Currently, many patients with early-stage localized prostate cancer (PrCa) (D’Amico: low risk or low-intermediate risk) do not receive immediate therapy but are monitored within systematic AS programs. Prospective trials showed rates of stage reclassification and progression to the treatment of 20–40% over 2–5 years. However, in certain patients, PrCa progresses rapidly to an advanced stage that requires combined modality therapies, which carry increased risk for toxicity and poor outcomes. There is a need to identify biomarkers that can predict the risk for disease progression in this population. Research showed that dysregulation of metabolism is an important hallmark of cancer progression. Here, we pursued a pilot investigation of enzymes of de novo lipogenesis [ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY), Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase (ACC)], lipid oxidation [a-Methylacyl-CoA Racemase (AMACR)], glucose uptake [facilitative glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1)], and folate – glutamate metabolism (PSMA: prostate-specific membrane antigen) as potential biomarkers of PrCa progression in AS patients. With ethics approval from the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (HiREB), 40 AS patients were accrued prospectively from the Niagara Health System PrCa diagnostic program clinics and were asked to donate their biopsy tissue. 28 patients progressed on repeat biopsies at 12 or 24 months after initial diagnosis and were included in the “Progressed” group, and 12 did not who were included in the “Non-Progressed” group. Baseline diagnostic prostate core biopsy tissues of both groups were evaluated with H&E and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining for ACLY, ACC, GLUT1, AMACR and PSMA expression (quantified by H-score). H-scores were evaluated in benign and malignant components (epithelial cells) and were compared between the two groups of patients. We observed statistically significant increased GLUT1 expression in malignant epithelial cells of the progressed group compared to the non-progressed group. Also, we found statistically significant increased PSMA expression in the benign epithelial cells of the progressed group compared to the non-progressed group. Further, our results demonstrated a statistically significant increase in ACLY and ACC expression in malignant epithelial cells compared to benign epithelial cells in the progressed group, while AMACR was detected solely in the malignant component. Overall, the results of this pilot study are consistent with the notion of induction of glycolytic metabolism, de novo lipogenesis and increased PSMA expression associated with the risk for PrCa progression. The levels of expression of PSMA within benign epithelial cells and GLUT1 within malignant epithelial cells may have value as predictive markers of risk for PrCa progression in AS patients. Future studies should investigate this concept systematically in larger AS cohorts. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Currently, many patients with localized prostate cancer do not receive immediate therapy and are monitored within systematic active surveillance (AS) programs. The main aim of AS management is to prevent overtreatment and treatment-related complications in patients who would otherwise have a good quality of life despite dealing with prostate cancer. However, many of these patients, especially those with low intermediate-risk prostate cancer have a significant risk for disease progression and metastasis. Additionally, there is a lack of promising tissue biomarkers to predict the risk for progression in AS patients at the time of initial diagnosis. Research showed that metabolism dysregulation is an essential hallmark of cancer progression, including prostate cancer. In this pilot study, we examined whether the expression of enzymes involved in lipid, glucose and protein metabolism could have value as biomarkers of risk for prostate cancer progression in patients managed with AS. The expression of five metabolic enzymes (ACLY, ACC, GLUT1, AMACR and PSMA) was examined in tumor and benign regions of diagnostic biopsies of the prostate obtained from men managed with AS. Our early results suggest that the expression of enzymes of protein (PSMA) and glucose (GLUT1) metabolism may have value as biomarkers of risk for prostate cancer progression and should be investigated further in systematic studies.

No description available.

No description available.

