A thesis submitted to the College of Dental Medicine of Nova Southeastern University of the degree of Master of Science in Dentistry. Introduction: One of the challenges in orthodontics is obtaining desired tooth movement. A recent development in orthodontics offers patients more comfort by minimizing pain, and shortening the treatment time. Low level laser therapy (LLLT) emerged as a technology that may accelerate the velocity of tooth movement and shorten the orthodontic treatment period. LLLT (630-1000nm) has been shown to modulate various biological processes including wound healing and bone remodeling. Bone remodeling is one of the biological processes that ensue during tooth movement. Bone remodeling is a continuous process characterized by bone deposition at sites of tension and bone resorption on the pressure sites. At cellular level bone remodeling is regulated by receptor activator of NF-κB (RANK) and receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) and Osteoprotegrin (OPG). RANK and RANKL promotes osteoclastic differentiation and promotes bone resorption. OPG is a soluble decoy receptor that competes with RANK for binding to RANKL and inhibits the osteoclastic activity. The goal of the research is to understand the regulatory effects of LLLT on bone metabolism at the cellular level. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the critical parameters of low level lasers on the early stage of ostegenic regulation of human osteoblast cells. In this study, CRL-1427 cells derived from human osteosarcoma which have an osteoblast phenotype were used as cell model. Methods: Human osteoblast cells CRL1427(ATCC, Manassas, VA) were cultured in minimum essential medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and 1% antibiotics and incubated in at 37°C with 5% CO2. The monolayer of cells after reaching 70-80% confluency were irradiated with a single dose of Galium Aluminum Arsenide (Ga-Al-As) laser, with a wave length of 830nm and output power of 85mW with 0.6, 1.5, 1.8 Joules/cm2 energy exposure regimes. The mRNA expressions of Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Osteoprotegerin (OPG), RANKL and RANK were compared after seven days by quantitative real time PCR. Results: We observed that treatment of CRL 1427 cells with LLLT (1.5, 1.8 Joules/cm2) irradiation significantly increased the expression of ALP, OPG, RANKL and RANK mRNAs compared to the control group (P≤0.05). There was no significant difference between the control group and mRNA expression of ALP, OPG, RANK, or RANKL at 0.6J/cm2of irradiation. Conclusion: LLLT irradiation can directly influence the expression of genes associated with bone metabolism and potentially represents a mechanism that facilitates rapid bone remodeling.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第20259号 / 医博第4218号 / 新制||医||1020(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 渡邉 大, 教授 林 康紀, 教授 髙橋 良輔 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

With the complex composition of the radioisotopes and waste materials, the characterization of the volumetric low-level wastes from CANDU plants is challenging. This study presents a technique to localize and quantify the contaminations presented in the CANDU waste containers. MCNP-based models are developed for an N-type coaxial HPGe detector and a LaBr3 detector to simulate the photon peak information. The simulated efficiency and the experimental count rates are combined to estimate the activity of unknown waste samples. During the spectrum collection of a 4L Marinelli beaker source and 1-quart waste samples, the MCNP algorithm showed better accuracy in activity estimation than the Mirion ISOCS/LabSOCS software. With further development, this method has the potential to outperform the popular commercial software in estimating activity for volume sources with complex geometry and uneven distribution. The multi-detector array models with hotspot designs are also studied in this work to provide real-time information about the location and activity of the contamination inside the 2.2 m3 industrial low-level waste containers. The on-site measurements show promising results as the position of the contamination was able to be located within a volume of 61×40×34 cm. Overall, this technique has good potential to be utilized in the nuclear industry for large-volume low-level waste analysis. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

An important post-9/11 objective has been to connect law enforcement agencies so they can share information that is routinely collected by police. This low-level information, gathered from sources such as traffic tickets, calls for service, incident reports and field contacts, is not widely shared but might account for as much as 97% of the data held in police records systems. U.S. policy and law assume that access to this information advances crime control and counterterrorism efforts. The scarcity of functioning systems has limited research opportunities to test this assumption or offer guidance to police leaders considering investments in information sharing. However, this study had access to FINDER, a Florida system that shares low-level data among 121 police agencies. The user-level value of FINDER was empirically examined using Goodhue's (1995) Task-Technology Fit framework. Objective system data from 1,352 users, user-reported "successes," and a survey of 402 active users helped define parameters of user-level success. Of the users surveyed, 68% reported arrests or case clearances, 71% reported improved performance, and 82% reported improved efficiency attributed to FINDER. Regression models identified system use, task-fit, and user characteristic measures that predicted changes in users' individual performance. A key finding was that FINDER affirmed the importance of sharing low-level police data, and successful outcomes were related to its ease of use and access to user-specified datasets. Also, users employed a variety of information-seeking techniques that were related to their task assignments. Improved understanding of user-defined success and system use techniques can inform the design and functionality of information sharing systems. Further, this study contributes to addressing the critical requirement for developing information sharing system metrics.

