Natural Scene Statistics (NSS) provide powerful perceptually relevant tools that have been successfully used for image quality analysis of visible light images. NSS capture statistical regularities that arise in the physical world and thus are relevant to Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) images. LWIR images are similar to visible light images and mainly differ by the wavelengths captured by the sensors. The distortions unique to LWIR are of particular interest to current researchers. We analyze a few common LWIR distortions and how they relate to NSS models. Humans are the most important factor for assessing distortion and quality in IR images, which are often used in perceptual tasks. Therefore, predicting human performance when a task involving LWIR images needs to be performed can be critical to improving task efficacy. The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) characterizes human Targeting Task Performance (TTP) by asking firefighters to identify the locations of fire hazards in LWIR images under distorted conditions. We find that task performance can be predicted using NSS features. We also report the results of a human study. We analyzed the NSS of LWIR images under pristine and distorted conditions using four databases of LWIR images. Each database was captured with a different camera allowing us to better evaluate the statistics of LWIR images independent of camera model. We find that models of NSS are also effective for measuring distortions in the presence of other independent distortions. / text

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Nitrogen-rich materials are of increasing interests for the development of a wide variety of applications. These compounds are prime candidates for ligands used in the complexation of metals since they possess several lone pairs. Resulting complexes have also exhibited a wide variety of interesting properties, ranging from magnetism to gas absorption to energetic properties. This thesis describes the synthesis and characterisation of new metallic complexes with the known energetic ligands: hydrazine and H3bta, as well as that of a new nitrogen-rich compound: H4ttp. Chapter 2 outlines a series of chains bridged by hydrazine and their potential as initiatory compounds. Mononuclear lanthanide H3bta complexes are presented in Chapter 3. The development of the new nitrogen-rich, tetrazole-based H4ttp ligand is described in Chapter 4. This new ligand was used to synthesise various lanthanide complexes through hydrothermal reactions.

One of the most crucial factors that e-commerce protocols should address is a fair exchange. In this research, an advanced method of cryptography coupled with the pay per use technique is used. A new electronic commerce protocol for the exchange of commodities is introduced. The proposed new protocol guarantees both features while addressing the main drawbacks associated with other related protocols. The new suggested e-commerce protocol is composed of two stages: pre-exchange and exchange stages. When the suggested new protocol is analysed with scrupulous protocol analysis, it attains fair exchange and a secure method of payment. The suggested new e-commerce protocol is more efficient than other related existing protocols. In this research “protocol prototype” and “model checking” is used for the purpose of authentication. The protocol prototype verifies that the suggested new protocol is executable when it's used in a real context. By experimental designs, this research shows the length of asymmetric keys as the biggest element that affects the efficiency of the protocol. When model-checking is applied in this protocol, the outcome indicates that the suggested protocol achieves the required features of fairness. Protocol extensions give those involved in the protocol the capacity to be resilient to failure. By using three methods of authentication, this research confirms that the new proposed protocol is well formulated. The work reported in this thesis first study the existing fair exchange protocols that solve the fairness problem. Then, propose more efficient protocol to solve the fairness problem. The original idea in this thesis is to reduce the communication overheads, risks and solve the bottleneck problems in the protocols that involve an online TTP.

<p>Post-transcriptional regulation of cytoplasmic mRNAs is an efficient mechanism of regulating the amounts of active protein within a eukaryotic cell. RNA sequence elements located in the untranslated regions of mRNAs can influence transcript degradation or translation through associations with RNA-binding proteins. Tristetraprolin (TTP) is the best known member of a family of CCCH zinc finger proteins that targets adenosine-uridine rich element (ARE) binding sites in the 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNAs, promoting transcript deadenylation through the recruitment of deadenylases. More specifically, TTP has been shown to bind AREs located in the 3’-UTRs of transcripts with known roles in the inflammatory response. The mRNA-binding region of the protein is the highly conserved CCCH tandem zinc finger (TZF) domain. The synthetic TTP TZF domain has been shown to bind with high affinity to the 13-mer sequence of UUUUAUUUAUUUU. However, the binding affinities of full-length TTP family members to the same sequence and its variants are unknown. Furthermore, the distance needed between two overlapping or neighboring UUAUUUAUU 9-mers for tandem binding events of a full-length TTP family member to a target transcript has not been explored. To address these questions, we recombinantly expressed and purified the full-length C. albicans TTP family member Zfs1. Using full-length Zfs1, tagged at the N-terminus with maltose binding protein (MBP), we determined the binding affinities of the protein to the optimal TTP binding sequence, UUAUUUAUU. Fluorescence anisotropy experiments determined that the binding affinities of MBP-Zfs1 to non-canonical AREs were influenced by ionic buffer strength, suggesting that transcript selectivity may be affected by intracellular conditions. Furthermore, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) revealed that separation of two core AUUUA sequences by two uridines is sufficient for tandem binding of MBP-Zfs1. Finally, we found evidence for tandem binding of MBP-Zfs1 to a 27-base RNA oligonucleotide containing only a single ARE-binding site, and showed that this was concentration and RNA length dependent; this phenomenon had not been seen previously. These data suggest that the association of the TTP TZF domain and the TZF domains of other species, to ARE-binding sites is highly conserved. Domains outside of the TZF domain may mediate transcript selectivity in changing cellular conditions, and promote protein-RNA interactions not associated with the ARE-binding TZF domain. </p><p>In summary, the evidence presented here suggests that Zfs1-mediated decay of mRNA targets may require additional interactions, in addition to ARE-TZF domain associations, to promote transcript destabilization and degradation. These studies further our understanding of post-transcriptional steps in gene regulation.</p> / Dissertation

