The development of X-ray Beam Position Monitors (XBPM) used on the Canadian Light Source front ends is described in this thesis, from the design concepts to the practical implementation and commissioning. Surveyed into position to provide a fiducialized point of origin for incoming synchrotron radiation, the primary purpose of the XBPM is to provide a measure of synchrotron beam motion. Currently XBPMs have been installed on three beamlines at the Canadian Light Source, a 2.9 GeV third generation synchrotron radiation source. Two of the XBPMs are comprised of chemical vapour deposition synthetic diamond blades coated with gold and installed on insertion device beamlines, while the third makes use of molybdenum blades for a dipole beamline. By incrementally scanning the blades of the XBPM through the synchrotron beam it is possible to determine the monitors� spatial resolution to beam motion. For the commissioned XBPM a typical spatial resolution of +/- 1 micron of beam motion was achieved; and the thermal power loading capacity has been tested to the 2/5 of maximum value. An independent white beam profiler, comprised of a converter crystal and image acquisition software, was constructed to corroborate the functionality of the XBPM.

The application of the synthetic mineralocorticoid, deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt, to unilaterally nephrectomised rats induces severe hypertension due to volume-overload, and mimics human primary aldosteronism. Importantly, DOCA-salt hypertension is characterized by severe cardiac and renal lesions triggered by nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB), activating protein (AP-1), and transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) leading to end-stage organ damage. Although DOCA-salt hypertension is a low renin model, local production of angiotensin-II and aldosterone in cardiac and renal tissues stimulate TGF-beta1, fibronectin and collagen-1 causing fibrosis and hypertrophy. Since TGF-beta1 gene promoter contains binding sites for NF-kappaB and AP-1, cross-talk between TGF-beta1, NF-kappaBnand AP-1 can be envisaged. Accordingly, the activation of TGF-beta1, fibronectin, collagen, NF-kappaB and AP-1 may constitute a potent destructive force in hypertension.<p> Emerging evidence indicates that upregulation of the heme oxygenase (HO) system is cytoprotective with antioxidant, antihypertensive and antihypertrophic effects. Interestingly, the promoter region of HO-1 gene harbors consensus-binding sites for NF-kappaB and AP-1; therefore, the HO system may regulate these transcription factors to counteract tissue insults. However, the multifaceted interactions between the HO system, NF-kappaB, AP-1, TGF-beta1, fibronectin and collagen in mineralocorticoid-induced end-stage-organ damage have not been fully characterized. Similarly, the effect of the HO system on tissue angiotensin-II and aldosterone levels in mineralocorticoid-induced hypertension remains unclear. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the antihypertrophic effect of the HO system in cardiac and renal tissue of DOCA-salt hypertensive rats. In this study, the HO inducer, hemin, lowered blood pressure and attenuated cardiac/renal hypertrophy, whereas the HO inhibitor, chromium mesoporphyrin (CrMP), nullified the effects of hemin and exacerbated cardiac/renal injury the DOCA-salt hypertensive rats. The protective effect of hemin was associated with increased HO-1, HO activity, cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), superoxide dismutase activity, ferritin and the total antioxidant capacity in the cardiac and renal tissue. In contrast, angiotensin-II, aldosterone, 8-isoprostane, NF-kappaB and AP-1 were significantly downregulated. Furthermore, hemin therapy attenuated TGF-beta1 and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins such as fibronectin and collagen, with corresponding reduction of cardiac histopathological lesions, including longitudinal/cross-sectional muscle fiber thickness, scarring, muscular hypertrophy, coronary arteriolar thickening and collagen deposition. Similarly, hemin attenuated structural lesions in the kidney such as glomerular hypertrophy, glomerular sclerosis, mononuclear cell infiltration, tubular cast formation, tubular dilation and renal arteriolar thickening with concomitant improvement of kidney function as evidenced by reduction of plasma creatinine, proteinuria, but enhanced creatinine clearance.<p> Collectively, these results suggest that the HO system suppressed hypertension, cardiac and renal fibrosis, and hypertrophy in the DOCA-salt hypertensive rat by downregulating transcription factors such as NF-kappaB and AP-1, reducing ECM proteins such as fibronectin and collagen, decreasing local tissue production of angiotensin-II and aldosterone, and improved renal functional capacity.

