Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fingerprints'

Nowadays biometric identification is used in a variety of applications-administration, business and even home. Although there are a lot of biometric identifiers, fingerprints are the most widely spread due to their acceptance from the people and the cheap price of the hardware equipment. Fingerprint recognition is a complex image recognition problem and includes algorithms and procedures for image enhancement and binarization, extracting and matching features and sometimes classification. In this work the main approaches in the research area are discussed, demonstrated and tested in a sample application. The demonstration software application is developed by using Verifinger SDK and Microsoft Visual Studio platform. The fingerprint sensor for testing the application is AuthenTec AES2501.

Large music collections are now more common than ever before. Yet, search technology for music is still in its infancy. Audio fingerprinting is one method that allows searching for music. In this thesis several audio fingerprinting solutions are combined into a single solution to determine if such a combination can yield better results than any of the solutions can separately. The solution is used to find duplicate music files in a personal collection. The results show that applying the weighted root-mean square (WRMS) to the problem most effectively ranked the results in a satisfying manner. It was notably better than the other approaches tried. The WRMS produced 61% more correct matches than the original FDMF solution, and 49% more correct matches than libFooID.

It is believed that fingerprints are determined in embryonic development. Unlike other personal characteristics the fingerprint appears to be a result of a random process. For example fingerprints of identical twins (whose DNA is identical) are distinct, and extensive studies have found little evidence of a genetic relationship in terms of types of fingerprint, certainly at the small scale. At a larger scale the pattern of ridges on fingerprints can be categorised as belonging to one of five basic forms: loops (left and right), whorls, arches and tented arches. The population frequencies of these types show little variation with ethnicity and a list of the types occurring on the ten digits can be used as an initial basis for identification of individuals. However, such a system would not uniquely identify an individual although the frequency of certain combinations could be extremely small. At a smaller scale various minutiae or singularities can be observed in a fingerprint. These include ridge endings and bifurcations, amongst others. Typical fingerprints have several hundred of these as well as two key points (with the exception of a simple arch) referred to as the core and delta, which are focal points of the overall pattern of ridges. Modern identification systems are based upon ridge endings and bifurcations, not least because they are the easiest to determine automatically from image analysis. The configuration of these minutiae is unique to the individual. This research explores the relationship between the locations of minutiae to determine if they can be modelled using a statistical process. In addition, since the approach is based on how fingerprints can be examined in a forensic situation an algorithm is created and tested which allows the strength of a match between a fingermark left at a crime and a fingerprint from a known suspect to be calculated. Currently the result of matching a fingermark and fingerprint is expressed as a categorical value of; match, no match or inconclusive. The method in this research allows this to be expressed as a numerical value allowing for a wider and more flexible use of fingerprint evidence.

The goal of this thesis is to extend the application for spoof effects generation into synthetic fingerprints with the possibility of generation of two new spoof effects together with annotations of generated damages. Spoof effects chosen for this thesis are areas with lower clarity and defects in spoof material. Those effects were analyzed, methods to generate those effects were designed and then implemented. According to testing, generation of two new added spoof effects led to reduction in quality of fingerprint images, as well as the value of the similarity score determined during identification. In comparison with the original solution, the quality of the fingerprints decreased more in the extended solution, the similarity score in the generation of separate spoof effect decreased overall approximately equally.

The fingerprint pattern (epidermal ridge pattern) becomes established at about the 10th to 16th week of pregnancy, when the lowest layer of the epidermis, the basal layer, becomes undulated. The pattern established by these undulations becomes visible on the skin surface in subsequent weeks of pregnancy. We argue that the undulation process is initiated by buckling of the basal layer. The necessary compressive stress is generated by differential growth. The instability is investigated using the classic von Karman equations for curved surfaces. The analysis reveals that ridges (rolls) are the most common pattern type and that the local ridge direction of the pattern is perpendicular to the direction of largest stress. For certain parameter regimes dot patterns (hexagons) are a stable solution of the equations. Such dot patterns are, in fact, observed on the palms of certain marsupials. The stress in the basal layer is induced by two mechanisms. First, the basal layer expands faster than the other skin structures. Such expansion is resisted at the major flexion creases and the nail furrow. Second, there is a change in fingertip geometry at the time of pattern generation that provides a different source of growth stress. The combination of the two processes predicts the correct sequence of pattern spread over the fingertip. It also explains the observation that fingerprint configurations are related to the fingertip geometry at the time of ridge formation. Computer simulations for the most important configurations exhibit many features of actual fingerprints and suggest directions for future work.

Biometrics deals with identifying individuals with help of their biological data. Fingerprint scanning is the most common method of the biometric methods available today. The security of fingerprint scanners has however been questioned and previous studies have shown that fingerprint scanners can be fooled with artificial fingerprints, i.e. copies of real fingerprints. The fingerprint recognition systems are evolving and this study will discuss the situation of today.

Two approaches have been used to find out how good fingerprint recognition systems are in distinguishing between live fingers and artificial clones. The first approach is a literature study, while the second consists of experiments.

A literature study of liveness detection in fingerprint recognition systems has been performed. A description of different liveness detection methods is presented and discussed. Methods requiring extra hardware use temperature, pulse, blood pressure, electric resistance, etc., and methods using already existent information in the system use skin deformation, pores, perspiration, etc.

The experiments focus on making artificial fingerprints in gelatin from a latent fingerprint. Nine different systems were tested at the CeBIT trade fair in Germany and all were deceived. Three other different systems were put up against more extensive tests with three different subjects. All systems werecircumvented with all subjects'artificial fingerprints, but with varying results. The results are analyzed and discussed, partly with help of the A/R value defined in this report.

The main goal of this thesis was to design and implement a application that would be able to generate fingerprint damage into a synthetic fingerprint. The application can create fingerprint images damaged by pressure, moisture and skin disease dyshidrosis with different intensity of damage. The application also allows annotation of the generated damage and its export. Selected damages were analyzed before the design was created. A database of fingerprints from five users was created to analyze the damage caused by pressure and moisture. The generated images and the achieved results are tested with VeriFinger and FiQiVi. For testing, 19 sets with fingerprints of different intensity and different type of damage were created. Experiments showed that the quality of the fingerprint decreased the most during the generation of moisture with the highest intensity of damage, where the quality decreased by 61.8 %. This thesis can be used for further research in the field of biometric fingerprint processing.

A novel algorithm for fingerprint template formation and matching in automatic fingerprint recognition has been developed. At present, fingerprint is being considered as the dominant biometric trait among all other biometrics due to its wide range of applications in security and access control. Most of the commercially established systems use singularity point (SP) or ‘core’ point for fingerprint indexing and template formation. The efficiency of these systems heavily relies on the detection of the core and the quality of the image itself. The number of multiple SPs or absence of ‘core’ on the image can cause some anomalies in the formation of the template and may result in high False Acceptance Rate (FAR) or False Rejection Rate (FRR). Also the loss of actual minutiae or appearance of new or spurious minutiae in the scanned image can contribute to the error in the matching process. A more sophisticated algorithm is therefore necessary in the formation and matching of templates in order to achieve low FAR and FRR and to make the identification more accurate. The novel algorithm presented here does not rely on any ‘core’ or SP thus makes the structure invariant with respect to global rotation and translation. Moreover, it does not need orientation of the minutiae points on which most of the established algorithm are based. The matching methodology is based on the local features of each minutiae point such as distances to its nearest neighbours and their internal angle. Using a publicly available fingerprint database, the algorithm has been evaluated and compared with other benchmark algorithms. It has been found that the algorithm has performed better compared to others and has been able to achieve an error equal rate of 3.5%.

