Bioimaging and Biomedical Optics Commons^™

Automatic Brain Tumor Segmentation By Deep Convolutional Networks And Graph Cuts, Zhenyi Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Brain tumor segmentation in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is helpful for diagnostics, growth rate prediction, tumor volume measurements and treatment planning of brain tumor. The difficulties for brain tumor segmentation are mainly due to high variation of brain tumors in size, shape, regularity, location, and their heterogeneous appearance (e.g., contrast, intensity and texture variation for different tumors). Due to recent advances in deep convolutional neural networks for semantic image segmentation, automatic brain tumor segmentation is a promising research direction.

This thesis investigates automatic brain tumor segmentation by combining deep convolutional neural network with regularization by a graph cut. We ...

Association Between Left Ventricular Mechanics And Diffuse Myocardial Fibrosis In Patients With Repaired Tetralogy Of Fallot: A Cross-Sectional Study, Christopher M. Haggerty, Jonathan D. Suever, Arichanah Pulenthiran, Abba Mejia-Spiegeler, Gregory J. Wehner, Linyuan Jing, Richard J. Charnigo, Brandon K. Fornwalt, Mark A. Fogel

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) have progressive, adverse biventricular remodeling, leading to abnormal contractile mechanics. Defining the mechanisms underlying this dysfunction, such as diffuse myocardial fibrosis, may provide insights into poor long-term outcomes. We hypothesized that left ventricular (LV) diffuse fibrosis is related to impaired LV mechanics.

Methods: Patients with TOF were evaluated with cardiac magnetic resonance in which modified Look-Locker (MOLLI) T1-mapping and spiral cine Displacement encoding (DENSE) sequences were acquired at three LV short-axis positions. Linear mixed modeling was used to define the association between regional LV mechanics from DENSE based on regional T1-derived diffuse ...

Material Properties Design Using Simulations And Experiments For Powder Injection Molding Of Lead Zirconate Titanate (Pzt)., Bhushan Pramod Bandiwadekar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Powder injection molding (PIM) process simulations can be performed to minimize the number of injection molding experiments by estimating material properties necessary for PIM simulations. In current work, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) powder-polymer binder feedstock was compounded for 45 vol. % and 52 vol. % solids loading. PIM experiments on designed micro-pillar array geometry were performed using 52 vol. % PZT. Using PIM experiments results as basis, PIM simulations were performed on designed micro-pillar array geometries to understand the effectiveness of PIM simulations with the use of estimated feedstock properties in predicting molding behavior that have micro-features. Additionally, PIM simulations were performed to ...

Egcg Protects Against 6-Ohda-Induced Neurotoxicity In A Cell Culture Model, Dan Chen, Anumantha G. Kanthasamy, Manju B. Reddy

Manju B. Reddy

Background. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes severe brain dopamine depletion. Disruption of iron metabolism may be involved in the PD progression. Objective. To test the protective effect of (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) against 6-hydroxydopamine- (6-OHDA-) induced neurotoxicity by regulating iron metabolism in N27 cells. Methods. Protection by EGCG in N27 cells was assessed by SYTOX green assay, MTT, and caspase-3 activity. Iron regulatory gene and protein expression were measured by RT-PCR and Western blotting. Intracellular iron uptake was measured using 55Fe. The EGCG protection was further tested in primary mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons by immunocytochemistry. Results. EGCG ...

Ambulatory Systolic Blood Pressure And Obesity Are Independently Associated With Left Ventricular Hypertrophic Remodeling In Children, Linyuan Jing, Christopher D. Nevius, Cassi M. Friday, Jonathan D. Suever, Arichanah Pulenthiran, Abba Mejia-Spiegeler, H. Lester Kirchner, William J. Cochran, Gregory J. Wehner, Aftab S. Chishti, Christopher M. Haggerty, Brandon K. Fornwalt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Children with obesity have hypertrophic cardiac remodeling. Hypertension is common in pediatric obesity, and may independently contribute to hypertrophy. We hypothesized that both the degree of obesity and ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) would independently associate with measures of hypertrophic cardiac remodeling in children.

Methods: Children, aged 8–17 years, prospectively underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and ABP monitoring. Left ventricular (LV) mass indexed to height^2.7(LVMI), myocardial thickness and end-diastolic volume were quantified from a 3D LV model reconstructed from cine balanced steady state free precession images. Categories of remodeling were determined based on cutoff values for ...

