Receptor occupancy assessed by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) can provide important translational information to help bridge information from one drug to another or from animal to man. The aim of this thesis was to develop nonlinear mixed effects methods for estimation of the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy for the two mGluR5 antagonists AZD9272 and AZD2066 and for the 5HT1B receptor antagonist AZD3783. Also the optimal design for improved estimation of the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy as well as for improved dose finding in neuropathic pain treatment, was investigated. Different modeling approaches were applied. For AZD9272, the radioligand kinetics and receptor occupancy was simultaneously estimated using arterial concentrations as input function and including two brain regions of interest. For AZD2066, a model was developed where brain/plasma partition coefficients from ten different brain regions were included simultaneously as observations. For AZD3783, the simplified reference tissue model was extended to allow different non-specific binding in the reference region and brain regions of interest and the possibility of using white matter as reference was also evaluated. The optimal dose-selection for improved precision of receptor occupancy as well as for improved precision of the minimum effective dose of a neuropathic pain treatment was assessed, using the D-optimal as well as the Ds-optimal criteria. Simultaneous modelling of radioligand and occupancy provided a means to avoid simplifications or approximations and provided the possibility to tests or to relax assumptions. Inclusion of several brain regions of different receptor density simultaneously in the analysis, markedly improved the precision of the affinity parameter. Higher precision was achieved in relevant parameters with designs based on the Ds compared to the D-optimal criterion. The optimal design for improved precision of the relationship between dose and receptor occupancy depended on the number of brain regions and the receptor density of these regions. In conclusion, this thesis presents novel non-linear mixed effects models estimating the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy, providing useful translational information, allowing for a better informed drug-development.

As habitat loss and fragmentation are major causes of decline in animal species, studying habitat requirements in these species is a key component of their recovery. I investigated the relationship between landscape composition and habitat use of Blanding’s turtles, Emydoidea blandingii, a freshwater turtle threatened by habitat loss and road mortality on most of its Canadian range. In 2010, I conducted a radio-telemetry survey of 44 Blanding’s turtles in southern Québec, Canada, and modelled their home range size from land cover proportions measured at many spatial scales. I also used data from a visual survey conducted in 2008 and 2009 to model wetland occupancy of the species at the landscape scale. Home range size of the Blanding’s turtle was significantly correlated to landscape composition, and the proportions of agriculture, open water and anthropogenic lands had the strongest relationships with home range size. However, those relationships were weak and the models were unable to predict home range size accurately. At the landscape scale, land cover and road density poorly predicted probability of occurrence, and Blanding’s turtles occupied wetlands in both disturbed and natural sites. Management of the species should focus on protecting sites of occurrence with high wetland density, low road density, and sufficient suitable habitat to cover their seasonal movement patterns.

It is well established that acquiring large amounts of range data with vision sensors can quickly lead to important data management challenges where processing capabilities become saturated and pre-empt full usage of the information available for autonomous systems to make educated decisions. While sub-sampling offers a naïve solution for reducing dataset dimension after acquisition, it does not capitalize on the knowledge available in already acquired data to selectively and dynamically drive the acquisition process over the most significant regions in a scene, the latter being generally characterized by variations in depth and surface shape in the context of 3D imaging. This thesis discusses the development of two formal improvement measures, the first based upon surface meshes and Ordinary Kriging that focuses on improving scene accuracy, and the second based upon probabilistic occupancy grids that focuses on improving scene coverage. Furthermore, three selection processes to automatically choose which locations within the field of view of a range sensor to acquire next are proposed based upon the two formal improvement measures. The first two selection processes each use only one of the proposed improvement measures. The third selection process combines both improvement measures in order to counterbalance the parameters of the accuracy of knowledge about the scene and the coverage of the scene. The proposed algorithms mainly target applications using random access range sensors, defined as sensors that can acquire depth measurements at a specified location within their field of view. Additionally, the algorithms are applicable to the case of estimating the improvement and point selection from within a single point of view, with the purpose of guiding the random access sensor to locations it can acquire. However, the framework is developed to be independent of the range sensing technology used, and is validated with range data of several scenes acquired from many different sensors employing various sensing technologies and configurations. Furthermore, the experimental results of the proposed selection processes are compared against those produced by a random sampling process, as well as a neural gas selective sensing algorithm.