Mathematical modeling of biological phenomena has experienced increasing interest since new high-throughput technologies give access to growing amounts of molecular data. These modeling approaches are especially able to test hypotheses which are not yet experimentally accessible or guide an experimental setup. One particular attempt investigates the evolutionary dynamics responsible for today's composition of organisms. Computer simulations either propose an evolutionary mechanism and thus reproduce a recent finding or rebuild an evolutionary process in order to learn about its mechanism. The quest for evolutionary fingerprints in metabolic and gene-coexpression networks is the central topic of this cumulative thesis based on four published articles. An understanding of the actual origin of life will probably remain an insoluble problem. However, one can argue that after a first simple metabolism has evolved, the further evolution of metabolism occurred in parallel with the evolution of the sequences of the catalyzing enzymes. Indications of such a coevolution can be found when correlating the change in sequence between two enzymes with their distance on the metabolic network which is obtained from the KEGG database. We observe that there exists a small but significant correlation primarily on nearest neighbors. This indicates that enzymes catalyzing subsequent reactions tend to be descended from the same precursor. Since this correlation is relatively small one can at least assume that, if new enzymes are no "genetic children" of the previous enzymes, they certainly be descended from any of the already existing ones. Following this hypothesis, we introduce a model of enzyme-pathway coevolution. By iteratively adding enzymes, this model explores the metabolic network in a manner similar to diffusion. With implementation of an Gillespie-like algorithm we are able to introduce a tunable parameter that controls the weight of sequence similarity when choosing a new enzyme. Furthermore, this method also defines a time difference between successive evolutionary innovations in terms of a new enzyme. Overall, these simulations generate putative time-courses of the evolutionary walk on the metabolic network. By a time-series analysis, we find that the acquisition of new enzymes appears in bursts which are pronounced when the influence of the sequence similarity is higher. This behavior strongly resembles punctuated equilibrium which denotes the observation that new species tend to appear in bursts as well rather than in a gradual manner. Thus, our model helps to establish a better understanding of punctuated equilibrium giving a potential description at molecular level. From the time-courses we also extract a tentative order of new enzymes, metabolites, and even organisms. The consistence of this order with previous findings provides evidence for the validity of our approach. While the sequence of a gene is actually subject to mutations, its expression profile might also indirectly change through the evolutionary events in the cellular interplay. Gene coexpression data is simply accessible by microarray experiments and commonly illustrated using coexpression networks where genes are nodes and get linked once they show a significant coexpression. Since the large number of genes makes an illustration of the entire coexpression network difficult, clustering helps to show the network on a metalevel. Various clustering techniques already exist. However, we introduce a novel one which maintains control of the cluster sizes and thus assures proper visual inspection. An application of the method on Arabidopsis thaliana reveals that genes causing a severe phenotype often show a functional uniqueness in their network vicinity. This leads to 20 genes of so far unknown phenotype which are however suggested to be essential for plant growth. Of these, six indeed provoke such a severe phenotype, shown by mutant analysis. By an inspection of the degree distribution of the A.thaliana coexpression network, we identified two characteristics. The distribution deviates from the frequently observed power-law by a sharp truncation which follows after an over-representation of highly connected nodes. For a better understanding, we developed an evolutionary model which mimics the growth of a coexpression network by gene duplication which underlies a strong selection criterion, and slight mutational changes in the expression profile. Despite the simplicity of our assumption, we can reproduce the observed properties in A.thaliana as well as in E.coli and S.cerevisiae. The over-representation of high-degree nodes could be identified with mutually well connected genes of similar functional families: zinc fingers (PF00096), flagella, and ribosomes respectively. In conclusion, these four manuscripts demonstrate the usefulness of mathematical models and statistical tools as a source of new biological insight. While the clustering approach of gene coexpression data leads to the phenotypic characterization of so far unknown genes and thus supports genome annotation, our model approaches offer explanations for observed properties of the coexpression network and furthermore substantiate punctuated equilibrium as an evolutionary process by a deeper understanding of an underlying molecular mechanism.
Die biologische Zelle ist ein sehr kompliziertes Gebilde. Bei ihrer Betrachtung gilt es, das Zusammenspiel von Tausenden bis Millionen von Genen, Regulatoren, Proteinen oder Molekülen zu beschreiben und zu verstehen. Durch enorme Verbesserungen experimenteller Messgeräte gelingt es mittlerweile allerdings in geringer Zeit enorme Datenmengen zu messen, seien dies z.B. die Entschlüsselung eines Genoms oder die Konzentrationen der Moleküle in einer Zelle. Die Systembiologie nimmt sich dem Problem an, aus diesem Datenmeer ein quantitatives Verständnis für die Gesamtheit der Wechselwirkungen in der Zelle zu entwickeln. Dabei stellt die mathematische Modellierung und computergestützte Analyse ein eminent wichtiges Werkzeug dar, lassen sich doch am Computer in kurzer Zeit eine Vielzahl von Fällen testen und daraus Hypothesen generieren, die experimentell verifiziert werden können. Diese Doktorarbeit beschäftigt sich damit, wie durch mathematische Modellierung Rückschlüsse auf die Evolution und deren Mechanismen geschlossen werden können. Dabei besteht die Arbeit aus zwei Teilen. Zum Einen wurde ein Modell entwickelt, dass die Evolution des Stoffwechsels nachbaut. Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit der Analyse von Genexpressionsdaten, d.h. der Stärke mit der ein bestimmtes Gen in ein Protein umgewandelt, "exprimiert", wird. Der Stoffwechsel bezeichnet die Gesamtheit der chemischen Vorgänge in einem Organismus; zum Einen werden Nahrungsstoffe für den Organismus verwertbar zerlegt, zum Anderen aber auch neue Stoffe aufgebaut. Da für nahezu jede chemische Reaktion ein katalysierendes Enzym benötigt wird, ist davon auszugehen, dass sich der Stoffwechsel parallel zu den Enzymen entwickelt hat. Auf dieser Annahme basiert das entwickelte Modell zur Enzyme-Stoffwechsel-Koevolution. Von einer Anfangsmenge von Enzymen und Molekülen ausgehend, die etwa in einer primitiven Atmosphäre vorgekommen sind, werden sukzessive Enzyme und die nun katalysierbaren Reaktionen hinzugefügt, wodurch die Stoffwechselkapazität anwächst. Die Auswahl eines neuen Enzyms geschieht dabei in Abhängigkeit von der Ähnlichkeit mit bereits vorhandenen und ist so an den evolutionären Vorgang der Mutation angelehnt: je ähnlicher ein neues Enzym zu den vorhandenen ist, desto schneller kann es hinzugefügt werden. Dieser Vorgang wird wiederholt, bis der Stoffwechsel die heutige Form angenommen hat. Interessant ist vor allem der zeitliche Verlauf dieser Evolution, der mittels einer Zeitreihenanalyse untersucht wird. Dabei zeigt sich, dass neue Enzyme gebündelt in Gruppen kurzer Zeitfolge auftreten, gefolgt von Intervallen relativer Stille. Dasselbe Phänomen kennt man von der Evolution neuer Arten, die ebenfalls gebündelt auftreten, und wird Punktualismus genannt. Diese Arbeit liefert somit ein besseres Verständnis dieses Phänomens durch eine Beschreibung auf molekularer Ebene. Im zweiten Projekt werden Genexpressionsdaten von Pflanzen analysiert. Einerseits geschieht dies mit einem eigens entwickelten Cluster-Algorithmus. Hier läßt sich beobachten, dass Gene mit einer ähnlichen Funktion oft auch ein ähnliches Expressionsmuster aufweisen. Das Clustering liefert einige Genkandidaten, deren Funktion bisher unbekannt war, von denen aber nun vermutet werden konnte, dass sie enorm wichtig für das Wachstum der Pflanze sind. Durch Experimente von Pflanzen mit und ohne diese Gene zeigte sich, dass sechs neuen Genen dieses essentielle Erscheinungsbild zugeordnet werden kann. Weiterhin wurden Netzwerke der Genexpressionsdaten einer Pflanze, eines Pilzes und eines Bakteriums untersucht. In diesen Netzwerken werden zwei Gene verbunden, falls sie ein sehr ähnliches Expressionsprofil aufweisen. Nun zeigten diese Netzwerke sehr ähnliche und charakteristische Eigenschaften auf. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde daher ein weiteres evolutionäres Modell entwickelt, das die Expressionsprofile anhand von Duplikation, Mutation und Selektion beschreibt. Obwohl das Modell auf sehr simplen Eigenschaften beruht, spiegelt es die beobachteten Eigenschaften sehr gut wider, und es läßt sich der Schluss ziehen, dass diese als Resultat der Evolution betrachtet werden können. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeiten sind als Doktorarbeit in kumulativer Form bestehend aus vier veröffentlichten Artikeln vereinigt.

