This thesis investigates the feasibility of using fluid flow as a deformable model for segmenting vessels in 2D and 3D medical images. Exploiting fluid flow in vessel segmentation is biologically plausible since vessels naturally provide the medium for blood transportation. Fluid flow can be used as a basis for powerful vessel segmentation because streaming fluid regions can merge and split providing topological adaptivity. In addition, the fluid can also flow through small gaps formed by imaging artifacts building connections between disconnected areas. In our study, due to their simplicity, parallelism, and low computational cost compared to other fluid simulation methods, linearized shallow water equations (LSWE) are used. The method developed herein is validated using synthetic data sets, two clinical datasets, and publicly available simulated datasets which contain Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) images, Magnetic Resonance Venography (MRV) images and retinal angiography images. Depending on image size, one to two order of magnitude speed ups are obtained with developed parallel implementation using Nvidia Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) compared to single-core and multicore CPU implementation.

Eine erhöhte Konzentration von Homocystein im Plasma (Hyperhomocysteinämie) gilt als unabhängiger Risikoindikator für neuronale und kardiovaskuläre Erkrankungen. Der Präcursor des Homocysteins, Methionin, ist eine essentielle Aminosäure, die bei Fehlernährung übermäßig verzehrt werden kann. Es wurde untersucht, ob tatsächlich durch langfristigen erhöhten Methioninverzehr via Erhöhung des Homocysteinspiegels im Plasma ein reales Gesundheitsrisiko besteht. Als Modell wurde eine Füttterungsstudie an Ratten gewählt, deren Bedingungen bezüglich Fütterungsdauer und Methioningehalt der Diät (0,4 % Methionin für 4 Wochen) an eine mögliche Fehlernährung des Menschen angepasst waren. Bei diesen Ratten war die Plasmahomocystein-Konzentration ca. 2-fach höher, als bei Ratten, die im gleichen Zeitraum eine "normale" Diät mit einem 3-4 fach niedrigeren Methioningehalt bekamen. Neben der Auswirkung der Diät auf den Homocystein-Stoffwechsel wurde geprüft, welche der in der Literatur dargestellten potentiellen Pathomechanismen für Hyperhomocysteinämie-induzierte Schäden Anwendung in diesem Modell finden. Obwohl die Konzentration von Homocystein im Plasma verändert war, wurde keine Beeinträchtigung der Gefäßfunktion gefunden. Auch die Plasmakonzentration von asymmetrischem Dimethylarginin, einem weiteren Risikoindikator für Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen blieb unverändert, obwohl dieser Parameter bei Hyperhomocysteinämie oftmals erhöht ist. Eine Konzentrationsverdoppelung von Homocystein durch erhöhte alimentäre Methioninzufuhr ohne gleichzeitige Erhöhung von ADMA scheint also keine Verschlechterung der Gefäßfunktion bei Ratten zu bewirken. In diesem Punkt kann man von in anderen Modellen der Hyperhomocysteinämie gefundenen Resultaten keine Rückschlüsse auf die durch alimentäres Methionin verursachte Hyperhomocysteinämie ziehen. Andere Modelle zur Induktion einer Hyperhomocysteinämie ist Homocyst(e)in-Fütterung. In weiteren Rattenstudien wurden Effekte homocystin- und methioninreiche Diät verglichen. In diesen Studien zeigte sich, dass bei ähnlichen applizierten Dosen (tägliche Aufnahme ca. 1,0 bzw. 1,4 g/kg Körpergewicht) methionin- und homocystinreiche Diät bei Ratten zu vergleichbaren Plasma-Homocysteinspiegeln führen (methioninreich: 27,32 ± 2,80 µmol/l; homocystinreich: 40,61 ± 2,22 µmol/l). Als Vergleichsparameter zur Beurteilung pathophysiologischer Veränderungen diente zum einen der Gewebsgehalt an Homocystein, zum anderen wurden die intrazellulären Konzentrationen von S-Adenosyl-Methionin (SAM) und S-Adenosyl-Homocystein (SAH) betrachtet. Es zeigten sich besonders in Leber und Niere signifikante Unterschiede zwischen einer methioninreichen und einer homocystinreichen Diät bei Ratten. Dies ist eine mögliche Erklärung dafür, dass die bei vierwöchiger methioninreicher Diät gefundenen Ergebnisse nicht mit Literaturdaten übereinstimmen. Abschließend wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob eine homocytinreiche Ernährung, wie in der vorherigen Studie angewandt, überhaupt möglich ist. Da zwar die Gehalte von Methionin in fast allen Lebensmitteln bekannt sind, nicht aber die von Homocystein, wurde untersucht, in welchen Konzentrationen Homocystein in Lebensmitteln enthalten ist. In Schwarzbier (0,03 mg/l), Weißbrot (0,95 mg/kg), Roquefort-Käse (0,50 mg/kg), Thunfisch (0,25 mg/kg) und Schweineleber (0,31 mg/kg) konnte Homocystein bestimmt werden. Da die Homocysteinkonzentrationen in diesen Beispiellebensmitteln mindestens um den Faktor 105 geringer waren als die Methioninkonzentrationen ist ein Einfluss von alimentärem Homocystein auf den Plasmaspiegel sehr unwahrscheinlich. Es wurde weiterhin geprüft, ob durch Darmbakterien ein Teil des alimentär aufgenommenen Methionins bereits im Dünndarm in Homocyt(e)in umgewandelt werden könnte. Dabei wurde eine vermehrte Homocysteinproduktion nach Methionin-Zugabe zu Dünndarmisolaten gefunden. Quantitativ kommt dieser Homocysteinquelle eine untergeordnete Bedeutung zu.

