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A Deep Learning Framework For Medical Image Segmentation, Zheng Zhang
A Deep Learning Framework For Medical Image Segmentation, Zheng Zhang
All ETDs from UAB
Deep Learning (DL) has rapidly become a methodology of choice for analyzing medical images and increasingly attracts researcher’s attention in the medical research community. The brain is one of the most important organs in the human body. Within the context of human brain disease, research and care, accurately detecting, evaluating and segmenting human brain abnormalities play an important role in brain disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment planning. A significant challenge in developing good brain abnormalities segmentation methods is the high variation of brain abnormalities such as differences in shape, size, location, appearance, and regularity. Deep Learning approach ad-dresses this challenge …
Rapid Melting Of Aluminum Alloys By Induction Melting, Carlos Alfonso Larrazabal Colina
Rapid Melting Of Aluminum Alloys By Induction Melting, Carlos Alfonso Larrazabal Colina
All ETDs from UAB
RAPID MELTING OF ALUMINUM ALLOYS BY INDUCTION MELTING CARLOS ALFONSO LARRAZABAL COLINA MATERIAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ABSTRACT Die-casting and high-pressure die-casting are manufacturing processes meant to produce high volumes of parts. However, the die-casting industry suffers when the market is low or when short quantities of a part are needed, because this process may not be as flexible in small quantities. In such situations, one piece of the operation that is inflexible is running excess melting and holding furnace capacity. Rapid induction melting systems are proposed here as an alternative to big furnaces to provide amounts of molten metal in …
Enhanced Proangiogenic Activity Of Endothelial Cells In Response To Polyglutamate Domain-Modified Qk Peptides Delivered On Bone Grafting Materials, Nicholas Weldon Pensa
Enhanced Proangiogenic Activity Of Endothelial Cells In Response To Polyglutamate Domain-Modified Qk Peptides Delivered On Bone Grafting Materials, Nicholas Weldon Pensa
All ETDs from UAB
Over 2 million bone grafting procedures are performed annually. To meet the high demand for these surgeries, commercial grafting materials sourced from allograft, xenograft, and synthetic calcium phosphate have become widely popular clinically. One limitation of these grafts, however, is their lack of growth factors that drive angiogenesis during bone tissue regeneration. Insufficient revascularization of the injured bone tissue leads to poor fracture healing. However, reincorporating angiogenic factors on grafting materials has proven challenging due to limited surface interactions between the protein and mineral graft surface. To address this challenge, we have synthesized a polyglutamate domain to the VEGF mimetic …
Genetic And Epigenetic Underpinnings Of End-Stage Human Heart Failure, Mark Emile Pepin
Genetic And Epigenetic Underpinnings Of End-Stage Human Heart Failure, Mark Emile Pepin
All ETDs from UAB
Heart failure (HF) is the clinical endpoint of numerous diseases that negatively impact the heart’s capacity to pump and/or fill with blood. A variety of genetic and environmental factors have been identified as critical determinants of HF susceptibility; however, these factors cannot independently explain the phenotypic diversity of human HF. Instead, a complex interplay has been theorized to exist between genetics and the environment, although the molecular underpinnings of this synergy remain poorly understood. Of the possible mechanisms, epigenetic influences are uniquely capable of explaining how acute stressors of the cardiac microenvironment trigger the stable – yet reversible – reprogramming …
Optimizing Toc Removal For Dbp Reduction In Drinking Water While Overcoming Source Water Variations, April Nabors
Optimizing Toc Removal For Dbp Reduction In Drinking Water While Overcoming Source Water Variations, April Nabors
All ETDs from UAB
Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering University of Alabama at Birmingham ABSTRACT This dissertation used a holistic approach to research ways to optimize disinfection by-product (DBP) reduction during each sector of the conventional drinking water treatment process, regardless of the source water type or quality, in an overall effort to meet the USEPA Stage 2 Disinfection/Disinfection By-Products Rule (D/DBPR). DBPs are formed from the reaction between naturally occurring total organic carbon (TOC) in the water and disinfectants used during the treatment process. For this dissertation, effective treatment was measured by the amount of TOC that was removed through the …
Drive-By Bridge Monitoring And Damage Detection, Chengjun Tan
Drive-By Bridge Monitoring And Damage Detection, Chengjun Tan
All ETDs from UAB
Bridges are key components of the transportation network, and their safety is essential to maintain effective and safe operation of the transportation facilities. To maintain the structural integrity of the bridges, it is essential to estimate the extent and location of the structural damage through periodic monitoring. Therefore, there is considerable interest in bridge damage detection and considerable progress has been made in recent years. The traditional bridge health monitoring requires many sensors installed on the bridge to collect vibration data for damage assessment, which is expensive, time-consuming, and even dangerous in-site. Compared with traditional ways, the concept of indirect …
