Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Integration Of Mri In Radiation Therapy: Collaboration Of Radiographers And Radiation Therapists, Robba Rai, Shivani Kumar, Vikneswary Batumalai, Doaa Elwadia, Lucy Ohanessian, Ewa Juresic, Lynette Cassapi, Shalini K. Vinod, Lois C. Holloway, Paul J. Keall, Gary P. Liney

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The increased utilisation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in radiation therapy (RT) has led to the implementation of MRI simulators for RT treatment planning and influenced the development of MRI-guided treatment systems. There is extensive literature on the advantages of MRI for tumour volume and organ-at-risk delineation compared to computed tomography. MRI provides both anatomical and functional information for RT treatment planning (RTP) as well as quantitative information to assess tumour response for adaptive treatment. Despite many advantages of MRI in RT, introducing an MRI simulator into a RT department is a challenge. Collaboration between radiographers and radiation therapists is …

Radiation Response And Basic Dosimetric Characterisation Of The 'Magic Plate', Z A. Alrowaili, Michael L. F Lerch, Marco Petasecca, Martin G. Carolan, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Two Dimensional (2D) silicon diode arrays are often implemented in radiation therapy quality assurance (QA) applications due to their advantages such as: real-time operation (compared to the films), large dynamic range and small size (compared to ionization chambers). The Centre for Medical Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong has developed a multifunctional 2D silicon diode array known as the Magic Plate (MP) for real-time applications and is suitable as a transmission detector for photon flunce mapping (MPTM) or for in phantom dose mapping (MPDM). The paper focusses on the characterisation of the MPDM in terms of output factor and square field …

Effect Of Scattered Electrons On The 'Magic Plate' Transmission Array Detector Response, Z A. Alrowaili, Michael L. F Lerch, Marco Petasecca, Martin G. Carolan, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Transmission type detectors can provide a measure of the energy fluence and if they are real-time systems that do not significantly attenuate the radiation beam have a distinct advantage over the current method as Quality Assurance (QA) could in principle be done during the actual patient treatment. The use of diode arrays in QA holds much promise due to real-time operation and feedback when compared to other methods e.g. films which are not real-time. The goal of this work is to describe the characterization of the radiation response of a silicon diode array called the Magic Plate (MP) when operated …

Improvement Of The Sign Determination Method For Data-Driven Respiratory Signal In Tof-Pet, Ottavia Bertolli, Simon R. Arridge, Charles Stearns, Scott Wollenweber, Brian F. Hutton, Kris Thielemans

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Respiratory gating and motion correction can increase resolution in PET chest imaging, but require a respiratory signal. Data-Driven (DD) methods aim to produce a respiratory signal from PET data, avoiding the use of external devices. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is an easy to implement DD algorithm whose signals, however, are determined up to an arbitrary factor. The direction of the motion represented by its signal has to be determined. In this work we present the extension to TOF data of a previously presented sign-determination method. Furthermore, we propose the application of a selection process in sinogram space, to automatically select …

Regional Variation In Rates Of Ivf Treatment Across Australia: A Population-Based Study, Louise Rawlings, Pauline Y. O'Shaughnessy, Stephen Robson

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Background: There is variation in uptake of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) between countries, and Australia has high incidence rates of IVF due to universal public funding. However, it remains unclear whether there is regional variation and, if present, what might cause this. Objectives: We sought to determine whether regional variations in treatment rates existed and what might influence these. Methods: The number of cycles of fresh IVF and intrauterine insemination (IUI) for women were obtained for the period 2011 until 2014 in two age groups (25 to 34 years and 35 to 44 years) to calculate incidence rates. Proxy indicators …

Gas Reservoir And Emission Modelling To Evaluate Gas Drainage To Control Tailgate Gas Concentrations And Fugitive Emissions, Dennis J. Black

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The process of longwall coal extraction coal causes fractures in the overlying and underlying strata and these fractures become pathways for gas released from adjacent coal seams to flow into the mine workings and contaminate the ventilation air. If the rate of gas emission exceeds the diluting capacity of the ventilation air, the gas concentration will increase and exceed the statutory limit resulting in production delays.All potential gas sources within the planned mining area, including coal seams located above and below the working seam, should be identified and sufficient gas data collected and used to determine the specific gas emission …

Editorial For The Special Issue On The Insights And Advancements In Microfluidics, Say Tan, Heng Xi, Weihua Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

No abstract provided.