High Resolution Imaging Of The Mitral Valve In The Natural State With 7 Tesla Mri, Sam E. Stephens, Serguei Liachenko, Neil B. Ingels, Jonathan F. Wenk, Morten O. Jensen

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Imaging techniques of the mitral valve have improved tremendously during the last decade, but challenges persist. The delicate changes in annulus shape and papillary muscle position throughout the cardiac cycle have significant impact on the stress distribution in the leaflets and chords, thus preservation of anatomically accurate positioning is critical. The aim of this study was to develop an in vitro method and apparatus for obtaining high-resolution 3D MRI images of porcine mitral valves in both the diastolic and systolic configurations with physiologically appropriate annular shape, papillary muscle positions and orientations, specific to the heart from which the valve was ...

Use Of Imaging Biomarkers To Assess Perfusion And Glucose Metabolism In The Skeletal Muscle Of Dystrophic Mice, Nabeel Ahmad, Ian Welch, Robert Grange, Jennifer Hadway, Savita Dhanvantari, David Hill, Ting-Yim Lee, Lisa M Hoffman

Lisa Hoffman

BACKGROUND: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe neuromuscular disease that affects 1 in 3500 boys. The disease is characterized by progressive muscle degeneration that results from mutations in or loss of the cytoskeletal protein, dystrophin, from the glycoprotein membrane complex, thus increasing the susceptibility of contractile muscle to injury. To date, disease progression is typically assessed using invasive techniques such as muscle biopsies, and while there are recent reports of the use of magnetic resonance, ultrasound and optical imaging technologies to address the issue of disease progression and monitoring therapeutic intervention in dystrophic mice, our study aims to validate ...

Multi-Color Ultra-High Resolution Imaging, David A. Miller, Michael Mlodzianoski, Sheng Liu, Fang Huang

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Fluorescence microscopy, which allows multiple-color imaging, plays an important role in observing structures inside cells with high specificity. The advent of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, or nanoscopy techniques such as single-molecule switching nanoscopy (SMSN), has extended the application range of fluorescence microscopy beyond the diffraction limit, achieving up to 10-fold improvement in spatial resolution. At the same time, the recent development of expansion microscopy (ExM) allows samples to be physically expanded by 4-fold in the lateral dimensions providing another independent method to resolve structures beyond the diffraction limit. When combined, ExM-SMSN makes it possible to achieve another significant leap in resolution ...

Gui For Mri-Compatible Neural Stimulator And Recorder, Soo Han Soon, Nishant Babaria, Ranajay Mandal, Zhongming Liu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) are useful tools to analyze brain activities given active stimulation. However, the electromagnetic noise from the MRI distorts the brain signal recording and damages the subject with excessive heat generated on the electrodes attached to the skin. MRI-compatible recording and stimulation systems previously developed at LIBI lab were capable of removing the electromagnetic noise during the imaging process. Previously, the hardware systems had required the integrative software that could control both circuits simultaneously and enable users to easily change recording and stimulation parameters. Graphical user interface (GUI) programmed with computer language informed ...

Dual-Tuned Removable Common-Mode Current Trap For Mri, Angel G. Enriquez, Joseph V. Rispoli

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) are preferred methods of gathering information from the body due to their non-invasive approach of obtaining a diagnosis. MRI can obtain spatial mappings from a region of interest, while MRS can obtain metabolic information from different elements. Dual-tuned radiofrequency (RF) coils are able to capture signals produced by both hydrogen atoms and a second atom of interest. Unwanted shield currents occur in these scans, which can cause image distortion, while the high energy dissipated can create harmful heat, which can injure the patient. These shield currents, also known as common-mode currents ...

Nanostructured Biosensor For Tear Glucose Detection Based On Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (Bret) Mechanism., Denghuang Zhan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (BRET), a sensitive, non-destructive and self-illuminated method, has been now commonly used to test protein interactions. Here, we describe a BRET sensor for non-invasively detecting glucose molecules. The sensor is made by the bioconjugation of quantum dots and recombinant protein. The recombinant protein contains the bacterial glucose binding protein (GBP) and a bioluminescent protein, Renilla luciferase (Rluc), used as the donor with the emission peak at 470 nm, which is able to excite the acceptor of BRET sensor made of cadmium tellurium quantum dots ( CdTe QDs) with the emission peak at 570 nm. The distance between ...

Segmentation Of Heart Ventricles Using Skeletal Representations, Hasana Chaudry, Toshiro Kubota

Landmark Conference Summer Research Symposium

The objective of the project is to develop practical algorithms to segment the human heart’s left and right ventricles from isotropic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). An advanced algorithm that allows for efficient analysis of the ventricles in 3D or 4D would help diagnose and treat numerous cardiac diseases and illnesses. The left ventricle is a convex-like structure whereas the right ventricle has a relatively more abstract shape. The constant blood flow in and out of the ventricles causes them to look different at any given time. Therefore, our data set is in 4D where the fourth dimension is time ...