This doctoral thesis focuses on the modification of ACC to include actual driver workload in the context of automatic headway change. ACC is a driver assistance system that automatically maintains a preliminary defined speed and permits a driver to perform manual headway changes. As drivers show worse (brake) reaction times under high workload situations, the system increases headway accordingly. Driver workload is estimated based on physiological data. Here, we investigate the possibilities of such a system, assuming that physiological sensors can be implemented in future vehicles. The thesis consists of three parts: In the first part, the theoretical background is described and a suitable theoretical model is developed; in the second part, experiments are described, and in the last part, results are discussed. Altogether four experiments support this thesis: 1. The first experiment investigates the foundational relationships between physiology, brake reaction time and workload level. The study employs a simulator setting and results show that physiological data, such as heart rate and skin conductance, permit the identification of different workload levels. These findings validate the results of other studies showing that workload leads to an increase in reaction time. These results could only be validated between the extremes “no-workload” and “high workload” situations. 2. The second experiment simulates an ideal workload-adaptive cruise control (WACC) system. In a simulator setting, system acceptance and awareness are studied, with a view toward future implementation in a real car. The results show better acceptance of WACC in comparison with ACC when subjects receive additional information about the new system. This is because subjects do not perceive changes in distance under high workload conditions. 3. The third experiment focuses on acceptance of the simulated system in on-road conditions. In this study, WACC is integrated in the car and is operated using a MATLAB model. The experiment shows that more subjects notice changes in distance in the on-road condition. In general WACC is preferred over ACC; it is especially these subjects who do not notice changes in distance, who value WACC more than ACC. With the aim of implementing an operational WACC that is capable of adjusting distance according to changes in physiological data, a workload algorithm is developed. 4. The fourth experiment validates the workload algorithm. Results of the algorithm are compared with recordings of the activated workload task and detection rate is calculated. The detection of workload periods was feasible in nearly every case and detection rate was favorable, especially if one considers lags due to design-related latency periods. The experiments presented here indicate that workload is detectable in physiological data and that it influences brake reaction time. Further, we provide evidence pointing to the technical possibility of implementing WACC as well as positive acceptance. The results have been published as an article and are part of this thesis. Also, some parts of the thesis are published as a book chapter (see footnotes). Another publication is in preparation, coauthored by diploma thesis students, who are supervised by the author (consult footnotes). This dissertation is composed, in part, of these publications. References to page numbers of the diploma theses are given to ensure correspondence. The author escorted the topic WACC from the beginning to the end. Sometimes students were involved and intensively supervised, from a thematic as well as a personnel guidance perspective. The author planned the whole project and executed studies and calculations. His psychology insights were not only limited to the discipline of psychology but were furthermore, with the help of students, interdisciplinarily expanded to the subject of informatics. Every study and every result which is presented within this work, was conducted or achieved by the author or (if students supported him) was discussed with the author in weekly discussions (and often several times a day). In these discussions the author provided new ideas and corrections if necessary. Apart from that, the author looked after the fulfillment of the central theme, implemented his psychological knowledge on a daily basis and provided his expertise to complement interdisciplinary point of views. He discussed the central theme as well as details with external partners like the MIT AgeLab as well as professors of the European Union from the