Gegenstand des Vorhabens im Rahmen der WTZ mit Russland ist die Versprödung des Reaktordruckbehälters infolge der Strahlenbelastung mit schnellen Neutronen im kernnahen Bereich. Um den Einfluss von bestrahlungsinduzierten Gitterdefekten auf die mechanischen Eigenschaften zu ermitteln, wurden analytische Berechnungen zum Einfluss von Hindernissen auf die Beweglichkeit von Versetzungen und damit auf die Ausbildung einer plastischen Zone an der Rissspitze durchgeführt. Es wird demonstriert, dass sich die an der Rissspitze entstehenden Versetzungen an dem Hindernis (bestrahlungsinduzierte Punktdefekte) aufstauen. In Abhängigkeit der Rissbelastung KI und der Entfernung des Hindernisses von der Rissspitze werden die Versetzungsdichte und das durch den Versetzungsstau verursachte Spannungsfeld berechnet. Mit Hilfe von Experimenten zur Neutronenkleinwinkelstreuung (SANS - small angle neutron scattering) an verschiedenen WWER-Stählen und Modelllegierungen wurden Größenverteilungen und die Volumenanteile der strahleninduzierten Defekte für verschiedene Bestrahlungszustände (Fluenzen, Bestrahlungstemperaturen) ermittelt. Es wurde gezeigt, dass sich die strahleninduzierte Werkstoffschädigung durch Wärmebehandlung weitgehend wieder ausheilen lässt. Nach der thermischen Ausheilung ist der Werkstoff bei erneuter Bestrahlung weniger anfällig für strahleninduzierte Defekte. Die Ergebnisse der SANS-Untersuchungen wurden mit der Änderung der mechanischen Eigenschaften (Härte, Streckgrenze und Sprödbruchübergangstemperatur) korreliert. Mit der kinetischen Gitter-Monte-Carlo-Methode wurden numerische Sensitivitätsstudien zum Einfluss des Cu-Gehalts auf die Stabilität von Defekt-Clustern durchgeführt. Die Berechnungen zeigen, dass die Anwesenheit von Cu-Atomen zur Bildung von langlebigen Defekten führt. Dabei werden Leerstellen in Cu/Leerstellen-Cluster eingefangen. Leerstellen in reinem Eisen sind bei Bestrahlungstemperaturen von 270 °C dagegen nicht stabil, die Lebensdauer liegt zwischen 0.01 s und 1 s. Die kritische Cu-Konzentration, ab welcher stabile Defekte entstehen, beträgt ca. 0.1 Masseprozent.