Applying The Genetic Algorithm For Determination Electrospinning Parameters Of Poly Vinylidene Fluoride (Pvdf) Nano Fibers: Theoretical & Experimental Analysis, Fatemeh Mokhtari, Masoud Latifi, Mahnaz Shamshirsaz

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Poly Vinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) because of its piezoelectric properties has been applied in different applications such as smart textiles, medical application and membranes for energy harvesting. It was declared that nanofibres diameters and electrospinning parameters could be enhanced the piezoelectric properties of these materials. The main objective of this paper is applying the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to determine the optimum condition of solution parameters and processing conditions based on the desired diameter size of PVDF fibers to produce the fibers without any structural faults. In this method, The Fitness function was determined by a simple analytical model presented by Fridrikh. …

Flow Resistance Over Submerged Vegetation In Ecological Channel, Yu Han, Shu-Qing Yang, Liu-Chao Qiu, Nadeesha Chamini Dharmasiri

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

A discussion of flow resistance in ecological channel is a fundamental problem required by hydraulic engineers, but the well-established flow resistance mechanism is still not well discovered. This research studies on flow over submerged vegetation in ecological channel to explain mechanism of flow resistance on rough surfaces. With a detailed discussion, this research separates total resistance and unlike previous research, this study pays attention to the variation in vortices created by roughness, and new definitions of hydraulic radius and Reynolds Number are given. This study validated the proposed method can be used to simplify the friction factor calculations for hydraulic …

Gpu Based Simulations Of Collision Detection Of Irregular Vessel Walls, Binbin Yong, Jun Shen, Hongyu Sun, Zijian Xu, Jingfeng Liu, Qingguo Zhou

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

No abstract provided.

Sbar: A Conceptual Framework To Support Learning Path Adaptation In Mobile Learning, Alva Hendi Muhammad, Jun Shen, Ghassan Beydoun, Dongming Xu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Special Issue On Test Oracles, Zhiquan Zhou, Dave Towey, Pak-Lok Poon, T. H. Tse

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

No abstract provided.

Man-In-The-Middle Attacks On Secure Simple Pairing In Bluetooth Standard V5.0 And Its Countermeasure, Da-Zhi Sun, Yi Mu, Willy Susilo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Bluetooth devices are widely employed in the home network systems. It is important to secure the home members' Bluetooth devices, because they always store and transmit personal sensitive information. In the Bluetooth standard, Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) is an essential security mechanism for Bluetooth devices. We examine the security of SSP in the recent Bluetooth standard V5.0. The passkey entry association model in SSP is analyzed under the man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. Our contribution is twofold. (1) We demonstrate that the passkey entry association model is vulnerable to the MITM attack, once the host reuses the passkey. (2) An improved passkey …

Chip-Scale Demonstration Of Hybrid Iii-V/Silicon Photonic Integration For An Fbg Interrogator, Hongqiang Li, Xiangdong Ma, Beibei Cui, Youxi Wang, Cheng Zhang, Junfa Zhao, Zanyun Zhang, Chunxiao Tang, Enbang Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Silicon photonic integration is a means to produce an integrated on-chip fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogator. The possibility of integrating the light source, couplers, grating couplers, de-multiplexers, photodetectors (PDs), and other optical elements of the FBG interrogator into one chip may result in game-changing performance advances, considerable energy savings, and significant cost reductions. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to present a hybrid silicon photonic chip based on III–V/silicon-on-insulator photonic integration for an FBG interrogator. The hybrid silicon photonic chip consists of a multiwavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser array and input grating couplers, a multimode interference …

Evaluation Of A Direct Motion Estimation/Correction Method In Respiratory-Gated Pet/Mri With Motion-Adjusted Attenuation, Alexandre B. Bousse, Richard Manber, Beverley F. Holman, David Atkinson, Simon R. Arridge, Sebastien Ourselin, Brian F. Hutton, Kris Thielemans

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Purpose

Respiratory motion compensation in PET/CT and PET/MRI is essential as motion is a source of image degradation (motion blur, attenuation artifacts). In previous work, we developed a direct method for joint image reconstruction/motion estimation (JRM) for attenuation-corrected (AC) respiratory-gated PET, which uses a single attenuation-map (μ-map). This approach was successfully implemented for respiratory-gated PET/CT, but since it relied on an accurate μ-map for motion estimation, the question of its applicability in PET/MRI is open. The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of JRM in PET/MRI and to assess the robustness of the motion …

Initial Testing Of A Pixelated Silicon Detector Prototype In Proton Therapy, Andrew J. Wroe, Grant Mcauley, Anthony Teran, Jeannie Hsiu Ding Wong, Marco Petasecca, Michael L. F Lerch, James M. Slater, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

As technology continues to develop, external beam radiation therapy is being employed, with increased conformity, to treat smaller targets. As this occurs, the dosimetry methods and tools employed to quantify these fields for treatment also have to evolve to provide increased spatial resolution. The team at the University of Wollongong has developed a pixelated silicon detector prototype known as the dose magnifying glass (DMG) for real-time small-field metrology. This device has been tested in photon fields and IMRT. The purpose of this work was to conduct the initial performance tests with proton radiation, using beam energies and modulations typically associated …

Nonlinear Optical Conductivity Resulting From The Local Energy Spectrum At The M Point In Graphene, Zheng Liu, C Zhang, Juncheng Cao

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Based on the tight-binding model we construct a nonlinear Hamiltonian to describe the effective electric system around the M point for the single layer graphene. The local energy spectrum at the M point is approximated by the perfect hyperbolic geometry, and the modification by the screening effect from the substrate is taken into account.