This dissertation focuses on person identification problems and proposes solutions to overcome those problems. First part is about fingerprint features extraction algorithm performance evaluation. Modifications to a known synthesis algorithm are proposed to make it fast and suitable for performance evaluation. Matching of deformed fingerprints is discussed in the second part of the work. New fingerprint matching algorithm that uses local structures and does not perform fingerprint alignment is proposed to match deformed fingerprints. The use of group delay features of linear prediction model for speaker recognition is proposed in the third part of the work. New similarity metric that uses group delay features is described. It is demonstrated that automatic speaker recognition system with proposed features and similarity metric outperforms traditional speaker identification systems . Multibiometrics using fingerprints and voice is addressed in the last part of the dissertation.
Penkiose disertacijos darbo dalyse nagrinėjamos žmogaus identifikavimo pagal pirštų atspaudus ir balsą problemos ir siūlomi jų sprendimai. Pirštų atspaudų požymių išskyrimo algoritmų kokybės įvertinimo problemą siūloma spręsti panaudojant sintezuotus pirštų atspaudus. Darbe siūlomos žinomo pirštų atpaudų sintezės algoritmo modifikacijos, kurios leidžia sukurti piršto atspaudo vaizdą su iš anksto nustatytomis charakteristikomis ir požymiais bei pagreitina sintezės procesą. Pirštų atspaudų požymių palyginimo problemos yra aptartos ir naujas palyginimo algoritmas yra siūlomas deformuotų pirštų palyginimui. Algoritmo kokybė yra įvertinta ant viešai prieinamų ir vidinių duomenų bazių. Naujas asmens identifikavimo pagal balsą metodas remiantis tiesinės prognozės modelio grupinės delsos požymiais ir tų požymių palyginimo metrika kokybės prasme lenkia tradicinius asmens identifikavimo pagal balsą metodus. Pirštų ir balso įrašų nepriklausomumas yra irodytas ir asmens atpažinimas pagal balsą ir pirštų atspaudus kartu yra pasiūlytas siekiant išspręsti bendras biometrinių sistemų problemas.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology, Management, and Policy Program, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-192).
This thesis presents a technology to complement taxation-based policy proposals aimed at addressing the digital copyright problem. The approach presented facilitates identification of intellectual property using expression fingerprints. Copyright law protects expression of content. Recognizing literary works for copyright protection requires identification of the expression of their content. The expression fingerprints described in this thesis use a novel set of linguistic features that capture both the content presented in documents and the manner of expression used in conveying this content. These fingerprints consist of both syntactic and semantic elements of language. Examples of the syntactic elements of expression include structures of embedding and embedded verb phrases. The semantic elements of expression consist of high-level, broad semantic categories. Syntactic and semantic elements of expression enable generation of models that correctly identify books and their paraphrases 82% of the time, providing a significant (approximately 18%) improvement over models that use tfidf-weighted keywords. The performance of models built with these features is also better than models created with standard features used in stylometry (e.g., function words), which yield an accuracy of 62%. In the non-digital world, copyright holders collect revenues by controlling distribution of their works. Current approaches to the digital copyright problem attempt to provide copyright holders with the same kind of control over distribution by employing Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.
(cont.) However, DRM systems also enable copyright holders to control and limit fair use, to inhibit others' speech, and to collect private information about individual users of digital works. Digital tracking technologies enable alternate solutions to the digital copyright problem; some of these solutions can protect creative incentives of copyright holders in the absence of control over distribution of works. Expression fingerprints facilitate digital tracking even when literary works are DRM- and watermark-free, and even when they are paraphrased. As such, they enable metering popularity of works and make practicable solutions that encourage large-scale dissemination and unrestricted use of digital works and that protect the revenues of copyright holders, for example through taxation-based revenue collection and distribution systems, without imposing limits on distribution.
by Özlem Uzuner.
Ph.D.

A laboratory exposure trial investigating the effects of crude oil and heavy fuel oil on Lates calcarifer (barramundi, or Asian seabass), including analysis of biochemical biomarkers, gut microbiome studies, otolith microchemistry and geochemical biomarkers. This work has developed a novel, non-subjective method for the forensic identification of source oil in the event of a spill, using multivariate analysis of the ecotoxicological effects exhibited by fish exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons.

The use of biometrics is an evolving component in today's society. Fingerprint recognition continues to be one of the most widely used biometric systems. This thesis explores the various steps present in a fingerprint recognition system. The study develops a working algorithm to extract fingerprint minutiae from an input fingerprint image. This stage incorporates a variety of image pre-processing steps necessary for accurate minutiae extraction and includes two different methods of ridge thinning. Next, it implements a procedure for matching sets of minutiae data. This process goes through all possible alignments of the datasets and returns the matching score for the best possible alignment. Finally, it conducts a series of matching experiments to compare the performance of the two different thinning methods considered. Results show that thinning by the central line method produces better False Non-match Rates and False Match Rates than those obtained through thinning by the block filter method.
US Navy (USN) author.

The recovery and visualisation of fingerprints on brass substrates by traditional methods is frequently unsatisfactory, particularly when the samples have been subjected to extreme environmental conditions. This includes items for which surface morphology or exposure to non-ambient conditions compromises traditional recovery methods. To address this challenge, the work in this thesis aims to understand the physical and chemical changes occurring for fingerprint sweat deposited onto brass substrates. This was accomplished by monitoring samples using a range of different surface sensitive techniques, based on optical, physical and chemical phenomena. The main aspects explored were surface structure (topography and morphology, using various microscopies), surface composition (using XPS) and surface dynamics (evolution of surface composition and structure with exposure to diverse conditions). The amount and viscosity of fingerprint sweat deposit changed over time; this was detectable at both the nanoscale (by AFM) and macroscale (optically). The visualisation rate of the fingerprint mark could be enhanced by storage in warm humid environments. The chemical surface composition was also subject to change: this applied to both the substrate and the fingerprint sweat deposit. The Cu:Zn ratio of the substrate was affected by both the sweat type and the storage conditions employed. Surface species also changed when subjected to different storage environments. The fingerprint sweat deposit present on the substrates was difficult to remove; even washing in warm soapy water failed to remove detectable levels of the fingerprint. Non-visible fingerprints could still be detected by surface chemical composition and also revived by storage in warm humid environments. The detailed findings should influence laboratory experiment protocols and evidence processing. The outcomes of this work should improve the recovery of fingerprints from brass substrates by optimisation of storage environments and new fingerprint detection methodology.