adaption project (a project aimed at educating future researchers which includes involvement of highly important commercial and educational partners) and beyond. In this time he also visited conferences and accumulated knowledge which led to the successful achievements of the main objective and he was relevant in reaching the common goals of the adaption project. Furthermore he presented the results of the scientific work on a conference, workshops and in written publications. Within BMW Group Research and Technology, he identified important department- and project- partners and combined the knowledge to a result which benefits science and economy.:1 Introduction 2 Goal And Research Questions 3 Theoretical And Empirical Background 3.1 Theoretical Model 3.2 Workload Measurement over Physiology 3.3 Secondary Task: The N-Back Task 4 Forward Collision Warning Experiment 4.1 Introduction and Objectives 4.2 Method 4.3 Procedure 4.4 Results 4.5 Discussion and Conclusion 5 Workload-adaptive cruise control - A new generation of advanced driver assistance systems 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Material 5.3 Measurements 5.4 The Secondary Task: N-Back Task 5.5 WACC system 5.6 Procedure 5.7 Results 5.8 Discussion and conclusion 6 On-Road Study Of The Simulated WACC 6.1 Introduction and Objectives 6.2 Method 6.3 Results 6.4 Discussion and conclusion 7 Online detection of workload in an on-road setting 7.1 Introduction and objectives 7.2 Method 7.3 Results 7.4 Discussion and conclusion 8 General discussion 8.1 Background and chosen approach 8.2 Summary of findings 8.3 Discussion and conclusion 9 References / In dieser Dissertation wird eine Abwandlung des Active Cruise Control (ACC) untersucht, das zusätzlich die Belastung (Workload) des Fahrers als Parameter betrachtet, um den Abstand zum Vordermann automatisiert zu verändern. Bei diesem ACC handelt es sich um ein Fahrerassistenzsystem, das automatisiert die eingestellte Geschwindigkeit hält und eine manuelle (durch den Nutzer ausgelöste) Abstandsveränderung zum Vordermann ermöglicht. Da sich die Bremsreaktionszeit von Fahrern in hohen Belastungssituationen verschlechtert, soll das entwickelte Workload-adaptive Cruise Control (WACC) in Situationen hoher Belastung den Abstand zum Vordermann automatisiert erhöhen. Die Belastung des Fahrers soll durch physiologische Daten ermittelt werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Möglichkeit eines solchen Systems unter der Annahme, dass in Zukunft geeignete physiologische Sensoren ins Auto eingebaut werden können. Die Arbeit besteht aus drei Teilen: • Im ersten Teil wird der theoretische Hintergrund beschrieben und ein passendes theoretisches Modell entwickelt. • Im zweiten Teil werden die durchgeführten Experimente beschrieben. • Im dritten Teil werden die Ergebnisse diskutiert. Insgesamt wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit vier Experimente durchgeführt: Das erste Experiment beschäftigte sich mit den grundlegenden Zusammenhängen zwischen Physiologie, Bremsreaktionszeit und Belastungslevel. Wie die Ergebnisse der im Simulator durchgeführten Studie zeigen, können mit physiologischen Daten wie Herzrate, Herzratenvariabilität und Hautleitfähigkeit unterschiedliche Workloadlevel identifiziert werden. Darüber hinaus wurden die Ergebnisse anderer Studien bestätigt, die belegen, dass Workload die Bremsreaktionszeit erhöht, wobei dies nur im Kontrast zwischen den Extrembereichen „kein Workload“ und „hoher Workload“ nachweisbar ist. Das zweite Experiment diente der Simulierung eines perfekten WACC. Im Simulator wurden Akzeptanz und Systemwahrnehmung getestet, um vor der Implementierung in ein Realfahrzeug weitere Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen. Im Vergleich zum ACC wurde das WACC von den Probanden besser akzeptiert, nachdem sie zusätzliche Informationen zum neuen System erhalten hatten. Der wesentliche Grund dafür ist, dass die Probanden ohne Informationen die Abstandsveränderung bei hohem Workload nicht realisieren. Das dritte Experiment fokussierte auf die Akzeptanz des simulierten Systems unter Realbedingungen. Das WACC wurde in das Auto integriert und durch ein MATLAB Modell gesteuert. Als Ergebnis zeigte sich, dass unter Realbedingungen mehr Probanden die Abstandsveränderung realisieren als im Simulator. Generell wird das WACC präferiert – vor allem jene Probanden, die die Abstandsveränderung nicht realisieren, bewerten das WACC besser als das ACC. Mit den in diesem Teilexperiment erhobenen Daten wurde ein Algorithmus zur