Considering the late in-vessel phase of an unlikely core melt down scenario in a light water reactor (LWR) with the formation of a corium pool in the lower head of the re-actor pressure vessel (RPV) the possible failure modes of the RPV and the time to failure have to be investigated to assess the possible loadings on the containment. In this work, an integral model was developed to describe the processes in the lower plenum of the RPV. Two principal model domains have to be distinguished: The temperature field within the melt and RPV is calculated with a thermodynamic model, while a mechanical model is used for the structural analysis of the vessel wall. In the introducing chapters a description is given of the considered accident scenario and the relevant analytical, experimental, and numerical investigations are discussed which were performed worldwide during the last three decades. Following, the occur-ring physical phenomena are analysed and the scaling differences are evaluated between the FOREVER-experiments and a prototypical scenario. The thermodynamic and the mechanical model can be coupled recursively to take into account the mutual influence. This approach not only allows to consider the tem-perature dependence of the material parameters and the thermally induced stress in the mechanical model, it also takes into account the response of the temperature field itself upon the changing vessel geometry. New approaches are applied in this work for the simulation of creep and damage. Using a creep data base, the application of single creep laws could be avoided which is especially advantageous if large temperature, stress, and strain ranges have to be covered. Based on experimental investigations, the creep data base has been de-veloped for an RPV-steel and has been validated against creep tests with different scalings and geometries. It can be stated, that the coupled model is able to exactly describe and predict the vessel deformation in the scaled integral FOREVER-tests. There are uncertainties concerning the time to failure which are related to inexactly known material parame-ters and boundary conditions. The main results of this work can be summarised as follows: Due to the thermody-namic behaviour of the large melt pool with internal heat sources, the upper third of the lower RPV head is exposed to the highest thermo-mechanical loads. This region is called hot focus. Contrary to that, the pole part of the lower head has a higher strength and therefore relocates almost vertically downwards under the combined thermal, weight and internal pressure load of the RPV. On the one hand, it will be possible by external flooding to retain the corium within the RPV even at increased pressures and even in reactors with high power (as e.g. KONVOI). On the other hand, there is no chance for melt retention in the considered scenario if neither internal nor external flooding of the RPV can be achieved. Two patents have been derived from the gained insights. Both are related to pas-sively working devices for accident mitigation: The first one is a support of the RPV lower head pole part. It reduces the maximum mechanical load in the highly stressed area of the hot focus. In this way, it can prevent failure or at least extend the time to failure of the vessel. The second device implements a passive accident mitigation measure by making use of the downward movement of the lower head. Through this, a valve or a flap can be opened to flood the reactor pit with water from a storage res-ervoir located at a higher position in the reactor building. With regard to future plant designs it can be stated - differing from former presump-tions - that an In-Vessel-Retention (IVR) of a molten core is possible within the reac-tor pressure vessel even for reactors with higher power.

No description available.

