Introduction: Sentinel lymph node biopsy is an established method used to investigate the riskof lymphatic metastasis especially in breast cancer and melanoma patients. SPECT/ CT isconsidered to be an advantageous method in mapping of sentinel nodes. Aim: The aim of this systematic literature review was to investigate the clinical value ofSPECT/ CT in the detection of sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer patients. Method: Using specific search terms the database PubMed was used to find studies of potentialrelevance for this systematic review. Criteria for inclusions and exclusion were decided todetermine article relevance. Eligibility of articles was determined according to these criteriawhich lead to the selection of the specific articles included in this study. Results: Eleven studies were included in this systematic review. Seven out of 8 studies foundhigher identification rates of sentinel lymph nodes with SPECT/ CT in comparison to planarlymphoscintigraphy. SPECT/ CT could detect additional lymph nodes in 9 out of 9 studies.SPECT/ CT detected additional extra-axillary lymph nodes in 6 out of 7 studies. SPECT/ CTdetected lymph nodes in 9 out of 9 studies where planar lymphoscintigraphy was negative.Information from additional SPECT/ CT lead to changes in surgical treatment plan in 4 out of4 studies. None of the included studies contained information about change in oncologicaltreatment plan due to findings on SPECT/ CT. Conclusion: SPECT/ CT is an imaging technique with much potential as it seems to allow amore accurate SLN mapping and more precise anatomical localization of SLN in breast cancerpatients, specifically in certain clinical situations. Despite this however, the impact of SLNmapping through SPECT/ CT on patient prognosis remains uncertain.

This dissertation presents a unique concept for a device architecture named the nanotube (NT) architecture, which is capable of higher drive current compared to the Gate-All-Around Nanowire architecture when applied to heterostructure Tunnel Field Effect Transistors. Through the use of inner/outer core-shell gates, heterostructure NT TFET leverages physically larger tunneling area thus achieving higher driver current (ION) and saving real estates by eliminating arraying requirement. We discuss the physics of p-type (Silicon/Indium Arsenide) and n-type (Silicon/Germanium hetero-structure) based TFETs. Numerical TCAD simulations have shown that NT TFETs have 5x and 1.6 x higher normalized ION when compared to GAA NW TFET for p and n-type TFETs, respectively. This is due to the availability of larger tunneling junction cross sectional area, and lower Shockley-Reed-Hall recombination, while achieving sub 60 mV/dec performance for more than 5 orders of magnitude of drain current, thus enabling scaling down of Vdd to 0.5 V. This dissertation also introduces a novel thin-film-transistors architecture that is named the Wavy Channel (WC) architecture, which allows for extending device width by integrating vertical fin-like substrate corrugations giving rise to up to 50% larger device width, without occupying extra chip area. The novel architecture shows 2x higher output drive current per unit chip area when compared to conventional planar architecture. The current increase is attributed to both the extra device width and 50% enhancement in field effect mobility due to electrostatic gating effects. Digital circuits are fabricated to demonstrate the potential of integrating WC TFT based circuits. WC inverters have shown 2× the peak-to-peak output voltage for the same input, and ~2× the operation frequency of the planar inverters for the same peak-to-peak output voltage. WC NAND circuits have shown 2× higher peak-to-peak output voltage, and 3× lower high-to-low propagation delay times when compared to their planar counterparts. WC NOR circuits have shown 70% higher peak-to-peak output voltage, over their planar counterparts. Finally, a WC based pass transistor logic multiplexer circuit is demonstrated, which has shown more than 5× faster high-to-low propagation delay compared to its planar counterpart at a similar peak-to-peak output voltage.

This master's thesis describes the development of switching power supply with planar transformer. Deals with selection of a suitable integrated circuit together with the topology, a purchase of prototype for the reference measurements and debugging its own power supply. Further design and implementation of planar transformer and in the final implementation, debugging, and measurment's its own prototype. Power supply was fully functional and reached the expected parameters.

The present work deals with the design and manufacturing of 3D structures in LTCC (Low Temperatue Cofired Ceramics) technology. To use this technology LTCC workplaces have been designed and technological processes for high quality reproducible production were suggested. Technological possibilities of low temperature co-fired ceramics were demonstrated in the design and manufacturing of pressure sensors, electrode systems for ozone generators, planar circuit elements (coils and transformers) and in the design a special package for middle-power terahertz modulator. Design of selected parts of respective devices was proved by simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics. The work provides new insights into the structure of power integrated circuits sleeves and structure of electrode systems for different types of electrical discharges. Results of this work can contribute significantly in the application of planar circuit elements, in the development of different types of sensors, in the design of atypical types of packaging or in the design of electrode systems for capacitive coupled electrical discharges.