Workloaderkennung entwickelt. Auf dieser Basis konnte im letzten Experiment ein Realsystem implementiert werden, das aufgrund physiologischer Daten den Abstand verändert. Das vierte Experiment beschäftigte sich mit der Validierung des Algorithmus zur Workloaderkennung. Die Ergebnisse des Algorithmus wurden mit der aufgezeichneten Aktivierung des Workloadtasks verglichen und eine Detektionsrate ermittelt. Die Detektion der Workloadperioden gelingt in fast allen Fällen und die Detektionsrate ist vielversprechend, gerade wenn man Verzögerungen berücksichtigt, die wegen der Latenzzeit körperlicher Reaktionen nicht verbesserungsfähig sind. In den vorliegenden Experimenten konnte gezeigt werden, dass Workload über die Physiologie messbar ist und sich auf die Bremsreaktionszeit auswirkt. Darüber hinaus wurde gezeigt, dass ein WACC technisch machbar ist und die Ergebnisse lassen außerdem auf eine hohe Akzeptanz schließen. Die Forschungsergebnisse wurden in einem Artikel publiziert, der auch in dieser Dissertation zu finden ist. Teile der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden außerdem als Buchkapitel veröffentlicht (siehe Fußnoten), eine weitere Publikation mit den vom Autor umfassend betreuten Diplomanden ist in Ausarbeitung. Um die Nachvollziehbarkeit zu gewährleisten, wurde auf die Seitenzahlen der entsprechenden Diplomarbeiten verwiesen. Als Autor dieser Dissertation habe ich das Thema WACC von Anfang bis Ende selbst erarbeitet bzw. wurden Studenten eingesetzt und angeleitet, wo es sinnvoll erschien. Neben der fachlichen wie personellen Führung der Studenten umfassten meine Aufgaben die Planung des Gesamtprojekts, das Durchführen der Studien und die Berechnung von Kennzahlen – sowohl in meinem eigenen psychologischen Fachgebiet als auch interdisziplinär mit Hilfe von Experten aus der Informatik. Jedes Ergebnis, das in dieser Arbeit präsentiert wird, wurde entweder von mir selbst erzielt oder – sofern ich dabei von Studenten unterstützt wurde – mit mir in wöchentlichen (oft auch mehrmals täglich stattfindenden Meetings) besprochen. Wichtig war mir als Autor, einen durchgängigen Weg zur Entwicklung eines WACC zu wahren, mein psychologisches Fachwissen täglich anzuwenden und in interdisziplinären Aufgaben und Diskussionen meine Perspektive einzubringen. Besonders wichtig war dabei die Diskussion des Gesamtprojekts und der Details mit externen Partnern wie dem MIT AgeLab oder Professoren aus der Europäischen Union im Rahmen des Adaptation Projekts (ein von der EU gefördertes Projekt zur Ausbildung von Forschern, unter Einbindung wirtschaftlich und wissenschaftlich hochrangiger Partner). Durch die Präsentation der Ergebnisse auf Konferenzen, in Workshops und Publikationen konnte ich einen Beitrag dazu leisten, um die Adaptation-Ziele zu erreichen. Innerhalb der BMW Group Forschung und Technik habe ich darauf geachtet, relevante Schnittstellen- und Projektpartner zu identifizieren und das erlangte Wissen zu einem Ergebnis zu verbinden, das Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft gleichermaßen nützt.:1 Introduction 2 Goal And Research Questions 3 Theoretical And Empirical Background 3.1 Theoretical Model 3.2 Workload Measurement over Physiology 3.3 Secondary Task: The N-Back Task 4 Forward Collision Warning Experiment 4.1 Introduction and Objectives 4.2 Method 4.3 Procedure 4.4 Results 4.5 Discussion and Conclusion 5 Workload-adaptive cruise control - A new generation of advanced driver assistance systems 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Material 5.3 Measurements 5.4 The Secondary Task: N-Back Task 5.5 WACC system 5.6 Procedure 5.7 Results 5.8 Discussion and conclusion 6 On-Road Study Of The Simulated WACC 6.1 Introduction and Objectives 6.2 Method 6.3 Results 6.4 Discussion and conclusion 7 Online detection of workload in an on-road setting 7.1 Introduction and objectives 7.2 Method 7.3 Results 7.4 Discussion and conclusion 8 General discussion 8.1 Background and chosen approach 8.2 Summary of findings 8.3 Discussion and conclusion 9 References