This thesis consists of two stand-alone but complementary components. The first, a work of fiction, Fingerprints: the fiction‘, is a narrative based in a West Australian community exploring questions of memory, identity and experience along with notions of social connectedness. Set in a landscape of grief, physical and emotional isolation, the text is grounded in the everyday-ness and mundanity of life and, through delving into characters' memories in particular, makes visible that which is often largely hidden. This body of work comprises part of the development of a full-length novel. The accompanying exegesis, Fingerprints: the exegesis‘, also engages in part with issues of memory, identity and experience, and explores both the creative processes and the evolution of my own identity as a creative writer and postgraduate student working within another type of community—the university. In a sense, it too is grounded in isolation, and foregrounds the everyday-ness around the development of creative work. It also aims to offer greater insights into and focus on the value of the processes (rather than the products) of creative work. It thus also endeavours to make visible that which is normally hidden in the development of an academic and/or creative project. I address questions arising directly from my own research practices alongside broader discussion of ways in which creative research is intimately connected with the doing of creative writing within the academy.

Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2006.
Thesis Advisor(s): Geoffrey Xie, John Gibson. "September 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-102). Also available in print.

Thomas Moreâs Latin epigrams, published with the second edition of Utopia in 1518, were apparently widely read both among contemporary European intellectuals and during the subsequent development of English poetry. With a humble audacity that could engage Classical authors in a Christian posture, More cultivated a literary climate that could retain the earthiness of the middle ages in dialogue with the ancients, and is more responsible for the ensuing expansion of vernacular poetry than perhaps any other Henrican author. This thesis probes the Classical influences and Humanist practices at work in the epigrams, explores their contemporary reception on the continent, and traces their legacy among sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English poets.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-114).
Controlled thrombosis initiates and regulates tissue repair and remodeling in the vessel wall. Processes from heart attack to stroke, and deep vein thrombosis to pulmonary embolism, are all derived from unrestricted clotting. The frustrating aspects of these diseases lie not only in the difficulty of their timely diagnosis, but in the selection of appropriate therapy, titration of intervention, and identification of patients at risk. Assays like the INR, PTT, and ACT can follow the course of specific pathways that govern activation of specific coagulation factors or platelet function, but they do not provide the insight into mechanism, risk and potential therapeutic benefit. We posit that elucidation of the complex dynamics of clot generation requires an integrated assessment that takes into account all of the factors driving thrombosis simultaneously. Virchow's Triad, has for years been identified as the three critical parameters of clot formation. We propose to examine an individual's clot propensity and response to therapy on minute blood samples, in virtual real time, across a range of flow rates, blood state, and wall conditions with the use of our newly developed in vitro high-throughput testing device.
(cont.) In this manner we will generate a unique thrombotic fingerprint that defines an individual's risk of clotting at a specific point in time over a range of stresses. This fingerprint can aid in tailoring therapeutic clinical treatments, determining the duration and dose of therapy, and assist in clinical trial management and establishment of clinical norms.
by Javier Jacobo Echenique.
S.M.

Our world of people and objects is on the verge of transforming to a world of highly-interconnected wireless devices. Incredible advances in wireless communications, hardware design, and power storage have facilitated hasty spread of wireless technologies in human life. In this new world, individuals are often identified and reached via one or multiple wireless devices that they always carry (e.g., smartphones, smart wearable, implantable medical devices, etc.), and their biometrics identities are replaced by their digital fingerprints. In near future, vehicles will be controlled and monitored via wireless monitoring systems and various physical objects (e.g., home appliance and retail store items) will be connected to the Internet. The list of these changes goes on. Unfortunately, as different aspects of our lives are being immerged in and dependent to wireless devices and services, we will become more vulnerable to wireless service/connection interruptions due to adversarial behavior and our privacy will become more potent to be exposed to adversaries. An adversary can learn the procedures of a wireless system and analyze its stages, and accordingly, launch various attacks against the operations of the system or the privacy of the people. Existing data confidentiality and integrity services (e.g., advanced encryption algorithms) have been able to prevent the leakage of users' messages. However, in wireless networks, even when upper-layer payloads are encrypted, the users' privacy and the operation of a wireless network can be threatened by the leakage of transmission attributes at the physical (PHY) layer. Examples of these attributes are payload size, frequency offset (FO), modulation scheme, and the transmission rate. These attributes can be exploited by an adversary to launch passive or active attacks. A passive attacker may learn about the interests, sexual orientation, political views, and patentable ideas of the user through analyzing these features, whereas an active attacker exploits captured attributes to launch selective packet jamming/dropping and disrupt wireless services. These call for novel privacy preserving techniques beyond encryption. In this dissertation, we study the vulnerability of current wireless systems to the leakage of transmission attributes at the PHY layer and propose several schemes to prevent it. First, we design and experimentally demonstrate with USRPs an energy-efficient and highly disruptive jamming attack on the FO estimation of an OFDM system. OFDM is the core multiplexing scheme in many modern wireless systems (e.g., LTE/5G and 802.11a/n/ac) and is highly susceptible to FO. FO is the difference in the operating frequencies of two radio oscillators. This estimation is done by the receiver using the publicly-known frame preamble. We show that the leakage of FO value via the preamble can facilitate an optimally designed jamming signal without needing to know the channel between the transmitter and the legitimate receiver. Our results show that the jammer can guarantee a successful attack even when its power is slightly less than the transmitter's power. We then propose four mitigation approaches against the proposed FO attack. Next, we consider certain transmission attributes that are disclosed via unencrypted PHY/MAC headers. Example of these attributes are payload size, transmission rate, and MAC addresses. Beyond unencrypted headers, the adversary can estimate the frame size and transmission rate through identifying the payload's modulation scheme and measuring the transmission time. To prevent the leakage of these attributes, we propose Friendly CryptoJam scheme, which consists of three components: First, a modulation-aware encryption scheme to encrypt the headers. Second, an efficient modulation obfuscation techniques. Specifically, the proposed modulation obfuscation scheme embeds the modulation symbols of a frame's payload into the constellation of the highest-order modulation scheme supported by the system. Together with effective PHY/MAC header encryption at the modulation level, the proposed obfuscation scheme hides the transmission rate, payload size, and other attributes announced in the headers while avoiding any BER performance loss. Compared with prior art, Friendly CryptoJam enjoys less complexity and less susceptibility to FO estimation errors. The third component is a novel PHY-level identification method. To facilitate PHY/MAC header encryption when a MAC layer sender identifier cannot be used (e.g., due to MAC address encryption), we propose two preamble-based sender identification methods, one for OFDM and one for non-OFDM systems. A sender identifier is special message that can be embedded in the frame preamble. The extent of the applications of our embedding scheme goes beyond identifier embedding and include embedding part of the data frame, the sender's digital signature, or any meta-data that the sender provides. Our message embedding method can further be used to mitigate the FO estimation attack because the jammer can no longer optimize its jamming signal with respect to a fixed preamble signal. In addition, we considered friendly jamming technique in a multi-link/hop network to degrade the channels of the eavesdroppers and prevent successful decoding of the headers, while minimizing the required jamming power by optimally placing the friendly jamming devices.