Les acides phosphoriques chiraux sont des organocatalyseurs très efficaces qui permettent de catalyser une grande variété de réactions asymétriques. Depuis leur développement en 2004, de nombreux acides phosphoriques à chiralité axiale ou à chiralité centrale ont vu le jour. Cependant, aucun exemple d’acides phosphoriques à chiralité planaire n’avait été reporté.Deux nouvelles familles d’acides phosphoriques à chiralité planaire, possédant un motif paracyclophane et un espaceur ferrocénique ou biphénylène, ont été développées au laboratoire. Les propriétés catalytiques de ces nouvelles familles ont été étudiées, notamment dans la réaction de réduction de quinoléines par les esters de Hantzsch. Une bonne activité et des excès énantiomériques allant jusqu’à 92% ont été obtenus. Ces squelettes à motif paracyclophane ont également été exploités pour développer de nouveaux catalyseurs organométalliques chiraux, qui ont été testés dans des réactions de catalyses organométalliques avec des complexes d’or et de rhodium. / Chiral phosphoric acids as organocatalysts have shown high efficiency and versatility in order to catalyze a lot of reactions. Since their development in 2004, a number of chiral phosphoric acids displaying an axial or a central chirality have been synthesized. Nevertheless, there was no example of planar chiral phosphoric acids.We have developed two new families of planar chiral phosphoric acids, based on a paracyclophane scaffold and displaying a ferrocenic or a biphenylene linker. These phosphoric acids have been evaluated, as organocatalysts, in an organocatalytic reaction of quinolines reduction using Hantzsch esters. Good yields and enantiomeric excess up to 92% have been obtained. These new paracyclophane scaffolds have been used to develop chiral organomelallic catalysts, which have been engaged in gold and rhodium complexes catalysis reactions.

The subject of the master thesis is the extension of the measurement of plasma para- meters by the Langmuir probe in a system with a planar magnetron and a hollow cathode operating in pulse mode. The main tasks are to modify the measuring circuit to increase the maximum probe current and to put the USB oscilloscope into operation for data collection with higher resolution and higher sampling rate. Furthermore, the function of the entire device will be verified using test circuits and also by measuring the probe characteristics in discharges in a system with a magnetron and a hollow cathode in both continuous and pulse mode. 1

Herein, a series of tin and oxidovanadium complexes, as well as a hexanuclear manganese cluster, supported by the bidentate, dianionic perfluoropinacolate (pinF) ligand, {(O(C(CF3)2)2}2−, are reported. While six-coordinate SnIV-pinF complexes (2.1−2.3) were found to be spectroscopically similar to SnO2 (cassiterite), four-coordinate SnII-pinF complexes (2.4−2.5) possess low 119Sn NMR chemical shifts and remarkably high quadrupolar splitting. Additionally, the Sn(II) complexes are unusually unreactive towards both Lewis acids and bases. Computational analysis suggests that this lack of reactivity with Lewis acids arises from the energetic inaccessibility of the HOMO (5s), and the lack of reactivity with Lewis bases is due to donation into the LUMO (5px) by fluorine atoms on the ligand. Furthermore, monomeric and dimeric {VIV=O}- and {VV=O}-pinF complexes (3.1−3.4) were synthesized and characterized, including (Me4N)2[V2(O)2(μ-O)2(pinF)2] (3.3a). Complex 3.3a was found to catalyze the oxidation of several benzyl alcohols at room-temperature under ambient conditions, reproducing reactivity known for VOx surfaces and demonstrating the thermodynamically challenging selective oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes/ketones. Finally, a hexanuclear manganese cluster, {MnIII4MnIV2(pinF)6(OK(THF))4(OH)4}, abbreviated {Mn6} (4.1) which contains four-fold axial symmetry, and its oxidized analog {MnIII3MnIV3(pinF)6(OK(THF))4(OH)4}[PF6] (4.2), were prepared and characterized. High-field EPR measurements of 4.1 confirm a high spin magnetic ground state of ST = 11, corroborating the oxidation state assignments of the manganese centers. While EPR and CTM data suggest the possibility of slow magnetic relaxation for 4.1, field-dependent SQUID magnetometry reveals a lack of magnetic hysteresis, precluding the SMM behavior hypothesized for 4.1.