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are aiming to provide innovative services related to different modes of transport and traffic management, and enable various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated and smarter use of transport networks. Cooperative-ITS (C-ITS) support connectivity between vehicles, vehicles and roadside infrastructure, traffic signals as well as with other road users. In order to enable vehicular communications European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) delivered ITS-G5 -- a of set of C-ITS standards. Considering the goals of C-ITS, inter-vehicle communications should be reliable and efficient. In this thesis we study the performance, efficiency, and dependability of ITS-G5 communications for Cooperative adaptive cruise control (C-ACC) and platooning C-ITS applications. We provide an overview of currently available and ongoing standardization targeting communications in C-ACC/platooning. We study the performance of ITS-G5 beaconing in a C-ACC/platooning scenario, where we show that its performance may deteriorate when implemented in cooperative driving applications due to the kinematic-dependent design of the message triggering mechanism. We explain in detail the cause of this phenomenon and test it for a wide range of parameters. Also, we study the influence of different available ITS-G5 legitimate setups on the C-ACC/platooning fuel efficiency and demonstrate that proper communication setup may enhance fuel savings. This thesis also proposes a jamming denial-of-service attack detection algorithm for platooning. The main advantage of our detector is its short learning phase that not exceed a second and low detection delay of a few hundreds of milliseconds. Under some assumptions, the proposed algorithm demonstrates the ability to detect certain types of attacks with average probability above 0.9. / ACDC

L’objectif principal de ce projet est d’évaluer le potentiel d’un système de marais filtrants combinés pour le traitement d’un lixiviat contaminé aux agents de préservations du bois - l’arséniate de cuivre chromaté (ACC) et le pentachlorophénol (PCP) - en portant une attention particulière au rôle des plantes. Pour ce faire, une expérience en pot faisant varier la concentration d’exposition de quatre espèces de macrophyte (Typha angustifolia, Phalaris arundinacea, Phragmites australis americanus et Phragmites australis australis) a été effectuée. Le suivi de quatre marais filtrants à écoulement horizontal sous-surfacique, plantés d’une des quatre espèces de macrophyte et d’un bassin planté de saules (Salix Miyabeana SX67) a également été réalisé. La résistance des plantes au milieu contaminé, la capacité de bioaccumulation des macrophytes et les efficacités de traitement des différents systèmes ont été analysés. Nos résultats montrent que la concentration d’exposition n’influence pas la capacité des plantes à croître en milieu contaminé. Par contre, il existe une relation dose-réponse entre la concentration d’exposition et la capacité de bioaccumulation des macrophytes. Les quatre marais pilotes ont tous des efficacités de traitements supérieures à 55% en 2013 et 82% en 2014 pour les contaminants à l’étude. Le bassin de saule a la capacité théorique d’évapotranspirer jusqu’à 1200 L par jour. De plus, ses efficacités de traitements sont supérieures à 59% pour tous les composés à l’étude. L’utilisation de marais filtrants pour le traitement d’un lixiviat contaminé aux agents de préservations du bois est donc une alternative intéressante aux méthodes de traitement conventionnel. / The main objective of this project is to evaluate the capacity of a combined constructed wetland system to treat a leachate polluted with two wood preservatives-chromium copper arsenate (CCA) and pentachlorophenol (PCP)- according a particular importance to the role of plants. The effect of the exposure concentration on four macrophytes species (Typha angustifolia, Phalaris arundinacea, Phragmites australis americanus and Phragmites australis australis) was evaluated using a pot experiment. Four HSSF pilot constructed wetlands, planted with one of these plants species, were monitored. The role of an HSSF constructed wetland, planted with willow (Salix Miyabeana SX67), placed at the end of the treatment chain was also assessed. The plants growth and survival and their bioaccumulation capacity were measured, and the system treatment efficiencies were monitored. There was no effect of the concentration on plants growth but the higher exposure concentration resulted in a higher bioaccumulation in the roots of the four macrophytes. All four pilots CW showed treatment efficiencies superior to 55% in 2013 and to 82% in 2014 for the pollutants tested. The willows CW have the theorical capacity to evapotranspirate up to 1200 L of water. Its treatments efficiencies were over 59% for all the pollutants tested. A combined constructed wetland system is a good alternative to conventional methods to treat a leachate polluted with wood preservatives.