Defect-driven transport of impurities plays a key role in the microstructure evolution of alloys, and has a great impact on the mechanical properties at the macroscopic scale. This phenomenon is greatly enhanced in irradiated materials because of the large amount of radiation-induced crystal defects (vacancies and interstitials). For instance, the formation of nanosized solute clusters in neutron-irradiated reactor pressure vessel (RPV) ferritic steels has been shown to hinder dislocation motion and induce hardening and embrittlement. In Swedish RPV steels, this mechanical-property degradation is enhanced by the high content of manganese and nickel impurities. It has been suggested that the formation of Mn-Ni-rich clusters (which contain also Cu, Si, and P) might be the outcome of a dynamic process, where crystal defects act both as nucleation sites and solute carriers. Solute transport by point defects is therefore a crucial mechanism to understand the origin and the dynamics of the clustering process. The first part of this work aims at modeling solute transport by point defects in dilute iron alloys, to identify the intrinsic diffusion mechanisms for a wide range of impurities. Transport and diffusion coefficients are obtained by combining accurate ab initio calculations of defect transition rates with an exact mean-field model. The results show that solute drag by single vacancies is a common phenomenon occurring at RPV temperature (about 300 °C) for all impurities found in the solute clusters, and that transport of phosphorus and manganese atoms is dominated by interstitial-type defects. These transport tendencies confirm that point defects can indeed carry impurities towards nucleated solute clusters. Moreover, the obtained flux-coupling tendencies can also explain the observed radiation-induced solute enrichment on grain boundaries and dislocations. In the second part of this work, the acquired knowledge about solute-transport mechanisms is transferred to kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) models, with the aim of simulating the RPV microstructure evolution. Firstly, the needed parameters in terms of solute-defect cluster stability and mobility are calculated by means of dedicated KMC simulations. Secondly, an innovative approach to the prediction of transition rates in complex multicomponent alloys is introduced. This approach relies on a neural network based on ab initio-computed migration barriers. Finally, the evolution of the Swedish RPV steels is simulated in a "gray-alloy" fashion, where impurities are introduced indirectly as a modification of the defect-cluster mobilities. The latter simulations are compared to the experimental characterization of the Swedish RPV surveillance samples, and confirm the possibility that solute clusters might form on small interstitial clusters. In conclusion, this work identifies from a solid theoretical perspective the atomic-transport phenomena underlying the formation of embrittling nanofeatures in RPV steels. In addition, it prepares the ground for the development of predictive KMC tools that can simulate the microstructure evolution of a wide variety of irradiated alloys. This is of great interest not only for reactor pressure vessels, but also for many other materials in extreme environments. / <p>QC 20151123</p>

Aqueous ammonia treatment of organic material to increase enzymatic digestibility is a growing area of research for animal fodder and biofuel production. The application of this treatment in the municipal composting process has not previously been investigated. Litterbags were used to investigate the effects of an aqueous ammonia treatment prior to composting on source-separated organic waste. The treatment consisted of soaking organic material in aqueous ammonia prior to introducing the material back into the composting process. Dry mass, ash content, ash-free dry mass, and water-solubility were measured. Three experiments were performed: one in the laboratory, one in an in-vessel system, and one in windrows. The aqueous ammonia treatment removed more dry mass compared to controls; however, the results indicate that the majority of the loss occurred during the soak. This treatment may be of interest for compost facilities if the leachate produced can be used in an economically beneficial way. / Ontario Centres of Excellence

Advances in coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) have resulted in a boost in the use of this new technique in recent years, creating a challenge for radiologists due to the increasing number of exams and the large amount of data for each patient. The main goal of this study was to develop a computer tool to facilitate coronary CTA analysis by combining knowledge of medicine and image processing, and to evaluate the performance in clinical settings. Firstly, a competing fuzzy connectedness tree algorithm was developed to segment the coronary arteries and extract centerlines for each branch. The new algorithm, which is an extension of the “virtual contrast injection” (VC) method, preserves the low-density soft tissue around the artery, and thus reduces the possibility of introducing false positive stenoses during segmentation. Visually reasonable results were obtained in clinical cases. Secondly, this algorithm was implemented in open source software in which multiple visualization techniques were integrated into an intuitive user interface to facilitate user interaction and provide good over­views of the processing results. An automatic seeding method was introduced into the interactive segmentation workflow to eliminate the requirement of user initialization during post-processing. In 42 clinical cases, all main arteries and more than 85% of visible branches were identified, and testing the centerline extraction in a reference database gave results in good agreement with the gold standard. Thirdly, the diagnostic accuracy of coronary CTA using the segmented 3D data from the VC method was evaluated on 30 clinical coronary CTA datasets and compared with the conventional reading method and a different 3D reading method, region growing (RG), from a commercial software. As a reference method, catheter angiography was used. The percentage of evaluable arteries, accuracy and negative predictive value (NPV) for detecting stenosis were, respectively, 86%, 74% and 93% for the conventional method, 83%, 71% and 92% for VC, and 64%, 56% and 93% for RG. Accuracy was significantly lower for the RG method than for the other two methods (p&lt;0.01), whereas there was no significant difference in accuracy between the VC method and the conventional method (p = 0.22). Furthermore, we developed a fast, level set-based algorithm for vessel segmentation, which is 10-20 times faster than the conventional methods without losing segmentation accuracy. It enables quantitative stenosis analysis at interactive speed. In conclusion, the presented software provides fast and automatic coron­ary artery segmentation and visualization. The NPV of using only segmented 3D data is as good as using conventional 2D viewing techniques, which suggests a potential of using them as an initial step, with access to 2D reviewing techniques for suspected lesions and cases with heavy calcification. Combining the 3D visualization of segmentation data with the clinical workflow could shorten reading time.