Part I presents a model for fingerprint matching using Bayesian alignment on unlabelled point sets. An efficient Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to calculate the marginal likelihood ratio between the hypothesis that an observed fingerprint and fingermark pair originate from the same finger and the hypothesis that they originate from different fingers. The model achieves good performance on the NIST-FBI fingerprint database of 258 matched fingerprint pairs, though the computed likelihood ratios are implausibly extreme due to oversimplification in our model. Part II moves to a more theoretical study of proper scoring rules. The chapters in this section are designed to be independent of each other. Chapter 9 uses proper scoring rules to calibrate the implausible likelihood ratios computed in Part I. Chapter 10 defines the class of compatible weighted proper scoring rules. Chapter 11 derives new results for the score matching estimator, which can quickly generate point estimates for a parametric model even when the normalization constant of the distribution is intractable. It is used to find an initial value for the iterative maximization procedure in §3.3. Appendix A describes a novel algorithm to efficiently sample from the posterior of a von Mises distribution. It is used within the fingerprint model sampling procedure described in §5.6. Appendix B includes various technical results which would otherwise disrupt the flow of the main dissertation.

Visualisation of latent fingerprints present on metallic surfaces has been demonstrated by means of spatially selective deposition of conducting copolymers. This novel technique utilises the inhibition of electrochemical processes on areas that have been masked by the fingerprint. This results in electropolymerisation between the ridges, generating a negative image of the fingerprint. The efficiency of recovery in forensically challenging scenarios of the copolymers was compared with the corresponding homopolymers. An extension of this electrochromic enhancement to include fluorescence has been developed using a novel synthetic pathway aiming to create more free volume to aid the inclusion of bulky fluorophore moieties. The unique selectivity of neutron reflectivity (NR), with isotopic contrast variation, permitted the diagnosis of chemical and structural changes within the depth profile of the polymer during the incorporation of the fluorophore moieties. The properties of conducting polymer films are determined by film composition and structure which, this thesis will show, can lead to different routes to electroneutrality maintenance during electrochemically controlled redox switching (doping/undoping). NR was used to quantify the diverse permeation characteristics of conventional solvents and ionic liquids into an electroactive copolymer. It revealed how the availabilities of these mechanisms are dictated by anion and cation sources and sinks in the film and liquid phases where molecular solvent is/is not present. In multi-layered systems, the nature of the polymer/polymer interface is central to the rectifying (segregated) or capacitive (interdiffused) characteristics of the films, such that the spatial distribution of the different polymer components determines the optical and electronic properties of the films. These properties are important for the potential applications of these multi-component systems in energy storage. NR was used to probe the extent of segregation and solvation properties of multi-layer films and revealed the order the components are deposited has a great effect on the final film properties.

Many photos and videos are produced and uploaded to the Internet every day. Even though this is a small part of the total, a large amount of them is illegal. Once digital content has been distributed online, it is often difficult to re-associate the photo or video to the device that produced it or to the user who initially shared it. To counter the spread of illegal content, there is a branch of studies called “source camera identification”, which aims to reconnect a photo or video to the device that developed it. The idea behind source camera identification is that each camera, having imperfections that make it unique, gives a digital fingerprint to the content it produces. The noise of a digital content, which represents a variation of intensity that cannot be found in the recorded content, contains the fingerprint along with some random factors. The noises, which are extracted through denoising algorithms, can be used directly to identify the device that produced the content, or they can be used to estimate the fingerprint. This thesis works in the source camera identification of video content. Two datasets are considered: one called Vision, which is considered the reference dataset in this area and one made available by the University of Bologna. The work carried out in this thesis was to extract the noises on those datasets, and calculate the fingerprints, comparing different approaches present in the state of the art. The approach that was chosen has yielded the best results through a classi- fication algorithm. Once the noises were extracted and the fingerprints calculated, classification and clustering techniques were applied. Two classification techniques have been developed one through convolutional neural network and another using a function called Peak-to-correlation energy. Clustering algorithms have been applied, already developed to work in this area, one that considers a known number of cameras and another that considers an unknown number.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2008.
Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

Metabolic fingerprinting is a biochemical method that takes an untargeted approach to measure a large number of metabolites and gain a ‘snapshot’ of an organism’s metabolome at a specific time. This thesis explores how metabolic fingerprinting can be used to study plant-insect interactions using Pieris rapae and its larval host plant species as model systems, and investigates how biotic and abiotic factors shape plant and insect metabolomes. I found that different Brassicales host plant species, as well as P. rapae larvae feeding on these plant species, had different metabolic fingerprints. A group of very abundant metabolites in the host plant Cleome spinosa were present in larvae feeding from this plant species, documenting a new occurrence of metabolite transfer between plants and insect herbivores. There was some evidence that the metabolic fingerprints of plants predicted the performance of insects, implying that the presence or absence of specific metabolites in host plants may determine the success of herbivores. Changes in metabolites measured in three host plant species following herbivory by P. rapae showed that herbivory changed the metabolic fingerprints of plants but there was little overlap in metabolites that were induced. I conclude that plants respond in a species-specific manner to herbivory, which implies that the evolution of plant defences has varied among the three species resulting in no similarities in induced metabolites. The metabolic fingerprints of the host plant Brassica oleracea as well as P. rapae larvae were changed by elevated temperature and to a lesser extent by elevated carbon dioxide (CO2). The larvae developed more quickly under elevated temperature but larval performance was not affected by elevated CO2 despite the diet of B. oleracea leaves grown under elevated CO2 containing less nitrogen. These findings provide a unique metabolite perspective of insects and plants and were facilitated by the wide breadth of metabolites studied using metabolic fingerprinting.

Thesis (PH. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Statistics and Probability, 2008.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Sept. 8, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-115). Also issued in print.

Tandem-repetitive hypervariable minisatellites detected in a DNA fingerprint provide highly informative genetic markers. To identify and localize specific loci represented in a DNA fingerprint, it is necessary to clone individual minisatellites. This thesis is concerned with the characterization of single locus minisatellite probes cloned from DNA fingerprints. Seven single locus human minisatellite probes have been cloned by screening ? libraries with DNA fingerprint probes 33.6 and 33.15. Each locus consists of a minisatellite, with repeat units ranging in length from 9 to 47 base pairs depending on the locus. These autosomal loci are amongst the most variable loci characterized to date. The heterozygosity values of D1S7, D1S8, D5S43, D7S21, D7S22 and D12S11 range from 85% to >99%. Clustering of minisatellites was initially detected at the D12S11 locus. This observation led to the subsequent discovery of minisatellites showing close physical linkage as well as a tendency for minisatellites to be localized in proterminal chromosomal regions. An association of a minisatellite with a dispersed repetitive element was identified when studying the organization of cloned D7S22. This phenomenon was later found to be common amongst minisatellites. Pedigree analysis revealed a high level of instability of the locus detected by D1S7. This manifestation of detectable mutant alleles demonstrated the feasibility of direct estimation of mutation rates at minisatellite loci. The hypervariability of loci detected by minisatellites and their sensitivity in blot hybridizations make minisatellites a powerful tool in genetic analysis. These probes have already proved instrumental in many genetic and clinical studies. The high degree of individual specificity and the relatively simple banding pattern generated make these probes invaluable in forensic medicine. D1S7 and D7S21 were used in the first example of DNA-based identification in a rape and murder enquiry. One minisatellite probe was found to detect two loci, DNF21S1 and DNF21S2, on chromosomes 6 and 16 respectively. The 39 base pair repeat unit of this minisatellite is itself repetitive. The heterozygosity values of DNF21S1 and DNF21S2 are 61% and 16% respectively. Genomic mapping and sequence analyses revealed close similarity between these loci. Human population and pedigree studies showed that some individuals carry two alleles at DNF21S2, some carry one allele, some carry a duplicated allele while some are devoid of this locus. A model of duplication of a large proterminal segment of chromosome 6 DNA containing a minisatellite and transposition into an interstitial region of chromosome 16 in some human individuals is suggested. This is, to my knowledge, the first report of a human DNA polymorphism arising via transposition of DNA. The duplication unit on chromosome 16 is large (>15 kb) and has inserted into a member of a target site family present in 5-10 copies per genome. This sequence family represents a novel class of human repetitive DNA.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Warfare Systems Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2009.
Thesis Advisor(s): Michael, James B. "September 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on November 04, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Cyberspace defense, network defense, passive fingerprinting, computer network reconnaissance, network scanning, port scanning Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69). Also available in print.