Within cosmology, there are two entirely independent pillars which can jointly drive this field towards precision: Astronomical observations of primordial element abundances and the detailed surveying of the cosmic microwave background. However, the comparatively large uncertainty stemming from the nuclear physics input is currently still hindering this effort, i.e. stemming from the 2H(p,γ)3He reaction. An accurate understanding of this reaction is required for precision data on primordial nucleosynthesis and an independent determination of the cosmological baryon density. Elsewhere, our Sun is an exceptional object to study stellar physics in general. While we are now able to measure solar neutrinos live on earth, there is a lack of knowledge regarding theoretical predictions of solar neutrino fluxes due to the limited precision (again) stemming from nuclear reactions, i.e. from the 3He(α,γ)7Be reaction. This thesis sheds light on these two nuclear reactions, which both limit our understanding of the universe. While the investigation of the 2H(p,γ)3He reaction will focus on the determination of its cross- section in the vicinity of the Gamow window for the Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the main aim for the 3He(α,γ)7Be reaction will be a measurement of its γ-ray angular distribution at astrophysically relevant energies. In addition, the installation of an ultra-low background counting setup will be reported which further enables the investigation of the physics of rare events. This is essential for modern nuclear astrophysics, but also relevant for double beta decay physics and the search for dark matter. The presented setup is now the most sensitive in Germany and among the most sensitive ones worldwide.

No description available.

Visual tracking is one of the most important applications of computer vision. Several tracking systems have been developed which either focus mainly on the tracking of targets moving on a plane, or attempt to reduce the 3-dimensional tracking problem to the tracking of a set of characteristic points of the target. These approaches are seriously handicapped in complex visual situations, particularly those involving significant perspective, textures, repeating patterns, or occlusion. This dissertation describes a new approach to visual tracking for monocular and binocular image sequences, and for both passive and active cameras. The method combines Kalman-type prediction with steepest-descent search for correspondences, using 2-dimensional affine mappings between images. This approach differs significantly from many recent tracking systems, which emphasize the recovery of 3-dimensional motion and/or structure of objects in the scene. We argue that 2-dimensional area-based matching is sufficient in many situations of interest, and we present experimental results with real image sequences to illustrate the efficacy of this approach. Image matching between two images is a simple one to one mapping, if there is no occlusion. In the presence of occlusion wrong matching is inevitable. Few approaches have been developed to address this issue. This dissertation considers the effect of occlusion on tracking a moving object for both monocular and binocular image sequences. The visual tracking system described here attempts to detect occlusion based on the residual error computed by the matching method. If the residual matching error exceeds a user-defined threshold, this means that the tracked object may be occluded by another object. When occlusion is detected, tracking continues with the predicted locations based on Kalman filtering. This serves as a predictor of the target position until it reemerges from the occlusion again. Although the method uses a constant image velocity Kalman filtering, it has been shown to function reasonably well in a non-constant velocity situation. Experimental results show that tracking can be maintained during periods of substantial occlusion. The area-based approach to image matching often involves correlation-based comparisons between images, and this requires the specification of a size for the correlation windows. Accordingly, a new approach based on moment invariants was developed to select window size adaptively. This approach is based on the sudden increasing or decreasing in the first Maitra moment invariant. We applied a robust regression model to smooth the first Maitra moment invariant to make the method robust against noise. This dissertation also considers the effect of spatial quantization on several moment invariants. Of particular interest are the affine moment invariants, which have emerged, in recent years as a useful tool for image reconstruction, image registration, and recognition of deformed objects. Traditional analysis assumes moments and moment invariants for images that are defined in the continuous domain. Quantization of the image plane is necessary, because otherwise the image cannot be processed digitally. Image acquisition by a digital system imposes spatial and intensity quantization that, in turn, introduce errors into moment and invariant computations. This dissertation also derives expressions for quantization-induced error in several important cases. Although it considers spatial quantization only, this represents an important extension of work by other researchers. A mathematical theory for a visual tracking approach of a moving object is presented in this dissertation. This approach can track a moving object in an image sequence where the camera is passive, and when the camera is actively controlled. The algorithm used here is computationally cheap and suitable for real-time implementation. We implemented the proposed method on an active vision system, and carried out experiments of monocular and binocular tracking for various kinds of objects in different environments. These experiments demonstrated that very good performance using real images for fairly complicated situations. / Ph. D.