Behavior Of Fillet Welds In Skewed Joints, Mohamed Salah Gallow
Behavior Of Fillet Welds In Skewed Joints, Mohamed Salah Gallow
All ETDs from UAB
Fillet weld connections are very common in steel structures because they are easier and cheaper than other types of welded connections, such as groove welds. Several studies were performed on fillet weld of right dihedral angle, such as T-joints weld, to specify its capacity and failure mechanisms under different load directions. Nevertheless, the fillet weld strength analysis is based solely on the shear strength of the weld. Additionally, many of the current details commonly used for T-Joints were based on the requirements for groove welds. Fillet weld design concepts for skewed T-joints in the AWS D1.1 and AISC specifications are …
High Efficiency, Fast Dynamic Response Sc Dc-Dc Converter For Battery Management System, Ruikuan Lu
High Efficiency, Fast Dynamic Response Sc Dc-Dc Converter For Battery Management System, Ruikuan Lu
All ETDs from UAB
Batteries have always been considered as one of the important, reliable, light-weight, and ubiquitous energy sources in our daily lives. As battery technology has progressed, different types of battery controlling, monitoring, and supervising technologies are also being rapidly developed. Most of the modern portable electronic devices are battery-powered (lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, fuel cells, etc.). The charging and discharging of the batteries are normally based on DC-DC converter. Form converter structure, the switches and capacitors based converter without inductive components is widely applied. In addition, the switched-capacitor (SC) converters are typically integrated with a monolithic integrated circuit, the low-cost and …
Bridge Safety Against Multi-Hazard, Yahya Mohammed Mohammed
Bridge Safety Against Multi-Hazard, Yahya Mohammed Mohammed
All ETDs from UAB
Multiple hazards (e.g., earthquake, wind gust, flood, vessel collision, traffic overload and accidents, and terrorist attacks, etc.) must be properly considered in highway bridge design in addition to the normal functionality requirements. Unfortunately, the structural health of bridges are continuously deteriorated over time, this in tandem with an excessive increase in hazard events, which makes the network extremely vulnerable to natural hazards. The main goal of this dissertation is to provide methods to investigate bridges safety against multi-hazard by obtaining load scenarios and evaluation of the performance based on these loads. Hazard events have been divided into routine events and …
Hardware Security In Carbon Based Digital Integrated Circuits, Ahmed Abdelaziz
Hardware Security In Carbon Based Digital Integrated Circuits, Ahmed Abdelaziz
All ETDs from UAB
Carbon based integrated circuits (ICs) built with Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor (CNTFET) and Graphene Nanoribbon Field Effect Transistor (GNRFET) are established as viable replacement for Silicon based Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET) in order to meet the demands of future high density ICs with sub-nm channel lengths. Given the inevitability of such development, it is important to establish an understanding of the security vulnerabilities in Carbon based ICs. In this work, we have studied the important hardware security vulnerabilities that plague current MOSFET technology, in CNTFET and GNRFET based ICs. Based on our studies on hardware Trojans …
Wireless Smart Bandage For Real-Time Monitoring And Healing Of Chronic Wounds, Ting Zhang
Wireless Smart Bandage For Real-Time Monitoring And Healing Of Chronic Wounds, Ting Zhang
All ETDs from UAB
Chronic wound recovery time is long and easy to recur, which brings a high burden on the patient's physical and psychological aspects. The increase in the cost of per capita medical services and the increase in the number of people in demand for medical services have led to an increasing requirement for real-time monitoring and healing in patient's health outside of the hospital. For this purpose, the smart bandage is being developed to monitor the real-time situation of the wound. With the development of wireless sensor networks, the increasing number of sensing units has placed a great burden on the …
Modeling And Optimization Of Advanced Hybrid Ground Source Heat Pump Systems, Gaoyang Hou
Modeling And Optimization Of Advanced Hybrid Ground Source Heat Pump Systems, Gaoyang Hou
All ETDs from UAB
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems contribute significantly to building energy efficiency. Most conventional HVAC systems, such as electrical resistance heater or air to air heat pumps, require high energy consumption while generating a large amount of carbon emission. Therefore, the HVAC system of a building has become the core part of the building design process to improve energy efficiency. Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) offering a relatively high coefficient of performance (COP) and low carbon emission have become a widely-accepted choice. By adding assistive components or alternative heat exchangers, the overall performance can be boosted to a new …
Transdisciplinary Problem-Solving Using Convergence-Based Engineering Modeling And Communication Theory, Darrell Fielder
Transdisciplinary Problem-Solving Using Convergence-Based Engineering Modeling And Communication Theory, Darrell Fielder