‘It is always dark ahead of the pick!’ This centuries-old miners’ expression still reveals the uncertainty about the upcoming rock properties during exploration and extraction processes. It is still tough to predict what a drill rig or a cutting machine will experience during operation. However, in terms of safety, energy consumption and the performance of the whole machine it would be beneficial to be able to monitor such an extraction process. Hence, different sensors or sensor combinations are tested during cutting and drilling processes within RealTime Mining project. First aim is to depict the machine performance of the machine at any time. In a second step sensor information is also used to conclude on mechanical rock properties during the process. Measuring the machine performance for cutting and drilling is quite similar and has been condensed under the terms Monitoring-While-Cutting (MWC) respectively Monitoring-While-Drilling (MWD). Both monitoring systems contain a bundle of sensors to depict the whole process. As an example, the energy demand of such a machine can be determined by measuring the power consumption of the engines constantly. Furthermore, the process parameters like advance rates and drilling or cutting speed have to be evaluated as well to be able to depict the whole extraction machine. To conclude on mechanical rock properties several other sensor solutions have been tested and finally integrated into those monitoring systems. One of the most important rock properties for drilling and cutting is the rock strength. Increasing rock strength during an extraction process leads to increasing forces that are needed to break a certain amount of rock. Hence, e.g. measuring the torque of a drill string or the cutting forces can be an indicator on rock resistance or rock strength. Not minor important, is the characteristic rock breakage behavior which can be classified by the use of ‘acoustic’ sensors. Dependent on the rock properties that currently is drilled or cut through a characteristic fracture occurs in front of the tool. This results in audible and also inaudible characteristic acoustic waves that propagate through the machine body and can be gathered on the machine by piezo-electric sensors. The interpretation of these signals could lead to a material classification already during the extraction process. Several tests of these sensor technologies have been conducted in laboratory environment as well in field tests. The most promising results are going to be presented.

The present status of the environment, including environmental problems such as heavy metal accumulation in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, is in part the consequence of long-term changes. Cores from peatlands and other natural archives provide us with the potential to study aspects of the atmospheric cycling of elements, such as metal pollutants, on timescales much longer than the decade or two available to us with atmospheric deposition monitoring programs. The past decade especially has seen a rapid increase in interest in the biogeochemical record preserved in peat, particularly as it relates to environmental changes (e.g. climate and pollution). Importantly, recent studies have shown that carbon dynamics, i.e., organic matter decomposition, may influence the record of atmospherically derived elements such as halogens and mercury. Other studies have shown that under certain conditions some downward movement of atmospherically deposited elements may also occur, which adds complexity to establishing reliable chronologies as well as inherent problems of estimating accurate accumulation rates of peat and past metal deposition. Thus, we still lack a complete understanding of the basic biogeochemical processes and their effects on trace element distributions. While many studies have validated the general temporal patterns of peat records, there has been a limited critical examination of accumulation records in quantitative terms. To be certain that we extract not only a qualitative record from peat, it is important that we establish a quantitative link between the archive and the few to several decades of data that are available from contemporary monitoring and research. The main objective of this doctoral thesis was to focus on improving the link between the long-term paleorecord and the contemporary monitoring data available from biomonitoring and direct deposition observations. The main research questions have therefore been: Are peat archives an absolute or relative record? And how are geochemical signals, including dating, incorporated in the peat archive? What temporal resolution is realistic to interpret by using peat cores?

Fingerprints are unique to individuals and have been used as a method of identification in criminal investigations since the late nineteenth century. The majority of fingerprints are latent, i.e. non-visible, and require enhancement for their visualisation. Although many methods have been developed for this purpose, the recovery rate in the form of a useable print, is still disappointingly low for metallic surfaces, especially from discharged cartridges. This work aimed to explore the application of a new technique to utilise the insulating properties of fingerprint deposits, on a range of metallic surfaces. Fingerprint residue can ‘mask’ the surface preventing the electrochemical deposition of a reagent on the bare surface. Here, this takes the form of two different electrochromic polymers, polyaniline and poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene, to produce a negative image of the print. Fingerprint samples were subjected to diverse environments for a range of time intervals. The enhancements were graded on a five point scale devised by Bandey, where prints graded 0-2 are considered unusable and prints graded 3-4 are usable for identification purposes. Using this scale the technique was assessed in a comparative study with existing methods (powder dusting, wet powder and superglue fuming). The outcomes identified superglue fuming as least effective and poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene to be the material of choice when an sample’s history was unknown. Exploitation of the polymer’s electrochromic properties (oxidation/reduction via applied electric potential), to optimise contrast between print and substrate, resulted in the upgrading (from unusable to useable) of 16 % of samples. Project objectives were achieved; the technique was applied to challenging surfaces via the progression from model substrates to alloys to evidentially viable items. Latent fingerprints were enhanced on stainless steel, nickel plated brass, copper, lead and most importantly previously fired brass cartridges.

