, were used by artists to visualize motifs from Old Norse mythology. It is also argued that the depictions, which by previous scholars have been considered primarily classical, are in fact characterized by a resistance against likeness with the Olympic gods and antique costume.