Palliative care is founded on a holistic attitude, with the goal to alleviate suffering when a cure is no longer possible. Palliative care affirms life and regards dying as a normal process, providing possibilities of a quality time for the patient and family. Studies show that an increasing number of people choose to live the final phase of their life in their own home. A requirement for end of life care is an effective team work, where the nurse is responsible for more advanced care, and the caregiver’s provides the immediate care. The purpose of this study was to gain insight of caregiver’s experiences with patients in end of life care. An interview was conducted with seven caregivers, where the material is processed by a content analysis with qualitative approach. The results showed that the caregivers were engaged in meeting with dying patients and their families. Three themes emerged: to prioritize, to give and receive support, and to care with dignity. The following conclusions were found; Time and continuity is an essential constituent of the care for patients in palliative care. Caregivers should be given time for support and reflection. Skilled personnel with education and good knowledge of palliative care are needed in the care of palliative patients and their families.

Computer systems are subject to a range of attacks that can compromise their intended operations. Conventional wisdom states that once a system has been compromised, the only way to recover is to format and reinstall. In this work, we present methods to automatically recover or self-heal from a compromise. We term the system an intrusion recovery system. The design consists of a layered architecture in which the production system and intrusion recovery system run in separate isolated virtual machines. The intrusion recovery system monitors the integrity of the production system and repairs state if a compromise is detected. A method is introduced to track the dynamic control flow graph of the production system guest kernel. A prototype of the system was built and tested against a suite of rootkit attacks. The system was able to recover from all attacks at a cost of about a 30% performance penalty.

Thanks to development of power semiconductor devices and integrated circuits, active front-end converters with controllability of bidirectional power flow have become popular and viable in industrial applications. This thesis proposes an improved resonant current control for the active front-end converter with LCL filter. The proposed control consists of a band-pass filter tuned at fundamental frequency and various band-rejected filters resonant at harmonic frequencies to provide fundamental current tracking capability as well as enhance harmonic current rejection. Based on this algorithm, the active front-end converter can control dc voltage with unity power factor by sensing converter output current, LCL filter voltage and dc voltage. This approach also conducts harmonic current rejection under distorted line voltage with no phase-locked-loop used, which is the significant advantage in terms of phase lag of frame transformation and computing effort of digital signal processing. Current tracking performance and harmonic rejection capability of the proposed method are verified based on frequency-domain analysis. Computer simulations and experimental results are also implemented to validate effectiveness.

This dissertation presents the fundamental theory and design procedure of the sub-Nyquist rate sampling receiver front-end that exploits signal sparsity by employing Compressive Sensing (CS) techniques. The CS receiver serves as an Analog-to-Information Conversion (AIC) system that works at sampling rates much lower than the Nyquist rate. The performance of a parallel path CS front-end structure that employs current mode sampling techniques is quantified analytically. Useful and fundamental design guidelines that are unique to CS are provided based on the analytical tools. Simulations with IBM 90nm CMOS process verify the theoretical derivations and the circuit implementations. Based on these results, it is shown that instantaneous receiver signal bandwidth of 1.5 GHz and 44 dB of signal to noise plus distortion ratio (SNDR) are achievable in simulations assuming 0.5 ps clock jitter is present. The ADC and front-end core power consumption is estimated to be 120.8 mW. The front-end is fabricated with IBM 90nm CMOS process, and a BPSK sub-Nyquist rate communication system is realized as a prototype in the testing. A 1.25 GHz reference clock with 4.13 ps jitter variance is employed in the test bench. The signal frequency, phase and amplitude can be correctly reconstructed, and the maximum signal SNR obtained in the testing is 40 dB with single tone input and 30 dB with multi-tones test. The CS system has a better FOM than state-of-art Nyquist rate data acquisition systems taking into account the estimated PLL power.