‘It is always dark ahead of the pick!’ This centuries-old miners’ expression still reveals the uncertainty about the upcoming rock properties during exploration and extraction processes. It is still tough to predict what a drill rig or a cutting machine will experience during operation. However, in terms of safety, energy consumption and the performance of the whole machine it would be beneficial to be able to monitor such an extraction process. Hence, different sensors or sensor combinations are tested during cutting and drilling processes within RealTime Mining project. First aim is to depict the machine performance of the machine at any time. In a second step sensor information is also used to conclude on mechanical rock properties during the process. Measuring the machine performance for cutting and drilling is quite similar and has been condensed under the terms Monitoring-While-Cutting (MWC) respectively Monitoring-While-Drilling (MWD). Both monitoring systems contain a bundle of sensors to depict the whole process. As an example, the energy demand of such a machine can be determined by measuring the power consumption of the engines constantly. Furthermore, the process parameters like advance rates and drilling or cutting speed have to be evaluated as well to be able to depict the whole extraction machine. To conclude on mechanical rock properties several other sensor solutions have been tested and finally integrated into those monitoring systems. One of the most important rock properties for drilling and cutting is the rock strength. Increasing rock strength during an extraction process leads to increasing forces that are needed to break a certain amount of rock. Hence, e.g. measuring the torque of a drill string or the cutting forces can be an indicator on rock resistance or rock strength. Not minor important, is the characteristic rock breakage behavior which can be classified by the use of ‘acoustic’ sensors. Dependent on the rock properties that currently is drilled or cut through a characteristic fracture occurs in front of the tool. This results in audible and also inaudible characteristic acoustic waves that propagate through the machine body and can be gathered on the machine by piezo-electric sensors. The interpretation of these signals could lead to a material classification already during the extraction process. Several tests of these sensor technologies have been conducted in laboratory environment as well in field tests. The most promising results are going to be presented.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
In 2009, the NAS published a report that was critical to forensic science, including the fingerprinting discipline. In particular, the report highlighted the fact that many of the claims made by LPEs are not backed up by scientific research. One of those claims is that if two fingerprints can be overlaid perfectly then one must be a copy. This study aims to provide research that will support or refute this claim and satisfy the demands of the NAS report. Additionally, this study was performed, in part, to show the ridge changes that occurred due to variations in pressure used when depositing a print on a surface. The study had 21 volunteers provide 10 sequentially laid fingerprints from the same finger. These prints were converted to a digital format. Each group's 10 fingerprints were individually overlaid onto each other in an effort to obtain the best possible agreement. Once this was done, the overlay percentage was determined. After all overlays were performed, additional data were collected to determine how ridge widths changed when there was a change in observable minutiae, presumably due to a decrease in the pressure used to generate the print. The data obtained indicate that, even when all variables other than the physical characteristic of the finger and the psychomotor capabilities of the volunteer are controlled, people are not able to generate prints that will perfectly overlay. Additionally, the data show that pressure distortion causes ridge widths to vary when prints are deposited. Moreover, minutiae loss in the print can also occur as a result of this type of distortion.

A novel ultrasonic signal detection and characterization technique is presented in this dissertation. The basic tool is a simplified time-frequency (scale) projection which is called a dynamic wavelet fingerprint. Take advantage of the matched filter and adaptive time-frequency analysis properties of the wavelet transform, the dynamic wavelet fingerprint is a coupled approach of detection and recognition. Different from traditional value-based approaches, the dynamic wavelet fingerprint based technique is pattern or knowledge based. It is intuitive and self-explanatory, which enables the direct observation of the variation of non-stationary ultrasonic signals, even in complex environments. Due to this transparent property, efficient detection and characterization algorithms can be customized to address specific problems. Furthermore, artificial intelligence can be integrated and expert systems can be developed based on it.;Several practical ultrasonic applications were used to evaluate the feasibility and performance of this technique. The first application was ultrasonic materials sorting. Dynamic wavelet fingerprints of echoes from the surface of different plates were generated and then used to successfully identify corresponding plates.;The second application was ultrasonic periodontal probing. The dynamic wavelet fingerprint technique was used to expose the hidden trend of the complex waveforms. Taking the manual probing data as "gold standard", a 40% agreement ratio was achieved with a tolerance limit of 1mm. However, statistically, lack of agreement was found in terms of the "limits of agreement" of Bland and Altman.;The third application was multi-mode Lamb wave tomography. The dynamic wavelet fingerprint technique was used to extract arrival times of transmitted Lamb wave modes. The overall quality of the estimated arrival times was acceptable in terms of their regular distributions and discernable variation patterns that correspond to specific defects. The tomographic images generated from estimated arrival times were also fine enough to indicate different defects in aluminum plates.;The last application was ultrasonic thin multi-layers inspection. High precision and robustness of a dynamic wavelet fingerprint based algorithm was demonstrated by processing simulated ultrasonic signals. When applied to practical data obtained from a plastic encapsulated IC package, multiple interfaces in the package were successfully detected.

Tissue mechanics determines tissue homeostasis, disease development and progression. Bladder strongly relies on its mechanical properties to perform its physiological function, but these are poorly unveiled under normal and pathological conditions. In addition, the bladder is a multilayer organ and it is thus needed to understand tissue mechanics at the microscale, spatially resolving the different bladder layers and their contribution to altered tissue mechanics. This thesis aimed to characterize the micromechanical fingerprints of the healthy bladder wall, and to identify modifications associated with the onset and progression of pathological conditions of actinic cystitis and bladder cancer. To do so I used two indentation-based instruments (an Atomic Force Microscope and a nanoindenter) and compared the micromechanical maps with a comprehensive histological analysis. I found that the healthy bladder is a mechanically inhomogeneous tissue, with a gradient of increasing stiffness (in terms of Young’s modulus, YM) from the urothelium to the lamina propria, which gradually decreased when reaching the muscle layer. Stiffening in fibrotic tissues correlated with increased deposition of dense extracellular matrix in the lamina propria. An increase in tissue compliance was observed before the onset and invasion of the tumor. In addition, aiming to establish an experimental approach that would facilitate its application to the clinical environment, I here used Brillouin imaging to investigate healthy and fibrotic bladder, and confront the mechanical information from this non-contact technique to the gold-standard in nanomechanics (indentation-based mechanical tests). While Brillouin imaging reported the same mechanical trend observed by indentation-based mechanical tests when investigating intrinsic mechanical heterogeneities of the bladder wall, a decrease of Brillouin shift in fibrotic bladder was observed contrary to the increased YM measured by indentation-based mechanical tests, thus highlighting different physical phenomena detected by the different techniques and the need to further investigate correlations between both techniques. By providing high resolution micromechanical investigation of each tissue layer of the bladder, I here depicted the intrinsic mechanical heterogeneity of the layers of the healthy bladder as compared with the mechanical properties alterations associated with either actinic cystitis or bladder tumor; and provided an accurate comparison of the gold-standard technique in biomechanics to Brillouin imaging.
Tissue mechanics determines tissue homeostasis, disease development and progression. Bladder strongly relies on its mechanical properties to perform its physiological function, but these are poorly unveiled under normal and pathological conditions. In addition, the bladder is a multilayer organ and it is thus needed to understand tissue mechanics at the microscale, spatially resolving the different bladder layers and their contribution to altered tissue mechanics. This thesis aimed to characterize the micromechanical fingerprints of the healthy bladder wall, and to identify modifications associated with the onset and progression of pathological conditions of actinic cystitis and bladder cancer. To do so I used two indentation-based instruments (an Atomic Force Microscope and a nanoindenter) and compared the micromechanical maps with a comprehensive histological analysis. I found that the healthy bladder is a mechanically inhomogeneous tissue, with a gradient of increasing stiffness (in terms of Young’s modulus, YM) from the urothelium to the lamina propria, which gradually decreased when reaching the muscle layer. Stiffening in fibrotic tissues correlated with increased deposition of dense extracellular matrix in the lamina propria. An increase in tissue compliance was observed before the onset and invasion of the tumor. In addition, aiming to establish an experimental approach that would facilitate its application to the clinical environment, I here used Brillouin imaging to investigate healthy and fibrotic bladder, and confront the mechanical information from this non-contact technique to the gold-standard in nanomechanics (indentation-based mechanical tests). While Brillouin imaging reported the same mechanical trend observed by indentation-based mechanical tests when investigating intrinsic mechanical heterogeneities of the bladder wall, a decrease of Brillouin shift in fibrotic bladder was observed contrary to the increased YM measured by indentation-based mechanical tests, thus highlighting different physical phenomena detected by the different techniques and the need to further investigate correlations between both techniques. By providing high resolution micromechanical investigation of each tissue layer of the bladder, I here depicted the intrinsic mechanical heterogeneity of the layers of the healthy bladder as compared with the mechanical properties alterations associated with either actinic cystitis or bladder tumor; and provided an accurate comparison of the gold-standard technique in biomechanics to Brillouin imaging.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2005.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 78 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-75).