<p>An Adaptive Cruise Controller (ACC) is an extension of an ordinary cruise controller. In addition to maintaining a desired set velocity, an ACC can also maintain a desired time gap to the vehicle ahead. For this end, both the engine andthe brakes are controlled. </p><p>The purpose with this thesis has been to develop control strategies for an ACC used in heavy vehicles. The focus of the work has been the methods used for switching between the use of engine and brake. Two different methods have been studied, a hybrid controller and an MPC-controller. </p><p>For the hybrid controller, the main contribution has been to use the influence of the surroundings on the acceleration of the truck. This consists of several parts such as wind drag, road slope and rolling resistance. The estimated influence of the surroundings is used as a switch point between the use of engine and brakes. Ideally, these switch points give bumpless actuator switches. </p><p>The interest in the MPC-controller as an alternative solution was to achieve automatic actuator switching, thus with no explicitly defined switch points. The MPC-controller is based on a model of the system including bounds on the control signals. Using this knowledge, the MPC-controller will choose the correct actuator for the current driving situation. </p><p>Results from simulations show that both methods solve the actuator switch problem. The advantages with the hybrid controller are that it is implementable in a truck with the hardware used today and that it is relatively simple to parameterise. A drawback is that explicit switch points between the uses of the different actuators have to be included. The advantages with the MPC-controller are that no explicit switch points have to be introduced and that constraints and time delays on signals in the system can be handled in a simple way. Among the drawbacks, it can be mentioned that the variant of MPC, used in this thesis, is too complex to implement in the control system currently used in trucks. One further important drawback is that MPC demands a mathematical model of the system.</p>

Plants often live in association with growth-promoting bacteria, which provide them with several benefits. One such benefit is the lowering of plant ethylene levels through the action of the bacterial enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase that cleaves the immediate biosynthetic precursor of ethylene, ACC. The plant hormone ethylene is responsible for many aspects of plant growth and development but under stressful conditions ethylene exacerbates stress symptoms. The ACC deaminase-containing bacterium Pseudomonas putida UW4, isolated from the rhizosphere of reeds, is a potent plant growth-promoting strain and as such was used, along with an ACC deaminase minus mutant of this strain, to study the role of ACC deaminase in plant growth-promotion. Also, transgenic plants expressing a bacterial ACC deaminase gene were used to study the role of this enzyme in plant growth and stress tolerance in the presence and absence of nickel. Transcriptional changes occurring within plant tissues were investigated with the use of an Arabidopsis oligonucleotide microarray. The results showed that transcription of genes involved in hormone regulation, secondary metabolism and the stress response changed in all treatments. In particular, the presence of ACC deaminase caused genes for auxin response factors to be up-regulated in plant tissues suggesting a de-repression of auxin signaling in the absence of high levels of ethylene. Also, transgenic plants had longer roots and grew faster than the non-transformed plants and genes involved in the stress response and secondary metabolism were up-regulated. Plants inoculated with bacteria had lower levels of secondary metabolism gene expression and slightly higher stress response gene expression than uninoculated plants. Yet, inoculation with the ACC deaminase-expressing bacterium caused less up-regulation of plant genes involved in stress and defense responses and the down-regulation of genes involved in nitrogen metabolism in comparison to plants inoculated with the ACC deaminase minus mutant. Nickel stress caused the down-regulation of genes involved in photosynthesis and carbon fixation and the up-regulation of genes involved in stress responses, and amino acid and lipid breakdown suggesting energy starvation. When transgenic plants expressing ACC deaminase in the roots were exposed to nickel stress, plant stress symptoms were significantly lower and biomass was significantly higher suggesting that lowering the level of ethylene relieved many of the stress symptoms. In fact, genes involved in photosynthesis, secondary metabolism and nitrate assimilation were up-regulated in transgenic plants compared with non-transformed plants in the presence of nickel, suggesting that ACC deaminase is effective at reducing the severe effects of this metal stress.