Optical Conductivity Of A Commensurate Graphene-Topological Insulator Heterostructure, Matthew Sanderson, Sunchao Huang, Qiaoliang Bao, C Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The optical conductivity of a heterostructure formed by a commensurate stacking of graphene and a topological insulator (TI) is investigated using the Kubo formalism. Both the intra- and interband AC conductivities are found to be sensitive to the graphene-TI coupling. The direct interband transition in graphene which is the origin of the universal conductance is forbidden due to the topological nature is the coupling. Furthermore, the graphene-TI coupling gives rise to additional broken symmetries, resulting in both the inter- and intraband conductivity to be reduced in the graphene-TI heterostructure. By varying the Fermi energy of the heterostructure, the band that …

Behaviour Of High Strength Concrete Reinforced With Different Types Of Steel Fibres, Emdad K. Z Balanji, M Neaz Sheikh, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation on the behaviour of High Strength Concrete (HSC) reinforced with different types of steel fibre (copper-coated micro steel fibres, deformed macro steel fibre and hybrid steel fibre). A total of 40 cylindrical specimens with 100 mm diameter and 200 mm height were cast and tested for compressive and split tensile strengths. Three groups of steel fibre reinforced HSC specimens were prepared. The first group included 2, 3, and 4% by volume of copper-coated micro (CM) steel fibre; the second group included 1, 2 and 3% by volume of deformed macro (DM) …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Machine Learning Approach Based On Response Time And Reliability For Islanding Detection Of Distributed Generation, Mollah R. Alam, Kashem M. Muttaqi, Abdesselam Bouzerdoum

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Conventional relays, such as vector surge relay, frequency relay and rate-of-change-of-frequency relay, are usually employed for islanding detection; however, these conventional relays fail to detect islanding incidents in the presence of small power imbalance inside the islanded system. This study presents an islanding detection approach for synchronous type distributed generation using multiple features extracted from network variables and a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Features are extracted from a sliding temporal window, whose width is selected so as to achieve the highest detection rate at a fixed false alarm rate. The SVM classifier is trained with linear, polynomial and Gaussian …

Low-Complexity Cross-Validation Design Of A Linear Estimator, Jun Tong, Jiangtao Xi, Qinghua Guo, Yanguang Yu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Linear signal estimators have extensive applications. Under the minimum mean squared error (MMSE) criterion, the linear MMSE (LMMSE) estimator is optimal but requires knowledge of the covariance matrices. The sample matched filter generally performs worse but requires less a priori knowledge. A composite estimator that combines the sample LMMSE estimator and matched filter is studied, which may lead to noticeable improvements in performance. It is shown that such a gain can be achieved by low-complexity parameter tuning methods based on cross-validation using training or out-oftraining data. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

An Optimal Controller For Time-Varying Stochastic Systems With Multiple Time Delays, Zheng Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

A flexible controller for optimal control of linear time-varying stochastic systems with multiple time delays is developed. The plants to be controlled are represented using a multi-input multi-output controlled autoregressive moving average model. The delays are described using a diagonal matrix. Input and output filters in the form of linear time-varying moving average operators are introduced into a generalized minimum variance control cost functional in order to meet the needs of various applications. The controller is applicable to a large class of linear time-varying systems.

Multi-Objective Robust Optimization Design For Powertrain Mount System Of Electric Vehicles, Fu-Long Xin, Li-Jun Qian, Haiping Du, Weihua Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

A multi-objective robust optimization scheme for the powertrain mount system of an electric vehicle is proposed in this paper. A permanent magnet synchronous motor model is established by taking account of the effects of magnetic saturation and space harmonics, in which the d-q-axis inductance and the flux linkage excited by permanent magnet were obtained by finite element method. The rippled output torque of the permanent magnet synchronous motor mixed with harmonic components is obtained with the New European Driving Cycle as the running condition of the electric vehicle. A six degree-of-freedoms (DOFs) powertrain mount system is established and the response …

Single Step Fabrication Of Antimicrobial Fibre Mats From A Bioengineered Protein-Based Polymer, André Da Costa, Ana Pereira, A C. Gomes, José C. Rodríguez-Cabello, Vitor Sencadas, Margarida Casal, Raul Machado

