Univ., Diss.--Hamburg, 2008.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a rapidly growing imaging modality that produces high resolution three dimensional images that can be applied to different medical and industrial applications . Obtaining higher depth of imaging and higher imaging quality are important goals in OCT systems. One of the main factors that affects the penetration depth and imaging quality of OCT systems is the presence of noise. The depth-scan photocurrent of time domain (TD) OCT system is degraded by a class of correlated and signal dependent noise. The joint probability density function of the depth-scan photocurrent can be considered as Gaussian random process that is completely characterized by its second order statistics. Both the mean and the covariance functions of the depth-scan photocurrent are functions of the depth variant axial reflectance of the object. We present a stable and computationally efficient OCT image restoration technique to obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the axial reflectance of the object and to estimate the electrical noise variance. / February 2016

The focus of this creative project is on the formation of identity through the lens of a black woman. I will be exploring stereotypes, the black woman’s body, the process of teaching and learning and double consciousness. Through research into the history of African American dance, and through the researcher and choreographer’s personal experience of being a black woman and shared experience of being a woman, I will be studying how movement can mediate resistance, assimilation, and encourage progress and development in a racially, politically charged environment. The choreographic component of this creative project was completed in three parts, The Walk Part I, The Walk Part II and Nneka. Visual records of the three choreographic pieces are available through the Scripps Dance Department.

Resumen de las tesis de licenciatura y maestría presentadas hasta septiembre de 2016 en la Sección Química de la PUCP. / Master and "licenciatura" thesis defended at the chemistry section in 2016 (until september, also included)

Prodigal is part one of what will be my first novel as a creative writer and follows Tate Jones at the intersection of his dark past and his new family life. Decades ago, the world of Prodigal endured a self-inflicted apocalyptic event known as the Collapse. Since then, society has evolved into sprawling mega-cities living under social and governmental mechanisms designed to grade people on their worth to the public. Tate, along with several other characters, suffered under these programs since birth and must decide how he will survive in a world that has regarded him as waste. It is my intention to present a story at the intersection of post-apocalyptic, dystopian, and science fiction to show how survival can range from saving one’s life to preserving one’s soul

The inheritance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is predominantly uniparental in most sexual eukaryotes, including the human pathogenic basidiomycetous yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. In this study, we examined the mitochondrial inheritance pattern of Cryptococcus gattii, a closely - related sister species of C. neoformans responsible for the recent and ongoing outbreak of Cryptococcal infections in the US Pacific Northwest and British Columbia (especially Vancouver Island) in Canada. Using molecular markers, we analyzed the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA in 9 crosses between strains within and between divergent lineages in C. gattii. Our analyses identified significant variations in mtDNA inheritance patterns among strains and crosses. For two of the crosses that showed uniparental mitochondrial inheritance in standard laboratory conditions, we further investigated the effects of the following environmental variables on mtDNA inheritance: UV exposure, temperature, exposure to the methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine, and exposure to the ubiquitination inhibitor ammonium chloride. Interestingly, one of these crosses showed no response to these environmental variables while the other exhibited diverse patterns ranging from complete uniparental inheritance of the MATa parent mitochondria, to biparental inheritance, and to complete uniparental inheritance of the MATalpha parental mitochondria. Our analyses indicated that the mtDNA inheritance pattern in C. gattii differs significantly from its closely related species C. neoformans. We discussed possible mechanisms underlying these divergent mitochondrial DNA inheritance pattern. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The following manuscript is a collection of linked stories that follows a family from Jamaica and Trinidad to the U.S. and back. The collection focuses on two sisters' episodic journey through their sexual awakenings, their mother's illness, their father's violence and absence. In the process, the sisters come to terms with their own hybrid identities. In writing this book, I drew not only from my personal experience, but also from extensive research both in Trinidad and Tobago and in books and oral histories. The enclosed stories include, "What's My Name?" which is told from the point of view of oral history personified--a narrator trying to break free from "dominant narrative." In this way, my work aims to challenge the nature of narrative itself. Other pieces such as, "Taino Instructions for Communicating with Dead Mothers," re-purpose historical figures into present day in order to create a mythic ghost story. / Master of Fine Arts