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Luciano Silva
Coorientador : Profª. Olga Regina Pereira Bellon
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Exatas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Informática. Defesa: Curitiba, 28/06/2016
Inclui referências : f. 75-82
Área de concentração
Resumo: Um método para se obter impressões digitais 3D da derme e da epiderme a partir de imagens em alta resolução adquiridas utilizando Tomografia de Coerência Ótica (OCT) é proposto neste trabalho. Este método, resolve limitações das técnicas de reconstrução 3D de impressões digitais que empregam múltiplas câmeras/triangulação ou iluminação estruturada, tais como variações de resolução do centro para as bordas das impressões digitais 3D causadas por erros de reconstrução, sensibilidade a baixa iluminação e contraste insuficiente. Uma técnica de busca e identificação baseados em padrões inovativos, os "mapas KH " (usados para a segmentação de regiões de superfície em imagens de intensidade e de profundidade), extraídos computando as curvaturas Gaussiana (K) e média (H) de uma região de interesse na vizinhança das minúcias (denominada nuvem de minúcia), é apresentada. Grandes bases de mapas KH, uma para cada nuvem de minúcia identificada, podem ser construídos com essa técnica. A estratégia de busca e identificação, em duas etapas, baseia-se primeiro em padrões locais de gradientes (LGP) dos mapas KH, para reduzir o espaço de busca dentro da base, seguidos de uma comparação que utiliza uma medida de similaridade, a correlação cruzada normalizada dos padrões pré-selecionados com o LGP com os que se quer identificar. A acuracidade do método e sua compatibilidade com os métodos correntes, comparável ou superior à dos métodos 2D, é verificada através da identificação biométrica de impressões digitais 3D utilizando duas bases de imagens, uma adquirida através da tecnologia OCT e a outra gentilmente cedida pela Universidade Politécnica de Hong Kong. A base de imagens OCT, a primeira adquirida com essa tecnologia, é composta de imagens coletadas de onze voluntários em duas sessões de escaneamento e contém imagens de dedos de pessoas com diferentes idades, gênero e etnias e contém casos de cicatrizes, calos e alterações, tais como abrasão e arranhões. Uma base de impressões digitais 2D, obtida dos mesmos voluntários através de um leitor regular de impressões digitais, foi adquirida para permitir uma comparação da técnica proposta com os métodos de identificação tradicionais. A aplicabilidade do método proposto à identificação de impressões digitais alteradas, deterioradas acidentalmente ou intencionalmente, é investigada. Nesses casos, a impressão digital 3D extraída da derme e compatível com a da epiderme é empregada. A identificação destas impressões 3D alteradas é testada utilizando a base de imagens adquiridas com OCT. A acuracidade da técnica é comparada com a obtida utilizando os métodos tradicionais 2D usando os gráficos de taxas de Falsa Aceitação e Falsa Rejeição (FAXxFRR) e de Características Cumulativas de Identificação (CMC). Impressões digitais 2D, extraídas a partir das impressões digitais 3D simulando o rolamento do dedo durante a aquisição (rolamento virtual), foram geradas e sua compatibilidade com as bases de imagens 2D foi testada. Um conjunto de medidas de avaliação de qualidade foram aplicados às bases de imagens de impressões digitais 3D e sua correspondência aos escores de identificação foi analisada para determinar aqueles que podem contribuir para melhorar a acuracidade da identificação. Palavras-chave: Impressões digitais 3D. Identificação Biométrica. Tomografia de Coerência Ótica.
Abstract: A method to obtain epidermal and dermal 3D fingerprints from high-resolution images acquired using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is proposed. This method addresses limitations of current 3D reconstruction techniques that employ multiple cameras/triangulation or structured illumination such as depth and resolution variations from the center to the borders of the fingerprint caused by reconstruction errors, sensitivity to low illumination and poor contrast. The availability of these 3D fingerprints allowed the creation of new matching methods that benefit from the rich information available in 3D. A 3D fingerprint matching technique based on novel patterns, the KH maps (used to surface region segmentation in range and intensity images), extracted by computing the Gaussian and mean curvatures (SILVA; BELLON; GOTARDO, 2001) from a region of interest around the minutiae, named minutiae clouds is presented. Large databases of KH maps, one for each identified minutiae cloud can be built. The matching strategy, a two-step approach, relies on local gradient patterns (LGP) of the KH maps to narrow the search space, followed by a similarity matching, the normalized cross correlation of patterns being matched. The accuracy and matching compatibility, comparable or improved in relation to the 2D matching methods, is verified through matching 3D fingerprints from two databases one acquired using OCT and a public database gently made available by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The OCT database, the first 3D database acquired using Optical Coherence Tomography, to our knowledge, is made of images collected from eleven volunteers in two scanning sessions and contains images of people of different ages, genders and ethnicities and also cases of scars, calluses and alterations as abrasion and scratches. A 2D fingerprint database, scanned from the same volunteers using a regular fingerprint reader was also obtained for comparison with traditional matching methods. We investigate the applicability of our method to the identification of altered fingerprints, damaged unintentionally or accidentally. In these cases, the 3D dermal fingerprint, compatible with the epidermis fingerprint, is employed. Matching with 3D dermal and epidermal fingerprints is tested in the OCT database. Matching accuracy is compared with the obtained using traditional matching 2D methods by using False Acceptance and False rejection rate (FARxFRR) and Cumulative Matching Characteristics (CMC) graphs. Unwrapped fingerprints, 2D fingerprints extracted from 3D fingerprints by virtual unrolling were generated and tested for compatibility with 2D databases. A set of quality evaluation measures were employed to the 3D fingerprint databases and their correspondence to the matching scores was analyzed to identify those that can contribute to improve the matching accuracy. Key-words: 3D Fingerprints. Biometric identification. Optical Coherence Tomography.

A fingerprint offers a convenient matrix for drug testing as samples can be deposited rapidly and securely. In this thesis, different strategies for quantitative analysis of fingerprint residues were explored. The variability in mass of a deposited fingerprint measured by a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was found to be up to 100% for multiple donors. Fingerprint depositions could be controlled to 21% for a single donor by washing hands, controlling the deposition pressure and wait time. With the aim of reducing the variability of analyte signals detected, the following approaches were tested for feasibility: (a) Normalising the intensity of endogenous compounds to the measured mass (b) Normalising the intensity of caffeine and its metabolites to endogenous compounds detected in multiple fingerprints using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and in single fingerprints using liquid extraction surface analysis-mass spectrometry (LESA-MS) (c) Developing fingerprints deposited on paper using ninhydrin and normalising to the signal intensity of Ruhemann’s purple, and to a “photo scaling” method developed in this thesis. (d) Normalisation to a “fingerprint reader” developed by Intelligent Fingerprinting Limited, which gives a signal relating to the amount of fingerprint deposited on a glass slide. Using approach (a) there was no clear relationship between the mass of fingerprint measured and the intensity of endogenous compounds measured by LC-MS. Using approach (b) it was possible to reduce (or at least maintain) the variability in replicate fingerprint depositions to below 20% as required of a quantitative method. Using approach (c) normalisation to the mean grey value and integrated density value improved variation in theobromine to below 20% in all samples. Finally using approach (d) normalisation to the “fingerprint reader” reduced the variability below 20%. The thesis therefore concludes that either approach (b), (c), or (d) could be explored further in future work for quantification of fingerprint residues.