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Genetically engineered protein polymers functionalized with bioactive domains have potential as multifunctional versatile materials for biomedical use. The present work describes the fabrication and characterisation of antimicrobial fibre mats comprising the antimicrobial elastin-like recombinamer (ELR) CM4-A200. The CM4-A200 protein polymer derives from the genetic fusion of the ABP-CM4 antimicrobial peptide from Bombyx mori with 200 repetitions of the pentamer VPAVG. This is the first report on non-crosslinked fibre mats fabricated with an antimicrobial ELR stable in solution. Thermal gravimetric analysis of CM4-A200 fibre mats shows one single degradation step at temperatures above 300 °C, with fibres displaying a higher thermal …

A Review Of Modern Advancements In Micro Drilling Techniques, Mahadi Hasan, Jingwei Zhao, Zhengyi Jiang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The demand for micro drilling with a diameter in a range of a few microns to several hundred microns is increasing in industries such as electronics, aerospace, medicine and automobiles, due to a significant uptake in the use of miniaturised products and devices. In order to satisfy the demand, a number of different micro drilling techniques have been developed. There has been, however, no report which explains, compares and contrasts all of these micro drilling techniques. This study examines the lasts micro drilling methods and techniques, categorises them into different groups, highlights recent developments and new trends, and depicts the …

Frp-Confined Concrete-Encased Cross-Shaped Steel Columns: Concept And Behaviour, Le Huang, Tao Yu, Shi Shun Zhang, Zhenyu Wang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

FRP-confined concrete-encased cross-shaped steel columns (FCCSCs) are a new form of hybrid columns recently developed at the University of Wollongong. An FCCSC consists of a square FRP outer tube, a cross-shaped steel section and concrete filled in between. This sectional configuration ensures that the concrete is very effectively confined despite the square shape of the column. In addition, the cross-shaped steel section serves as the ductile longitudinal reinforcement for loads in the two lateral directions and its possible buckling is constrained by the FRP outer tube and the concrete, leading to a column that is highly ductile. In this paper, …

A Concurrent Interdependent Service Level Agreement Negotiation Protocol In Dynamic Service-Oriented Computing Environments, Lei Niu, Fenghui Ren, Minjie Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Service Level Agreement (SLA) negotiations are capable of helping define the quality of service in order to meet the customer's service requirements. To date, a large number of negotiation protocols are proposed to handle single SLA negotiations, but little work can be found in handling multiple interdependent SLA negotiations in dynamic negotiation environments. This paper proposes an adaptive protocol for concurrently handling multiple interdependent SLA negotiations in dynamic environments. First, interdependencies between SLA negotiations are represented by a graph-based model. Then, an updating mechanism is proposed to handle the dynamism of multiple SLA negotiations. By applying the proposed updating mechanism, …

Strength And Ductility Behaviour Of Steel Plate Reinforced Concrete Beams Under Flexural Loading, Mazin Mohammed Sarhan, Muhammad N. S Hadi, Lip H. Teh

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Long-term durability is the main concern in the area of civil engineering due to safety considerations. This paper reports the strength and ductility behaviour of steel plate reinforced concrete beams under four-point bending. A total of three full-scale beams of 200 mm width, 300 mm height and 4000 mm length were cast and tested. All the beams had the same details of stirrups and compression reinforcement. The first beam was reinforced with ordinary reinforcement (2 deformed steel bars with a nominal diameter of 20 mm) and served as a reference beam. The second beam was reinforced with a chequer steel …

Superomniphilic Poly(Glycerol Sebacate)-Poly(L-Lactic Acid) Electrospun Membranes For Oil Spill Remediation, Yi Yan, Vitor Sencadas, Jiangshan Zhang, Dongbin Wei, Zhengyi Jiang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Superomniphilic materials are defined as materials that can uptake both water and oil-like liquids. In this study, a facile method to prepare a superomniphilic and biodegradable core-shell structure of poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) and poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) is reported. The developed method immobilizes the PGS polymer onto the surface of the PLLA electrospun fibers, increasing the presence of hydroxyl groups on the surface of the membranes. The sample with 25 wt% PGS can uptake polar and apolar solvents, and presents a superhydrophilic behavior. The PGS-PLLA composite is reusable up to 10 cycles of solvent (water of organic solvents) absorption with a …

Axial Load And Bending Moment Behaviour Of Square High Strength Concrete (Hsc) Columns Reinforced With Steel Equal Angle (Sea) Sections, Ayoob Ibrahim, M Neaz Sheikh, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents the behaviour of square high-strength concrete (HSC) specimens reinforced longitudinally with steel equal angle (SEA) sections under different loading conditions. For the same cross-sectional area, a SEA section has a higher second moment of area than a steel bar, which results in a greater bending stiffness of the concrete member reinforced with SEA sections. Also, the area of confined concrete is greater in concrete members reinforced with SEA sections compared to members reinforced with steel bars, which results in higher strength and ductility. A total of 8 specimens of 210 mm square cross-section and 800 mm height …