Master of Science / Department of Agronomy / Dallas Peterson / Palmer amaranth is a troublesome weed that competes for water, nutrients, and sunlight in many cropping systems throughout the United States. It is a serious production problem for alfalfa growers in the southern Great Plains region because of extended germination and impact on forage quality and yields. Glyphosate has been used extensively to control Palmer amaranth but control has become difficult. The objectives of this research were to (1) evaluate various herbicide treatments for Palmer amaranth control in established alfalfa, (2) confirm the presence and scope of glyphosate-resistance in common waterhemp and Palmer amaranth populations in eastern Kansas, and (3) to characterize glyphosate-resistance in two Palmer amaranth populations from south central Kansas. Residual Palmer amaranth control in alfalfa varied among herbicide treatments. The best late season Palmer amaranth control was accomplished with sequential treatments that included flumioxazin at 140 g ha-1 or diuron at 2,690 g ha-1 as dormant applications followed by a between cutting treatment of flumioxazin at 70 g ha-1, which was still providing 85 to 96% control in late summer. Several other treatments provided good early season Palmer amaranth control, but control diminished as the season progressed. Palmer amaranth emerges throughout the growing season and therefore, sequential herbicide treatments with good residual activity may be necessary for season-long control. Greenhouse studies indicated that glyphosate-resistant common waterhemp is present throughout eastern Kansas with several populations that survived glyphosate up to two times the suggested use rate. Glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth was documented in several populations collected from various counties throughout Kansas. Two populations collected in south central Kansas in 2011 survived up to eight times the typical field use rate of glyphosate. Six more populations collected in 2012 displayed similar resistance characteristics with three populations surviving up to four times the typical rate of glyphosate. Shikimate assays on susceptible and resistant Palmer amaranth biotypes confirmed resistance to glyphosate.

This research explores a duality in art therapy: is art therapy about using art to help clients make therapeutic relationships or is it about therapeutic relationships facilitating a transformative process in art-making? In my experience art easily becomes subsumed by verbal interaction in art therapy groups in which there is reflection on interpersonal relationships. I contextualise my clinical experience by referring to the art therapy literature in which I identify four historical phases in the art/talk relationship: acknowledgment of a tension between art and talk; splits in types of practice resulting in tension becoming hidden in each; the sliding scale and recognition of creativity in polarity; and finally a celebration of diversity and plurality. Using a heuristic approach, reflexive writing and hermeneutic reflection, I have related texts from Continental Philosophy to my own clinical experience, to interviews and questionnaires previously given to members and the therapist of a colleague's art therapy group, and to the art therapy literature. The interrelated philosophical texts have sought to revise the way that art has been thought about in Western philosophy since Plato. I have analysed them with a view to re-visioning the ontological foundations of art therapy theory. Hierarchical divisions in the way that art is thought about are endemic to the development of the role of art in Western society, and thus reflected in art therapy theory. The philosophical works that I study challenge these divisions through the recognition of paradox. Understanding the hierarchical dilemmas that result from combining art and talk as mutative paradoxes presents a way of working with other hierarchies and for representation of voices that are suppressed. The outcome of this research has been to consider ways of working with tensions in the art/talk relationship in clinical practice and to develop a theoretical framework for art therapy which can be applied across all the client groups that art therapists work with. The aim has been to develop a unified identity for art therapy which resists splits which disadvantage clients, and fragment the profession.

Blind channel identification and equalisation are the processes by which a channel impulse response can be identified and proper equaliser filter coefficients can be obtained, without knowledge of the transmitted signal. Techniques that exploit cyclostationarity can reveal information about systems which are nonminimum phase; nonminimum phase channels cannot be identified using only second-order statistics (SOS), because these do not contain the necessary phase information. Cyclostationary blind equalisation methods exploit the fact that, sampling the received signal at a rate higher than the transmitted signal symbol rate, the received signal becomes cyclostationary. In general, cyclostationary blind equalisers can identify a channel with less data than higher-order statistics (HOS) methods, and unlike these, no constraint is imposed on the probability distribution function of the input signal. Nevertheless, cyclostationary methods suffer from some drawbacks, such as the fact that some channels are unidentifiable when they exhibit a number of zeros equally spaced around the unit circle. In this thesis the performance of a cyclostationary blind channel identification algorithm combined with a maximum-likelihood sequence estimation receiver is analysed. The simulations were conducted in the pan-European mobile communication system GSM environment and the performance of the blind technique was compared with conventional channel estimation methods using training. It is shown that although blind equalisation techniques can converge in a few hundred symbols in a time-invariant channel environment, the degradation with respect to methods with training is still considerable. Yet, the fact that a dedicated training sequence is not needed makes blind techniques attractive, because the data used for training purposes can be re-allocated as information data. In the concluding part of this thesis a new blind channel identification algorithm which combines methods that exploit cyclostationarity implicitly and explicitly is presented. It is shown that the properties of cyclostationary statistics are exploited in the new algorithm, and enhance the performance of the technique that solely exploits fractionally-spaced sampling. The algorithm is robust in the presence of correlated noise and interference from adjacent users.