Multi-Material Mesh Representation Of Anatomical Structures For Deep Brain Stimulation Planning, Tanweer Rashid

Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The Dual Contouring algorithm (DC) is a grid-based process used to generate surface meshes from volumetric data. However, DC is unable to guarantee 2-manifold and watertight meshes due to the fact that it produces only one vertex for each grid cube. We present a modified Dual Contouring algorithm that is capable of overcoming this limitation. The proposed method decomposes an ambiguous grid cube into a set of tetrahedral cells and uses novel polygon generation rules that produce 2-manifold and watertight surface meshes with good-quality triangles. These meshes, being watertight and 2-manifold, are geometrically correct, and therefore can be used to ...

A Review Of Autoimmune Diseases Associated With Cancer, Patricia Tai, Edward Yu, Kurian Joseph, Thomas Miale

Edward Yu

The focus of this review is on the relationships between autoimmune diseases and cancer from two closely related perspectives: 1.Those autoimmune diseases which are often associated with malignancies. 2.Those prevalent cancers which may increase the risks of developing autoimmune disorders. The review concludes with a brief discussion of some selected innovative approaches to cancer immunotherapy.

Robot Assisted Ultrasound Imaged Guided Interstitial Lung Brachytherapy In A Porcine Model, Richard A. Malthaner, Edward Yu, Jerry J. Battista, Chris Blake, Donal Downey, Aaron Fenster

Edward Yu

We set out to see if permanent interstitial brachytherapy seeds could be safely and reproducibly inserted thoracoscopicaly with the ZEUS Robotic system and intraoperative ultrasound into in-vivo porcine lungs.

A Review Of Autoimmune Diseases Associated With Cancer, Patricia Tai, Edward Yu, Kurian Joseph, Thomas Miale

Edward Yu

The focus of this review is on the relationships between autoimmune diseases and cancer from two closely related perspectives: 1.Those autoimmune diseases which are often associated with malignancies. 2.Those prevalent cancers which may increase the risks of developing autoimmune disorders. The review concludes with a brief discussion of some selected innovative approaches to cancer immunotherapy.

Metabolic Response To Stress Differentiates Heterogeneous Cancer Cells With Varying Metastatic Potential, Kinan Alhallak

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Intratumoral heterogeneity is ubiquitously present within primary tumors and contributes to intractable behaviors such as metastasis and mutability spatiotemporally. Mounting evidence has shown that heterogeneous cell populations can adversely affect cell metabolism and metastatic potential. The cell’s only fluorescent molecules within the electron transport chain, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), can allow the quantitation of cell metabolism. We demonstrate the use of the optical redox ratio (FAD/(NADH+FAD)) to determine the metabolic behaviors of a heterogeneous panel of cells with varying metastatic programs at normal conditions and following acute hypoxia. At normal conditions, we ...

In Vivo Multi-Parametric Imaging Of Metastatic And Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer, Raisa B. Rasul

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A current issue in cancer therapy is the characterization of metastatic tumors, which can increase ease of treatment and patient trials. We present an in vivo study of metastatic (4T1) and non-metastatic (4T1-TWIST KO) breast tumor sister cell lines to understand their metabolic behavior, determine differences in two modes of imaging (reflection & transmission), and observe effect of breathing higher oxygen percentage on vascular hemoglobin oxygen saturation. After injection of 10,000 cells into mice dorsal window chambers, the glucose intake and hemoglobin oxygen saturation was measured using a fluorescent glucose analog (2-NBDG) and hyperspectral trans-illumination imaging from 520-620 nm at ...

A Novel Mra-Based Framework For The Detection Of Changes In Cerebrovascular Blood Pressure., Yitzhak Atakilt Gebru

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: High blood pressure (HBP) affects 75 million adults and is the primary or contributing cause of mortality in 410,000 adults each year in the United States. Chronic HBP leads to cerebrovascular changes and is a significant contributor for strokes, dementia, and cognitive impairment. Non-invasive measurement of changes in cerebral vasculature and blood pressure (BP) may enable physicians to optimally treat HBP patients. This manuscript describes a method to non-invasively quantify changes in cerebral vasculature and BP using Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) imaging.

Methods: MRA images and BP measurements were obtained from patients (n=15, M=8, F=7 ...

Low-Cost Optics For Field-Based Optical Biosensors, Viktoriia Kriuchkovskaia

Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression

One of the main reasons of failures to ensure safe food production, especially in developing countries, is the lack of effective, low-cost detectors for toxic molecules. The manufacture of low-cost, easy-touse optical biosensors is expected to provide the means to detect toxic chemical and biological molecules in agricultural industry. Thus, such technologies are highly beneficial for in-field applications. The proposed approach integrates fairly sophisticated engineering concepts and low-cost parts and materials. Indeed, we employ low-cost light-emitting diode and single-board Raspberry Pi computer in order to build a fifty-dollar optical reader that can be applied to Nanotube-based biosensors. Previous research and ...