MRI is favorable for brain imaging due to its excellent soft tissue contrast and absence of harmful ionizing radiation. Many have proposed supervised multimodal neural networks for automatic brain tumor segmentation and showed promising results. However, they rely on large amounts of labeled data to generalize well. The trained network is also highly specific to the task and input. Missing inputs will most likely have a detrimental effect on the network’s predictions, if it works at all. The aim of this thesis work is to implement a deep neural network that learns the general representation of multimodal MRI images in an unsupervised manner and is insensitive to missing modalities. With the latent representation, labeled data are then used for brain tumor segmentation. A variational autoencoder and an unified representation network are used for repre- sentation learning. Fine-tuning or joint training was used for segmentation task. The performances of the algorithms at the reconstruction task was evaluated using the mean- squared error and at the segmentation task using the Dice coefficient. Both networks demonstrated the possibility in learning brain MR representations, but the unified representation network was more successful at the segmentation task.

For many decades, engineers and students have heavily depended on simulation packages such as Pspice to run transit and steady-state simulation for their circuits. The majority of these circuits, such as soft switching cells, contain complicated modes of operations that require the Pspice simulation to run for a long time and, finally, it may not reach a convergent solution for these kinds of circuits. Also, there is a need for an educational tool that provides students with a better understanding of circuit modes of operation through state-plan figures and steady-state switching waveforms. The unified steady-state computer aided model proposes a simulation block that covers common unified soft-switching cells operations and can be used in topologies simulation. The simulation block has a simple interface that enables the user to choose the switching cell type and connects the developed simulation model in the desired topology configuration. In addition to the measured information that can be obtained from the circuitry around the unified simulation model, the simulation block includes some additional nodes (other than the inputs and outputs) that make internal switching cell information, such as switching voltages and currents, easy to access and debug. The model is based on mathematical equations, resulting in faster simulation times, smaller file size and greatly minimized simulation convergence problems. The Unified Model is based on the generalized analysis: Chapter 1 discusses the generalized equation concept along with a detailed generalization example of one switching cell, which is the zero current switching quasi-resonant converter ZCS-QRC. Chapter 2 presents a detailed discussion of the unified model concept, the unified model flow chart and the unified model implementation in Pspice. Chapter 3 presents the unified model applications; generating the switching cell inductor current and the switching cell capacitor voltage steady-state waveforms, the State-Plane Diagram , the feedback design using the unified model, and the chapter concludes with how the model can be used with different topologies. Finally, chapter 4 presents the summary and the future work

The purpose of this study was to obtain a representative sample of public opinion to the following questions: (1) To what extent do the parents favor the educational program of the Stockton Unified School District? (2) What do the parents think of the treachers in the Stockton public schools? (3) Are the parents aware of the student growth and building problems that face the Stockton Unified School District? The data of this study were obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to parents of school children in nine elementary and four high schools in Stockton. The questionnaires were sent home with the students the third week of December, 1953. It was further the purpose of this study to provide a comparative analysis of the results of the poll among the nine elementary schools which were selected from three distinct socio-economic areas and to compare the elementary schools with the high schools. It was hoped that this study would contribute to data which would be used as a basis for making recommendations for creating better understandings between the teachers and administrators of the Stockton Unified School District and the parents whose children they teach. This study will confine itself to the compiling of totals to answers on the questionnaires and to the making of comparative analyses of these results. From the data of this survey it was hoped that administrators and teachers would become aware of sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the schools and from this knowledge a public relations and educational program could be devised which would make possible closer cooperation and the elimination of major sources of discontent among the patrons of Stockton’s public schools.