Detta examensarbete har utförts i samarbete med Fagerström Industrikonsult AB i Helsingborg. Fagerström Industrikonsult AB är ett ingenjörsföretag som har specialiserat sig på mekaniska och mekatroniska produkter inom flera branchområden. Ett av företagets tidigare projekt, som bland annat bygger på tryckbärande kärl och som kommer återanvändas för ett nytt projekt, är i behov av en uppdaterad analys mot utmattningsbrott.För att en tryckbärande utrustning skall kunna säljas och användas inom Europa, måste tillverkarna följa det Europeiska direktivet 97/23/EG, även kallat PED-direktiv. Detta direktiv sätter regler för konstruktion, tillverkning, märkning och kontroll. I Sverige finns denna beskrivning i Arbetsmiljöverkets författnings-samling (AFS 1999:4 2011). För att uppfylla alla de konstruktionsmässiga och tillverkningsmässiga krav på tryckkärlet som ställs i PED direktivet, så måste harmoniserade standarder användas. I detta arbete används tryckkärlsstandarden (SS-EN 13445-3: 2014) som sätter regler för design och verifiering av tryckbärande anordningar.Ett av projekten som finansierats av den Europeiska kommissionen, visade att 25% av alla tryckbärande anordningars haverier beror på utmattning. Tryckkärl är den typ av tryckbärande anordning, som är mest utsatt för skador orsakade av utmattning. Utmattningsbrott har varit känt sedan början på 1800-talet och man har länge studerat detta fenomen. Man har efter lång tids arbete hittat metodik för att ta fram analytiska modeller och prediktionstekniker samt säkra och noggranna livslängdsberäkningar för stålkonstruktioner. Fagerström Industrikonsult AB söker idag en metod för att utföra utmattningsanalys på tryckkärl i enlighet med tryckkärlsstandarden där linjärstatisk analys utförs med finita elementmetoden. Företaget eftersträvar också mer kunskap inom ämnet för att ge konstruktörerna bättre kännedom om utmattningsproblematiken samt ge möjlighet att redan i konstruktionsstadiet kunna sätta rimliga krav på tillverkning ur mekaniskt utmattningsperspektiv. / This master thesis has been carried out in collaboration with Fagerström Industrikonsult AB in Helsingborg. Fagerström Industrikonsult AB is an engineering company, specialized in mechanical and mechatronic products across a wide range of industry segments. One of the company's previous project, which is among other sub-products based on pressurized vessels, and that will be reused for a new project, needs an updated analysis against fatigue failure.In order to sell or use a pressurized equipment in Europe, the manufacturers must comply with the European Directive 97/23/EC, also called PED-directive. This directive sets the rules for design, production, marking and inspections. In Sweden, this directive is described in “Arbetsmiljöverkets Författningssamling” (AFS 1999:4 2011). In order to meet all the design and manufacturing requirements for pressure vessels that are required by the PED Directive, it is required to use harmonized standards. In this thesis, pressure vessel standard (SS-EN 13445-3: 2014) is used, which sets the rules for design and verification of pressure vessel.One of the projects funded by the European Commission, showed that 25 % of all pressure equipment failure are caused by fatigue. Pressure vessel is one type of these pressure equipment, which is most vulnerable to damage caused by fatigue. Fatigue failure has been known since the beginning of 19th century and this phenomenon has been studied for a long time. Under this extensive period of time, methods have been succefully developed for analytical models and prediction techniques as well as safe and accurate life calculations for steel structures. Fagerström Industrikonsult AB is today seeking a method to perform fatigue analysis of pressure vessels in accordance with European pressure vessel standard, where the linear static analysis is performed using the finite element method. The company is also pursuing more knowledge of the subject so its designers have more understanding of fatigue phenomena in order to be able to set reasonable requirements during design stage for production and in order to prevent this phenomena.

No description available.