Human adenoviruses (Ads) as vectors have been studied for cancer gene therapy for several decades due to their ability to shut down host cell replication and lyse tumour cells. Ad5 of species C is commonly used as a replication-defective or a replication-competent vector. However, many tumour cells are relatively refractory to infection by Ad5 since the cells lack the viral receptor CAR. Thus, species B Ads are becoming more important as alternative vectors since they use CD46 as primary receptor, the expression of which is up-regulated on many tumour cell surfaces, and they also have low seroprevalence in humans. Although Ad3, Ad7, Ad11 and Ad35 have been altered to become replication-defective vectors, investigations based on replicating adenovirus vectors are still warranted.   The major aim of this thesis has been to characterize the transduction efficacy and oncolytic effect of the replication-competent adenovirus 11pGFP vector (RCAd11pGFP) in human solid tumour cell lines. Evaluation of the vector would ultimately help us to understand whether the tumour cells affect virus replication and whether the vector replicates differently in tumour cells and in untransformed diploid cells, and would eventually lead to development of more potent oncolytic adenoviruses for treatment of human cancers. The Ad11-based vector RCAd11pGFP consists of the entire Ad11p genome with a green fluorescence protein (GFP) expression cassette inserted. RCAd11pGFP shows all the characteristics of the wild-type virus and expresses GFP in cells four hours p.i. Antisera raised against Ad11p virions and hexons were able to neutralize RCAd11pGFP infection but antiserum raised against the Ad11p fibre knob could not. The infection is reduced by 90% but the fibre knob antiserum cannot completely block virus infection. Initial screening of the infection capacity of five wild-type adenoviruses in four colon cancer cell lines revealed that Ad11p, Ad11a and Ad35 of species B, showed similar replication kinetics but Ad5 showed delayed onset of virus replication in comparison to species B Ads. These data support the use of Ad11p as an alternative vector for treatment of colon cancer. The transduction efficiency of RCAd11pGFP in colon cancer and prostate cancer cell lines was studied using flow cytometry assay (FACS), and this showed that the cytolytic effect was not always in accordance with GFP expression. Toxicity assay and virus one-step replication assay showed that RCAd11pGFP replicates in highly tumorigenic cell lines (HT29, T84 and PC-3) to a greater extent than less tumorigenic cell lines (LS174T, HCT-8, DU145 and LNCaP cells), even though the latter showed relatively high GFP expression. This initial finding led to the subsequent discovery of CEACAM-family molecules, which were highly expressed in HT29 and T84 cells. Interestingly, the Ad5 wild-type virus did not manifest the same tumour-specific replication that RCAd11pGFP did in the cell lines studied. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of tumour markers for RCAd11pGFP replication in colon cancer cells. A double-staining FACS assay for detecting members of CEACAM-family molecules was established and we found that the levels of CEACAM6 were up-regulated in the cells infected by RCAd11pGFP or Ad11pwt relative to uninfected cells. However, this virus replication could not be suppressed by CEACEA6 siRNA. Our results indicate that several tumour markers or factors might be involved in promoting propagation of the virus. In vivo experiments showed significant growth inhibition of T84 and HT-29 tumours in xenograft mice treated with either RCAd11pGFP or Ad11pwt, compared to untreated controls. Furthermore, the role of the anti-tumour effect of RCAd11pGFP was also confirmed in PC3 prostate tumours in BALB/c mice. In conclusion, the novel RCAd11pGFP vector was shown to have an anti-tumour effect in vitro and in vivo. This tumour-killing effect could be enhanced in highly tumorogenic cells through virus replication. Consequently, RCAd11p may lead to development of a more potent and useful vector for human cancer therapy.