The cutter is a fundamental machine tool used extensively throughout manufacturing industries. The performance and quality of the cutter have a direct influence upon the cutting precision, product quality and production rate. Invigorating the domestic cutter industry and establishing a characteristic syscxtem of cutter technology requires that new technology be imported, the constraints of previous experience be overcome, a fundamental research and development capability be developed and new machine tool materials be adopted Two basic approaches exist when considering geometrical models of the cutter. In the first approach, developing new cutters and establishing an optimal set of cutter design parameters is performed in accordance with general cutting theory and the operational functions of the machine tool. Meanwhile, in the second approach, the structural requirements and design parameters of an ideal cutter are used to establish a geometrical cutter model which describes the various contours of the cutter. Developing an accurate geometrical model is an essential prerequisite to realizing the com-puter-aided design of a cutter, and is necessary in order to apply the theory of cutter design and manufacturing theory to the practical manufacturing proc-ess. Moreover, the geometrical model provides the basis for interference checking and manufacturing error analysis. Modern cutter design and manufacturing technologies integrate the results from a diverse range of previous studies, including those performed within the fields of fundamental mathematical theory, computer-aided ap-plication technology, modern design technology, material science and manufacturing technology. In each field, technological progress is reliant upon the development of mathematical theory. In the present study, differen-tial geometry, conjugate theory, engagement relationship theory, coordinate transfer and numerical methods are used to develop a systematic method for the design, simulation, manufacturing and compensation of special revolving cutters. Using the proposed mathematical models, this paper presents real-izable and effective manufacturing models for these revolving cutters. Fur-thermore, the Taguchi method and power signal analysis techniques are em-ployed to investigate the effects of different cutting-edge curves on the cut-ting characteristics of Inconel tool material. The basic research activities performed within the present study can be summarized as follows: 1.The study develops geometrical models for the cutting-edge curves and flute designs of ball-end cutters, truncated-cone ball-end cutters and toroid-cone shape cutters. Applying the inverse-envelope theory, a geometrical model for the cross-section of the grinding wheel used to grind the required helical groove on the cutter is developed. Further-more, the relative positions and velocities of the grinding wheel and workpiece during the NC manufacturing of the cutter are developed and investigated via a process of computer simulation. Finally, a compensation method is developed which resolves the problems of residual revolution surface and localized non-existence of the cutting-edge. The theoretical models and results provide a valuable source of reference for the NC manufacturing of revolving cutters. 2.A series of experiments are performed to investigate the effects of the cutting-edge geometry on the machining performance when machining Inconel 718. The Taguchi method is adopted to determine the set of optimal machining parameters for a variety of cutting-edge types, in-cluding those of the truncated-cone ball-end cutter, the plane type, the S type and the traditional type. The results of these experiments serve as a valuable reference for the automated machining of aero-materials. 3.Study the design and manufacture of the cutting-edge curve, flute sur-face and the coning angle of the grinding wheel for both the rotating burr and the revolving cutter, and discuss the difference of the related geometrical models. Also, the practical cutting-edge curve and the feeding rate of the relative movement for the cutter of the two and half axes processes of the NC machine have been discussed.

The fault phenomena of fluorescent lamps are investigated by observing the operations in the last period of the life cycle. Accordingly, fault detecting and protection circuits are designed. Before coming to the life-end, the lamps can be started up, but are operated abnormally. A ruddy glow may occur at one end of the cathode filaments and an unstable arc may happen to the lamp. Obviously, the light efficiency becomes relatively low. The arc instability eventually results in a totally damaged fluorescent lamp. It is found that both waveforms of the lamp voltage and the lamp current are asymmetrical and have unequal positive and negative peak values. The asymmetry is more significant for the lamp voltage. In addition, a dc component is present in the lamp voltage. Based on these investigated results, the detection and protection circuits are designed for high-frequency electronic ballasts under dimming operations as well at the rated power. The experiments show that the detection and protection circuits can work effectively.

Three different chip design topics associated with their respective applications are proposed in this thesis. The first topic is the implementation of an FIFO memory design for 8-to-32 data exchange bus. An FIFO memory architecture is proposed to be utilized in data exchange between processing units which possess non-homogeneous bus widths. Neither arbiter logics nor modules are required in such a design to determine input sequences or output sequences. Hence, the delay is drastically shortened. The second topic is focused on the implementation of an analog front-end of digital cordless headset baseband controller. The integrated analog and digital interface IC provides an interface for analog and digital communication. It converts an analog signal into an 8-bit digital signal, which will be processed by the baseband controller. It also converts an 8-bit digital voice data into an analog voice signal. In addition, a built-in oscillator is included in the design, which provides a global clock signal. The third topic is to carry out an DC/DC converter with a built-in voltage detector. The converter can convert 1.5V input voltage to 2.7V output voltage. A portable system can use only one single battery to power on by this circuit. It also contains a voltage detector to indicate whether the output voltage meets the pre-determined level.

Recently, there is a growing interest in applying electronic circuit design for biomedical applications, especially in the area of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR has been used for many years as a spectroscopy technique for analytical chem- istry. Previous studies have demonstrated the design and fabrication of planar spiral inductors (microcoils) that serve as detectors for nuclear magnetic resonance mi- crospectroscopy. The goal of this research was to analyze, design, and test a prototype integrated sensor, which consisted of a similar microcoil detector with analog components to form a multiple-channel front-end for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system to perform microspectroscopy. The research has succeeded in producing good function- ality for a multiple-channel sensor. The sensor met expectations compared to similar one-channel systems through experiments in channel separation and good signal-to- noise ratios.