Objective and accurate surface measurements are important in many clinical disciplines. Non-irradiating and low cost alternatives are available but validation of these measurement tools for clinical application is variable and sparse. This thesis presents a three dimensional (3D) surface measurement method validated by gold standard Computed Tomography (CT). Forty-one 3D surface data sets were acquired by two modalities, a laser scanner and a binocular camera. The binocular camera was tested with three different texture modifiers that increased the colour variability of the imaged surface. A surface area calculation algorithm was created to process the data sets. Relative differences were calculated for each area measurement with respect to its corresponding CT measurement. The laser scanner data sets were affected by movement and specular reflection artefacts. The measurements were statistically equivalent to CT if less than 20% error were considered acceptable. The binocular camera with the slide projected texture modifier was shown to be statistically equivalent to CT gold standard with less than 5% error (p < 0.0005). The surface area measurement method can easily be expanded and customized. By following the protocol outlined by the example in this work, researchers and clinicians would also be able to objectively asses other vision systems' performance and suitability. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-10 11:37:50.374

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Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Iterative CT reconstruction algorithms are superior to the standard convolution backpropagation (CBP) methods when reconstructing from a small number of views (hence less radiation), but are computationally costly. To reduce the execution time, this work implements and tests a parallel approach to iterative algorithms using a cluster of workstations, which is a low cost system found in many offices and non-academic sites. A previous implementation showed little speedup because of the significant cost of inter-processor communication. In this thesis, several data partitioning methods are examined, including some image tiling methods that exploit the spatial locality demonstrated by local CT. Using these methods, computation can proceed locally, without the need for inter-processor communication during every iteration. A relative speedup of up to 17 times is obtained using 25 processors, demonstrating that good performance can be obtained running computationally intensive CT reconstruction algorithms on distributed memory hardware.

A plethora of anthropological studies have been undertaken on the skull, including many analyses of sexual dimorphism. Sexual dimorphism reflected in the eye orbits has not always demonstrated consistent or reliable results. However, recent studies (Pretorius, Steyn, & Scholtz, 2006; Ji et al., 2010) suggest some positive results utilizing geometric morphometrics to predict sex. Utilizing 97 post-mortem CT (computed tomography) scans, established morphological and metric techniques for sex determination were assessed from 3D rendered models of the crania. In addition, landmark data were collected on the orbital margin to evaluate the accuracy of sex determination using geometric morphometric techniques. Traditional methods demonstrated poor levels of accuracy for prediction of sex, however, utilizing generalised procrustes analysis and discriminant function analysis on 3D landmark data resulted in 94.95% overall accuracy. Application of recent methodological advances, including geometric morphometrics, should continue to be developed as it increases the ability to assess sexual dimorphism which will allow for greater identification of unknown remains.

Pressboard, a high density cellulose-based material used for insulation in high voltage power transformers, exhibits stress relaxation during compressive loading. Investigating the micro-mechanical mechanisms responsible for the relaxation can lead to modifications of the production process to control the behaviour of the material. This investigation can be done using Synchrotron X-ray micro Computed Tomography which provides sufficient temporal and spatial resolutions to capture the stress relaxation process. In the present thesis, a compression rig for in-situ mechanical loading during X-ray micro Computed Tomography was designed and constructed. Local tomography scans with sub-micrometre resolution were obtained at the TOMCAT beamline at the Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland. Several fibre segmentation techniques are analysed, together with Optical Flow and Digital Volume Correlation (DVC), methods used for estimating displacement, strain and velocity vector fields. Suitability of the tested methods is evaluated, and it is found that segmentation of individual fibres in a cellulose material of such a high density is probably not possible using currently available segmentation techniques. The movements during relaxation are measurable at the used resolution, and can be estimated using Optical Flow. Further work into correction of image shift due to rig movement between scans, as well as image artefact reduction should allow for measurement and comparisons of displacement during relaxation as well as DVC-computed strain measurements during compression, recreating earlier results.

Objective: To evaluate three-dimensional position of the TMJ condyle within the glenoid fossa in different types of skeletal patterns. Materials and methods: Ninety CBCT images were consecutively selected and divided into skeletal class I, class II and class III. The images were analyzed locating landmarks in the different areas of the condyle and glenoid fossa. All landmarks presented acceptable reliability. The mean results were compared using ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc test (p < 0.05). Results: There was a tendency for the anterior joint space to be smaller than the posterior joint space. Statistical analysis, however, evidenced no significant differences between the anterior, superior and posterior joint spaces and the different skeletal patterns or between sides. Conclusion: There was non-concentricity of the condyle for all the groups studied, and no particular direction was statistically significantly favored. It is unclear whether the differences found would be clinically significant, considering anatomical individual variations.

Iterative CT reconstruction algorithms are superior to the standard convolution backpropagation (CBP) methods when reconstructing from a small number of views (hence less radiation), but are computationally costly. To reduce the execution time, this work implements and tests a parallel approach to iterative algorithms using a cluster of workstations, which is a low cost system found in many offices and non-academic sites. A previous implementation showed little speedup because of the significant cost of inter-processor communication. In this thesis, several data partitioning methods are examined, including some image tiling methods that exploit the spatial locality demonstrated by local CT. Using these methods, computation can proceed locally, without the need for inter-processor communication during every iteration. A relative speedup of up to 17 times is obtained using 25 processors, demonstrating that good performance can be obtained running computationally intensive CT reconstruction algorithms on distributed memory hardware.