In this thesis, an efficient font-rendering system for E-book applications was presented. The rendering of vector-type fonts mainly consists of two procedures: the rasterization of outline curves, and the filling of font interiors. Different from the conventional rendering systems which approximate the curve using many tiny straight lines, our system applies the fast adaptive forward-difference algorithm to render the curve. In addition, for the filling of fonts, this thesis adopts the local-minimum table and the vertex table to substitute the conventional global edge table in order to reduce the memory requirement. Finally, in order to improve the rendering quality of the fonts, our system has applied the super-sampling anti-aliasing technique based on the FLIPQUAD sample patterns used in three-dimensional graphic systems in order to reduce both the required buffer size and the filling operation complexity by 25% for the similar rendering quality. Our rendering system has been implemented in an ARM-based platform. The FreeType fonts parser has been used, and transformed into the application programming interface (API) commands of a two-dimensional vector graphics standard called OpenVG. This standard APIs have been built on the QT window and Embedded Linux operational systems. The rendering system proposed by this thesis represents a total open-source solution, and can be applied to many embedded applications.

Bezier curve is one of the most fundamental primitives for the modeling of fonts and two-dimensional (2D) computer graphics objects. How to efficiently render the Bezier curve becomes an important task for many embedded applications. This thesis first proposed a novel adaptive curve-rendering algorithm which can determine the coordinates of all the crossing points of the curve and scan-lines with the required accuracy for the graphics fill operation. Next, for the rendering of stroked Bezier curves, this thesis proposed several possible rendering circuit architectures. The performance and gate count of these architectures have been estimated, and compared in this thesis. It has been found that the design based on the table-lookup normal vector calculator can lead to the fastest circuit, while the design based on the Cordic operator represents the most economic design. A basic Bezier curve rendering circuit has been implemented in this thesis, and used to accelerate a prototype OpenVG embedded systems.

In this thesis we study characterize the dynamic relationships among two electricity price variables (residential and commercial) and six regional economic variables in order to examine each individual variable??s role in regional economic activity. We also answer the question ??Do electricity prices have impact on regional economic variables??? We use two statistical techniques as engines of analysis. First, we use directed acyclic graphs to discover how surprises (innovations) in prices from each variable are communicated to other variables in contemporaneous time. Second, we use time series methods to capture regularities in time lags among the series. Yearly time series data on two electricity prices and six regional economic variables for Montgomery County (Texas) are studied using time series methods. Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) are used to impose restrictions on the Vector Auto Regression model (VAR). Using Innovation Accounting Analysis of the estimated Vector Auto Regression (VAR) model we unravel the dynamic relationships between the eight variables. We conclude that rising electricity prices have a negative impact on allregional economic variables. The commercial average electricity prices lead residential average electricity prices in the time frame we studied (1969-2000). Rising residential electricity prices also have a positive impact on income derived from transfer payments.

The relationship between the stock markets of the developed countries has been examined extensively in the literature. This paper examine the dynamic relationship between India and the major developed markets including USA, UK and Japan .Using daily stock market data from January 1997 to December 2002 and from January 2003 to December 2007,the study examine the stock price indices of India (BSE SENSEX), USA (Dow Jones Industrial Average), UK(FTSE-100) and Japan (Nikkei 225). The ordinary least square method is showing some relationship between the stock markets. A multiple equation series known as a vector autoregression is proposed for describing the dynamic behavior of the four stock markets. The result shows that the markets are interrelated at significant level and influences each other. All the markets influence India but recently the influence of USA market is comparatively high than other developed markets.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-117).

Avhandling--Tekniska högskolan, Stockholm. / Added t.p. without dissertation note. Errata slip laid in. "Litteraturverzeichnis" p. [99].

Diss.--Göttingen. / Lebenslauf.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio State University, 1953. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

This document presents a systematic investigation of the geometric index theory of Dirac operators coupled superconnections. A local version of the index theorem for Dirac operators coupled to superconnection is proved, and extended to families. An [eta]-invariant is defined, and it is shown to satisfy an APS-like theorem. A geometric determinant line bundle with section, metric, and connection is associated to a family of Dirac operators coupled to superconnections, and its holonomy is calculated in terms of the [eta]-invariant. / text