Attention biases to trauma-related information contribute to symptom maintenance in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); this phenomenon has been observed through various behavioral studies, although findings from studies using a precise, direct bias task, the dot probe, have been mixed. PTSD neuroimaging studies have indicated atypical function in specific brain regions involved with attention bias; when viewing emotionally-salient cues or engaging in tasks that require attention, individuals with PTSD have demonstrated altered activity in brain regions implicated in cognitive control and attention allocation, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and amygdala. However, remarkably few PTSD neuroimaging studies have employed tasks that both measure attentional strategies being engaged and include emotionally-salient information. In the current study of attention biases in highly traumatized African-American adults, a version of the dot probe task that includes stimuli that are both salient (threatening facial expressions) and relevant (photographs of African-American faces) was administered to 19 participants with and without PTSD during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). I hypothesized that: 1) individuals with PTSD would show a significantly greater attention bias to threatening faces than traumatized controls; 2) PTSD symptoms would be associated with a significantly greater attentional bias toward threat expressed in African-American, but not Caucasian, faces; 3) PTSD symptoms would be significantly associated with abnormal activity in the mPFC, dlPFC, and amygdala during presentation of threatening faces. Behavioral data did not provide evidence of attentional biases associated with PTSD. However, increased activation in the dlPFC and regions of the mPFC in response to threat cues was found in individuals with PTSD, relative to traumatized controls without PTSD; this may reflect hyper-engaged cognitive control, attention, and conflict monitoring resources in these individuals. Additionally, viewing threat in same-race, both not other-race, faces was associated with increased activation in the mPFC. These findings have important theoretical and treatment implications, suggesting that PTSD, particularly in those individuals who have experienced chronic or multiple types of trauma, may be characterized less by top-down “deficits” or failures, but by imbalanced neurobiological and cognitive systems that become over-engaged in order to “control” the emotional disruption caused by trauma-related triggers.

An Adaptive Cruise Controller (ACC) is an extension of an ordinary cruise controller. In addition to maintaining a desired set velocity, an ACC can also maintain a desired time gap to the vehicle ahead. For this end, both the engine andthe brakes are controlled. The purpose with this thesis has been to develop control strategies for an ACC used in heavy vehicles. The focus of the work has been the methods used for switching between the use of engine and brake. Two different methods have been studied, a hybrid controller and an MPC-controller. For the hybrid controller, the main contribution has been to use the influence of the surroundings on the acceleration of the truck. This consists of several parts such as wind drag, road slope and rolling resistance. The estimated influence of the surroundings is used as a switch point between the use of engine and brakes. Ideally, these switch points give bumpless actuator switches. The interest in the MPC-controller as an alternative solution was to achieve automatic actuator switching, thus with no explicitly defined switch points. The MPC-controller is based on a model of the system including bounds on the control signals. Using this knowledge, the MPC-controller will choose the correct actuator for the current driving situation. Results from simulations show that both methods solve the actuator switch problem. The advantages with the hybrid controller are that it is implementable in a truck with the hardware used today and that it is relatively simple to parameterise. A drawback is that explicit switch points between the uses of the different actuators have to be included. The advantages with the MPC-controller are that no explicit switch points have to be introduced and that constraints and time delays on signals in the system can be handled in a simple way. Among the drawbacks, it can be mentioned that the variant of MPC, used in this thesis, is too complex to implement in the control system currently used in trucks. One further important drawback is that MPC demands a mathematical model of the system.