We use a system model expressed in a subset of the Unified Modeling Language to perform fault isolation in large object oriented control systems. Due to the severity of the failures considered and the safety critical nature of the system we cannot perform fault isolation online. Thus, we perform post mortem fault isolation which has implications in terms of the information available; the temporal order in the error log can not be trusted. In our previous work we have used a structural model for fault isolation. In this thesis we provide a formal framework and a prototype implementation of an approach taking benefit of a behavioral model. This gives opportunities to perform more sophisticated reasoning at the cost of a more detailed system model. We use a model-checker to reason about causal dependencies among the events of the modeled system. The model-checker performs reasoning about temporal dependencies among the events in the system model and the scenario at hand, allowing for conclusions about the causal relation between the events of the scenario. This knowledge can then be transferred to the corresponding fault in the system, allowing us to pinpoint the cause of a system failure among a set of potential causes. / <p>Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2000:59.</p>

The third generation of mobile communication systems introduce interactive Multicast and Unicast multimedia services at a fast data rate of up to 2 Mbps and is expected to complete the globalization of the mobile telecommunication systems. The implementation of these services on satellite systems, particularly for broadcast and multicast applications to complement terrestrial services is ideal since satellite systems are capable of providing global coverage in areas not served by terrestrial telecommunication services. However, the main bottleneck of such systems is the scarcity of radio resources for supporting multimedia applications which has resulted in the rapid growth in research efforts for deriving efficient radio resource management techniques. This issue is addressed in this thesis, where the main emphasis is to design a dynamic scheduling framework and algorithm that can improve the overall performance of the radio resource management strategy of a UMTS compatible satellite network, taking into account the unique characteristics of wireless channel conditions. This thesis will initially be focused on the design of the network and functional architecture of a UMTS -compatible satellite network. Based on this architecture, an effective scheduling framework is designed, which can provide different types of resource assigning strategies. A functional model of scheduler is defined to describe the behaviours and interactions between different functional entities. An OPNET simulation model with a complete network protocol stack is developed to validate the performance of the scheduling algorithms implemented in the satellite network. Different types of traffic are considered for the OPNET simulation, such as the Poisson Process, ONOFF Source and Self Similar Process, so that the performance of scheduling algorithm can be analyzed for different types of services. A novel scheduling algorithm is proposed to optimise the channel utilisation by considering the characteristics of the wireless channel, which are bursty and location dependent. In order to overcome the channel errors, different code rates are applied for the user under different channel conditions. The proposed scheduling algorithm is designed to give higher priority to users with higher code rate, so that the throughput of network is optimized and at the same time, maintaining the end users¿ service level agreements. The fairness of the proposed scheduling algorithm is validated using OPNET simulation. The simulation results show that the algorithm can fairly allocate resource to different connections not only among different service classes but also within the same service class depending on their QoS attributes. / Inmarsat Global Ltd. BGAN and the European Space Agency (ESA)

Over the last 30 years, the justice system has increased attention toward domestic violence. In many states, the emphasis has emerged to a specialization, separate dockets and specially trained judges (Center for Court Innovation 2009). Domestic violence courts have evolved, however the Ninth Circuit Court in Orange and Osceola County has yet to adopt this concept. At present, the Osceola County Courthouse utilizes the Unified Family Court (UFC), an integrated comprehensive approach which handles all cases simultaneously addressing the families involved in disputes, as well as the adults and the children of domestic violence. The Orange County Courthouse on the other hand, has the court rooms on one designated floor of the Orange County Courthouse which is dedicated to domestic relation’s cases. There are (3) specialized judges for domestic violence cases which rotate every (6) months. This thesis will explore the different challenges that are faced by the judicial system in domestic violence courts in Orange and Osceola County. One of those challenges is that there is no set “model” to develop a consistency in practices and policies; therefore there is no mutual understanding or agreement for the purposed outcome. With the study of case law, statutes, court research, court observation, and goal assessments, this thesis will explore the possibilities of change in this court system. The purpose of this study is to contribute awareness, present recommendations to the legal system, and state that it is not enough -although critical- to focus on the victim’s safety and the offender accountability, but also it is crucial to place an emphasis on specially trained judges and stakeholders in order to create a more unified structure.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.