During development, cells consume energy, divide, rearrange, and die. Bulk properties such as viscosity and elasticity emerge from cell-scale mechanics and dynamics. Order appears, for example in patterns of hair outgrowth, or in the predominately hexagonal pattern of cell boundaries in the wing of a fruit fly. In the past fifty years, much progress has been made in understanding tissues as living materials. However, the physical mechanisms underlying tissue-scale behaviour are not completely understood. Here we apply theories from statistical physics and fluid dynamics to understand mechanics and order in two-dimensional tissues. We restrict our attention to the mechanics and dynamics of cell boundaries and vertices, and to planar polarity, a type of long-ranged order visible in anisotropic patterns of proteins and hair outgrowth. Our principle tool for understanding mechanics and dynamics is a vertex model where cell shapes are represented using polygons. We analytically derive the ground-state diagram of this vertex model, finding it to be dominated by the geometric requirement that cells be polygons, and the topological requirement that those polygons tile the plane. We present a simplified algorithm for cell division and growth, and furthermore derive a dynamic equation for the vertex model, which we use to demonstrate the emergence of quasistatic behaviour in the limit of slow growth. All our results relating to the vertex model are consistent with and build off past calculations and experiments. To investigate the emergence of planar polarity, we develop quantification methods for cell flow and planar polarity based on confocal microscope images of developing fly wings. We analyze cell flow using a velocity gradient tensor, which is uniquely decomposed into terms corresponding to local compression, shear, and rotations. We argue that a pattern in an inhomogeneously flowing tissue will necessarily be reorganized, motivating a hydrodynamic theory of polarity reorientation. Using such a coarse-grained theory of polarity reorientation, we show that the quantified patterns of shear and rotation in the wing are consistent with the observed polarity reorganization, and conclude that cell flow reorients planar polarity in the wing of the fruit fly. Finally, we present a cell-scale model of planar polarity based on the vertex model, unifying the themes of this thesis.

Radio frequency (RF) ion traps based on the quadrupole device developed by Paul and Steinwedel utilize a dynamic electric field to spatially confine the trajectory of charged particles and may be employed as mass spectrometers by selectively ejecting trapped molecules based on the mass to charge ratio. Because of the inherent sensitivity and specificity of this process, ion trap mass spectrometers have become a popular scientific instrument. In the past two decades there has been a push to develop portable ion trap mass spectrometers for in situ mass analysis by geometrically scaling traps to smaller sizes. This decreases the power and vacuum requirements which allows field portable instruments to use smaller/less powerful vacuum pumps and batteries. This dissertation presents the process of miniaturizing the planar linear ion trap (PLIT) to a microscale radius in order to investigate the scaling limits of mass spectrometers. The ultimate end goal is the integration of a PLIT into a portable mass spectrometry system. The PLIT consists of two flat, non-conducting plates, on which fine metal electrodes are patterned using standard microfabrication processes, including photolithography. An RF field is distributed across the electrodes to create a quadrupole electromagnetic potential which traps ions based on their mass to charge ratio. While simple in concept, the PLIT has been developed over a ten-year period including an investigation of a variety of substrate materials and design geometries. This dissertation briefly reviews the optimal fabrication flow and why the stated parameters have advantages over other possible combinations in a coplanar ion trap. Since ion trap miniaturization reduces the trapping volume (which also worsens the SNR and resolution of a mass spectrum), a novel RF phase tracking circuit was developed to exploit a phase locked condition during double resonance ejection. This was implemented on the PLIT to increase SNR before constructing the µPLIT. Better than unit resolutions (0.5 Da, FWHM) and SNR improvements were observed.Lastly, the successful miniaturization of the PLIT to a microscale radius is presented. This was done by redesigning the electrodes on the PLIT surface to have an equivalent trap radius (ro) of 800 μm. The μPLIT successfully confined then resonantly ejected ions with resolutions of approximately 2-3 Da. The performance of the μPLIT was also tested over a range of pressures from 2.5-42×10-3 Torr and retained resolutions between 2.3-2.7 Da. Ultimately, the μPLIT was shown to retain resolutions viable for portable mass spectrometry at pressures in the tens of millitorr while consuming a factor of 3.38 less power than the unscaled PLIT.

In this thesis we will focus on a problem of length bounded cut, also known as L-bounded cut. We are going to show a combinatorial algorithm for finding a minimal L-bounded cut on graphs with bounded treewidth based on dynamic programming. Then we going to show that this algorithm can also be used for finding minimal L-bounded cut on plannar graphs. We are also going to look at problem of (dG(s, t) + 1)-bounded cut. This problem is known to be NP-hard for general graphs. But it is an open problem whether this problem is also NP-hard on plannar graphs with special vertices on the outer face. We will try to outline a way, which might lead to showing that this problem is solvable in a polynomial time.