The introduction of building management systems in large buildings have improved the control of building services and provided energy savings. However, current building management systems are limited by the physical level of integration of the building's services and the lack of intelligence provided in the control algorithms. This thesis proposes a new approach to the design and operation of building management systems using rule-based artificial intelligence techniques. The main aim of is to manage the services in the building in a more co-ordinated and intelligent manner than is possible by conventional techniques. This approach also aims to reduce the operational cost of the building by automatically tuning the energy consumption in accordance with occupancy profile of the building. A rule-based design methodology is proposed for building management systems. The design adopts the integrated structure made possible by the introduction of a common communications network for building services. The 'intelligence' is coded in the form of rules in such a way that it is both independent of any specific building description and easy to facilitate subsequent modification and addition. This is achieved using an object-oriented approach and classifying the range of data available into defined classes. The rules are divided into two knowledge-bases which are concerned with the building's control and its facilities management respectively. A wide range of rule-based features are proposed to operate on this data structure and are classified in terms of the data classes on which they operate. The concepts presented in this thesis were evaluated using software simulations, mathematical analysis and some hardware implementation. The conclusions of this work are that a rule-based building management system could provide significant enhancements over existing systems in terms of energy savings and improvements for both the building's management staff and its occupants.

A methodology for the measurement of the radio frequency environment close to the radio noise floor is presented for urban, suburban and rural areas within New Zealand for the purposes of characterisation and trend monitoring by radio spectrum managers. Flux density measurements in bands within a range of frequencies from 80 MHz to 8 GHz have been made in urban, suburban and rural areas of New Zealand during 2007 and 2008. An analysis of the band occupancy is presented in summary form. These summaries are intended as a starting point for radio spectrum usage and can be used as a reference for any future measurements. A description of the computer directories and charts resulting from these measurements, using 20 MHz bandwidths have also been included. All the results for the work have been collated in a set of computer directories named “NZRFI Directories 2007 2008”, which are intended as a reference for use in the determination of local activity in particular frequency ranges. A disc with the full range measurement spectral density charts and channel occupancy charts accompanies this work. Also included on the disc are sets of 20 MHz band charts for some urban, suburban and rural location measurements.

A methodology for the measurement of the radio frequency environment close to the radio noise floor is presented for urban, suburban and rural areas within New Zealand for the purposes of characterisation and trend monitoring by radio spectrum managers. Flux density measurements in bands within a range of frequencies from 80 MHz to 8 GHz have been made in urban, suburban and rural areas of New Zealand during 2007 and 2008. An analysis of the band occupancy is presented in summary form. These summaries are intended as a starting point for radio spectrum usage and can be used as a reference for any future measurements. A description of the computer directories and charts resulting from these measurements, using 20 MHz bandwidths have also been included. All the results for the work have been collated in a set of computer directories named “NZRFI Directories 2007 2008”, which are intended as a reference for use in the determination of local activity in particular frequency ranges. A disc with the full range measurement spectral density charts and channel occupancy charts accompanies this work. Also included on the disc are sets of 20 MHz band charts for some urban, suburban and rural location measurements.

A methodology for the measurement of the radio frequency environment close to the radio noise floor is presented for urban, suburban and rural areas within New Zealand for the purposes of characterisation and trend monitoring by radio spectrum managers. Flux density measurements in bands within a range of frequencies from 80 MHz to 8 GHz have been made in urban, suburban and rural areas of New Zealand during 2007 and 2008. An analysis of the band occupancy is presented in summary form. These summaries are intended as a starting point for radio spectrum usage and can be used as a reference for any future measurements. A description of the computer directories and charts resulting from these measurements, using 20 MHz bandwidths have also been included. All the results for the work have been collated in a set of computer directories named “NZRFI Directories 2007 2008”, which are intended as a reference for use in the determination of local activity in particular frequency ranges. A disc with the full range measurement spectral density charts and channel occupancy charts accompanies this work. Also included on the disc are sets of 20 MHz band charts for some urban, suburban and rural location measurements.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.

Thesis (M. S.)--City and Regional Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Member: Amekudzi, Adjo; Committee Member: Guensler, Randall; Committee Member: Ross, Catherine.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes special report study entitled : Lighting : space and material. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.