Laser application in the field of biological and medical sciences has significantly grown, thereby strengthening the field of Biophotonics. Research conducted in Biophotonics focuses on the concept of using light especially in the visible and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic radiation for the evaluation of living systems. In this thesis new discoveries are presented about low level laser therapy, optical trapping, transmission spectroscopy, luminescence spectroscopy and structured illumination microscopy (SIM), displaying the impact each technique has on HIV infected cells. The results showed that the irradiation of HIV-1 infected TZM-bl cells with low power red laser reduces HIV-1 infection. The outcomes of this study further proved that when irradiation is used in conjunction with efavirenz, an antiretroviral drug, HIV-1 infection could be reduced to undetectable levels in TZM-bl cells. Through the coupling of transmission spectroscopy with optical trapping, and separately, use of luminescence spectroscopy, label free diagnosis of HIV in infected cell samples was achieved. This finding affirms that HIV-1 infection can be detected in a label free manner when using laser based techniques. Furthermore, the photoluminescence spectrometer system was employed to generate a decay curve, which was necessary so as to have some understanding on lifetime of the luminescent signal in infected TZM-bl cells. Finally, in order to confirm that indeed TZM-bl cells were infected, an established super-resolution microscopy system SIM was used to detect HIV-1 infection in TZM-bl cells. Indeed in the infected cells viral molecules p24 and gp41 were detected through SIM, while they were not detected in uninfected cells. In future studies, super resolution microscopy would be coupled to an optical trapping system in order to confirm that each trapped cells is whether infected or uninfected so as to improve HIV diagnosis. / College of Science, Engineering and Technology / Ph. D. (Science, Engineering and Technology)

Test av informationssystem är en viktig del inom systemutvecklingsprocessen för att minimera felaktigheter och förbättra tillförlitligheten av system. Trafikverkets IT enhet hade ett fastställt och strukturerat testarbete för high-level test däremot hade de inte ett fastställt strukturerat testarbete inom low-level test. Vi fick i uppdrag att undersöka metoder och arbetssätt som fanns inom low-level test. Vi skulle också jämföra system som genomgått ett strukturerat testarbete inom low- och high-level test mot system som genomgått ostrukturerat low-level test och strukturerat high-level test. Målet med examensarbetet var att föreslå lämpliga metoder och arbetsätt inom low-level test för Trafikverkets IT enhet. Målet var också att ge en rekommendation ifall ett strukturerat testarbete inom low- och high-level var att rekommendera i jämförelse mot system som genomgått ostrukturerat low-level test och strukturerat high-level test. Genom litterära studier och intervjuer med Trafikverkets resurser genomförde vi vår undersökning och kom fram till vårt resultat.Vår rekommendation för Trafikverket IT var att de ska använda sig utav testdriven utveckling eftersom utvecklarna var osäkra på vad som skulle testas och metoden skulle klargöra detta. Dessutom ville de ha valmöjligheter och riktlinjer som skulle ge dem en mer bestämd arbetsstruktur. Vi rekommenderar också en anpassning av Self-Governance ramverket där aktiviteter väljs ut för varje projekt av en metodansvarig eller projektansvarig (Scrum Master) som bestämmer vilka aktiviteter som ska utföras på individ- och gruppnivå. / Testing of information systems is an essential part of the system development process to minimize errors and improve the reliability of systems. Trafikverket IT unit had a structured testing in the test phase high-level, however, they had not a structured testing in the development phase, low-level tests. We were assigned to examine methods and working methods in low-level test. We also would compare systems that had undergone a structuredtesting in low-and high-level test against systems that had undergone an unstructured low-leveltest and structured high-level test.The goal of the thesis was to propose appropriate method/methods in low-level test for Trafikverket IT unit. The goal was also to make a recommendation if a structured testing in low-and high-level were to be recommended in comparison with systems that had undergone unstructured low-level test and structured high-level test. Through literary studies and interviews with Trafikverket employees we reached our result. Our recommendation for Trafikverket IT is that they should use test-driven development because developers were unsure of what should be tested and the method would make thisclear. The developers also wanted to have options and guidelines that would give them a definite work structure. We also recommend an adaptation of the Self-Governance frameworkfrom where activities can be selected from each project manager (Scrum Master) that determines which activities will be performed in individual- and group level for each project.