All ETDs from UAB
Convergence, an approach to problem-solving that transcends disciplinary boundaries, is increasingly viewed as a key enabler in the development of timely, cost-effective, and resilient solutions for some of society’s most vexing problems in healthcare, energy, and other complex problem domains. This transdisciplinary convergence, with its emphasis on collaboration beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries (electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, and project management), is necessary to bridge the communication chasms that often emerge in silo-based research and problem-solving. These communication rifts, deepened by language, jargon, process, and technical differences between disciplines, represent major impediments to collective research. In this dissertation, …
Renewables-Integrated Internal Combustion Engine-Based Multi-Generation Options For Uab Buildings, Qing Mu
Renewables-Integrated Internal Combustion Engine-Based Multi-Generation Options For Uab Buildings, Qing Mu
All ETDs from UAB
Distributed energy, also district or decentralized energy is generated or stored by a variety of small, grid-connected devices referred to as distributed energy resources, or distributed energy resource systems. The Distributed Generation (DG) systems can increase energy system reliability, reduce peak power requirements, and improve energy infrastructure resilience. In this study, a DG system using renewable energy sources and energy storage has been introduced for the whole University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) campus. The energy sources for this DG system are photovoltaic arrays, a natural-gas-powered Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), and wind turbines. The energy storage component used in this …
A Deep Learning Approach For Identifying Key Biomarkers In Medical Imaging Applications, David Odaibo
A Deep Learning Approach For Identifying Key Biomarkers In Medical Imaging Applications, David Odaibo
All ETDs from UAB
Although Deep Leaning has achieved great success in many domains in recent years, research into its applicability and effectiveness in medical applications has been limited for various reasons. Some of these barriers are related to the historic impression that neural networks are black boxes, especially when applied to medical diagnosis and offer no in terpretation into prediction. In this dissertation, I demonstrated that deep learning can be an effective utility in medical diagnosis and biomarker detection. In particular, I have developed deep learning models that can identify biomarkers in brain hemorrhage, brain tumor, pneumonia, diabetic retinopathy and Parkinsons disease, with …
Bmp2-Derived Molecules For Increasing Osteoinductivity Of Bone Grafts To Enhance Bone Regeneration, Andrew Scott Curry
Bmp2-Derived Molecules For Increasing Osteoinductivity Of Bone Grafts To Enhance Bone Regeneration, Andrew Scott Curry
All ETDs from UAB
The “gold standard” of bone grafting materials is autograft. Unfortunately, autogenous bone must first be harvested from the patient, leading to complications such as donor site morbidity. Because of this, many surgeons rely on non-autogenous bone grafting materials. While these grafts are more available than autogenous bone, they require extensive processing which significantly reduces their osteoinductivity. Therefore, there is substantial interest in finding ways to add osteoinductive molecules to these grafts. Previously, our lab has focused on utilizing molecules derived from bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) with an attached hydroxyapatite-binding domain (polyglutamate) to anchor them onto bone grafting materials. Previous …
Towards Safeguarding Users Against Phishing And Ransomware Attacks, Arsh Arora
Towards Safeguarding Users Against Phishing And Ransomware Attacks, Arsh Arora
All ETDs from UAB
Over the past decade, malicious software (malware) attacks have skyrocketed and increased at a considerably faster pace than predicted. The variety in the number of malware categories is one of the contributing factors to this rapid insurgence. According to Microsoft statistics, a range of 300,000-400,000 malware binaries is observed on average per day. With this increase, there is an unmet need for innovative approaches to detect new malware, as current nomenclature is not equipped to handle the prevention against continuous growth. Developing appropriate preventive measures to stop these malware attacks has been an ongoing struggle for security experts. The most …
Connection Strengthening Scheme For Coastal Bridges Under Hurricane Induced Surge And Wave Load Using C-Iepm, Li He
All ETDs from UAB
Considerable damage to the highway bridge system in the Gulf Coast area was observed during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, of which the primary failure mode, caused primarily by the storm-induced loading, is believed to be the superstructure-substructure connection failure which caused further unseating and drifting of the decks. A new Carbon-fiber Interfacial Epoxy-Polyurea Matrix (C-IEPM) composite is investigated as a potential retrofit option for vulnerable girder-to-cap connection-details in coastal highway bridges. Six scaled concrete girders were tested using a modified simulated storm surge and slamming wave force function, derived using regional maps for a 100-year return-period Hurricane Katrina. Two girders, …