ITC/USA 2013 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Ninth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 21-24, 2013 / Bally's Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV / In modern aircraft there is a proliferation of avionics buses. Some of these buses use industry wide standards such as ARINC 429 or AFDX while others are based on proprietary protocols. For many of the newer bus types there can be thousands of parameters on each bus. In a distributed data acquisition system the flight test engineer needs to record all of the data from each bus and monitor selected parameters in real time. There are numerous different approaches to acquiring, transmitting and recording data from avionics buses. In modern FTI there is also a proliferation of standards for recording and transmission including IRIG 106 Chapter 10, iNET and IENA. In this paper some common approaches to bus monitoring are compared and contrasted for popular buses such as ARINC 429, AFDX and Time Triggered Protocol. For each bus type the best approach is selected for reliable acquisition, speed of configuration, low latency telemetry and compact recording which is optimized for playback.

The tristetraprolin family consists of mRNA destabilizing genes that bind to target mRNA and degrade them. In this context, TIS11 gene family is of primary interest in the spontaneous fetal loss seen in pigs. I hypothesized that the tristetraprolin family regulates these genes in this model. Higher levels of the TIS11 family transcripts in endometrium and trophoblast samples from healthy conceptuses at gd20 were found than in tissues from arresting conceptus attachment sites and significantly higher levels of TIS11 family transcripts were expressed in trophoblast samples associated with arresting conceptuses at gd50 compared to healthy endometrium and trophoblast. TIS11 proteins were expressed and localized at both maternal and fetal sides of maternal-fetal interface. These results provide a basis for understanding some aspects of gene regulation by mRNA destabilizing factors such as tristetraprolin at the maternal-fetal interface and how these factors may play a role in porcine pregnancy and fetal loss. / Department of Biomedical Sciences, NSERC, Ontario Pork, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc.

Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a plasma glycoprotein that can bind collagen at a wound site as well as circulating platelets. VWF forms high molecular weight multimers (>20,000 kDa). VWF can also form VWF strings that appear to be attached to the endothelial surface and are capable of binding platelets. These strings are only observed in vitro and in vivo in the absence of the VWF-cleaving protease ADAMTS13. Deficiency in ADAMTS13 results in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a clotting disorder characterized by thrombocytopenia, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, renal dysfunction, neurological dysfunction and fever. Patients suffering from TTP demonstrate VWF-and platelet-rich thrombi in the microvasculature of numerous organ systems, but most notably in the kidneys, heart, and brain. While VWF strings have not been directly connected to TTP, their presence in vivo was only identified with the ADAMTS13 knockout mouse (a model of TTP), suggesting a possible relationship. Recently we identified glycerol as an agent, similar to histamine, that triggers the formation of VWF strings in vitro. We found that glycerol and histamine trigger TTP in an ADAMTS13-deficient mouse model. In addition, we determined conditions in vitro that promote the formation of dense VWF networks. These networks of VWF can be greater than 70 μm thick and appear to be able to form fibers as long as several millimeters in length. These networks have not been previously identified and may underlie a possible mechanism by which VWF-rich thrombi form in TTP. These networks were formed solely from cultured endothelial cells, leading us to believe that endothelial cells alone are capable of producing more VWF than perhaps previously appreciated. These data suggest that secretion of VWF from the endothelium may play an important role in the pathophysiology of TTP.

Genetic Algorithm (GA) as a class of Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) is a search algorithm based on the mechanics of natural selection and natural genetics. This dissertation presents the description, solving procedures and application of GA. The definitions of selection, crossover and mutation operators are given in details and an application based on GA in Time Table Problem (TTP) is performed in a new way. Due to its high capability of overall search, GA is particularly appropriate for solving timetabling and scheduling problems. TTP (Time Table Problem) which belongs to NP-hard problem is a special problem concerning resource management. In this dissertation, a new chromosome coding is designed in order to solve TTP more effectively. And the result presented by MATLAB will converge to a steady condition.

TTP protocol for managing hierarchy trees of the RTCP feedback channel represents the mechanism for transferring the big amount of data from end users via the “narrow” feedback channel. We are not speaking about thousands of users but about millions of users, which are using services like IPTV. The method of a data summarization is used for this purpose in selected network nodes. The summarized message is transferred and summarized again in higher levels of the hierarchical tree. Both methods allow reducing the amount of data and help to increase information content transferred via the feedback channel. Finding of the correct end user position in a network is also very important aspect. The user must be able to find the closest summarization node with this information and starts sending out the messages to this node for processing. There are several methods for constructing and managing the asynchronous feedback channel that are introduced in this work.