A colloidal system usually refers to when very small particles are suspended within a solution. The study of these systems encompasses a variety of cases including bacteria in ground water, blood cells and platelets in blood plasma, and river silt transport. Taking a look at these kinds of systems using computer simulation can provide a great deal of insight into how they work. Most approaches to date do not look at the details of the system, however, and are specific to given system. In this study a program called OpenFOAM is used as a basis to build a computer simulation tool that is flexible and that provides a detailed look at what is happening with all of the particles within the colloidal solution. This code is run through a series of tests to verify its usefulness.

Digital imagers including Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) are essential to most forms of modern photographic technologies. The quality of the data produced by digital imagers have made them an invaluable scientific measurement tool. Despite the numerous advantages of digital imagers, there are still factors that limit their performance. One such factor is the stability of the camera's gain, the ratio that dictates the imager's ability to convert incident photons to a measurable output voltage. Variations in gain can affect the linearity of the device and produce inaccurate measurements. One of the factors that determines the gain of the camera is the sensitivity of the output amplifier. The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of two different output amplifier structures: the traditional source follower (SF) and the charge feedback amplifier (CFA). In studies of other solid state detectors, the CFA has shown a greater stability against variations in certain system parameters and environmental conditions such as operating temperature. It is thought that the CFA shows a superior stability over the SF, because the gain of the SF is dependent on multiple capacitances associated with the reset and output transistors, whereas the CFA gain is only dependent on its feedback capacitance. Furthermore, the CFA is able to handle a larger amount of charge than the SF, which increases the dynamic range of the output amplifier. In this research, output amplifier stability is measured using gain and linearity data collected from a CCD manufactured with both types of amplifiers. Preliminary data is presented that indicates the CFA exhibits a greater linearity, larger dynamic range, and a more stable gain than the SF. Despite this the CFA suffers from a significantly larger level of noise. Suggestions for future research are also given as to how to verify and expand upon the results presented here.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第18040号 / 理博第3918号 / 新制||理||1566(附属図書館) / 30898 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科数学・数理解析専攻 / (主査)教授 國府 寛司, 教授 加藤 毅, 准教授 浅岡 正幸 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第18675号 / 医博第3947号 / 新制||医||1007(附属図書館) / 31608 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 清水 章, 教授 渡邉 大, 教授 松田 道行 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第18991号 / 工博第4033号 / 新制||工||1621(附属図書館) / 31942 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科電気工学専攻 / (主査)教授 引原 隆士, 教授 土居 伸二, 教授 小林 哲生 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第20090号 / 工博第4257号 / 新制||工||1659(附属図書館) / 33206 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科電子工学専攻 / (主査)教授 野田 進, 教授 藤田 静雄, 教授 川上 養一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DGAM

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in the United States and metastasis is the leading cause of mortality in patients diagnosed with malignant breast cancer. The receptor of thromboxane A2 (TxA2), TP, is a member of the G-protein coupled receptor family. Increased expression of TP at RNA level was found to correlate with a poor prognosis in breast cancer patients; however, it is unknown how TP expression and activities are involved in breast cancer progression. Here we report that TP is expressed in breast cancer cells at both RNA and protein levels. And further, activation of this receptor elicits rapid activation of small GTPase RhoA and cytoskeleton reorganization. We also found that knockdown of TP expression or inhibition of TP activation by SQ29548, a TP antagonist, reduces tumor cell motility, reduce tumor cell extravasation from the circulatory system, and most importantly, reduce breast cancer metastasis in vivo. These data provide compelling evidence suggesting that the TxA2-TP pathway plays an important role in breast cancer metastasis.

The main goal of this research is to evaluate the behavior of earth pressure profiles in unsaturated soils under transient flow. In the first part, an empirical correlation is proposed to obtain the fitting parameters of Brooks and Corey’s soil-water retention model from Fredlund and Xing’s model. The retention models and the proposed equivalency between the models were assessed for 601 soil samples from the unsaturated soils hydraulic database (UNSODA). In the second part, a coupled one-dimensional hydro-mechanical model is introduced and is implemented into Rankine’s earth-pressure model to represent active and passive earth pressure profiles in unsaturated soils under transient flow. A realistic coupling process of infiltration and deformation in the porous medium is established based on the variation in permeability along with deformation in the soil body. The results showed that ignoring the hydro-mechanical coupling effect can lead to underestimation of earth pressure values, especially for fine-grained soils.

Finite-Difference (FD) based complex modes solver and Complex Mode Matching Method (CMMM) is one of the most popular combinations in modeling and simulation of opti- cal waveguides. This thesis covers the basic theories behind the approaches and impor- tant implementation details. Weighted Optical Path Distance is proposed to speed up convergence and improve numerical accuracy to deal with asymmetric structures. An improved formula is derived for Complex Mode Matching Method expansion process based on matrix optimization. The latter part applies the above approach in the mod- eling of bending structures and grating structures. Typical structures, including bend- ing structures, straight-bend-straight structures, long-period gratings, gratings with de- posited layer, gratings with deep corrugations, are investigated and analyzed. / Thesis / Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (MSECE)

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第24737号 / 情博第825号 / 新制||情||138(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科先端数理科学専攻 / (主査)教授 青柳 富誌生, 教授 田口 智清, 准教授 寺前 順之介 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM