Engineering Commons^™

Image Restoration Using Automatic Damaged Regions Detection And Machine Learning-Based Inpainting Technique, Chloe Martin-King

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

In this dissertation we propose two novel image restoration schemes. The first pertains to automatic detection of damaged regions in old photographs and digital images of cracked paintings. In cases when inpainting mask generation cannot be completely automatic, our detection algorithm facilitates precise mask creation, particularly useful for images containing damage that is tedious to annotate or difficult to geometrically define. The main contribution of this dissertation is the development and utilization of a new inpainting technique, region hiding, to repair a single image by training a convolutional neural network on various transformations of that image. Region hiding is also …

Multi-Dimensional Extension Of The Alternating Minimization Algorithm In X-Ray Computed Tomography, Jingwei Lu

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an important and effective tool in medical and industrial imaging applications. The state-of-the-art methods to reconstruct CT images have had great development but also face challenges. This dissertation derives novel algorithms to reduce bias and metal artifacts in a wide variety of imaging modalities and increase performance in low-dose scenarios. The most widely available CT systems still use the single-energy CT (SECT), which is good at showing the anatomic structure of the patient body. However, in SECT image reconstruction, energy-related information is lost. In applications like radiation treatment planning and dose prediction, accurate energy-related information …

Multi-Dimensional Extension Of The Alternating Minimization Algorithm In X-Ray Computed Tomography, Jingwei Lu

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an important and effective tool in medical and industrial

imaging applications. The state-of-the-art methods to reconstruct CT images have had

great development but also face challenges. This dissertation derives novel algorithms to

reduce bias and metal artifacts in a wide variety of imaging modalities and increase performance

in low-dose scenarios.

The most widely available CT systems still use the single-energy CT (SECT), which is

good at showing the anatomic structure of the patient body. However, in SECT image

reconstruction, energy-related information is lost. In applications like radiation treatment

planning and dose prediction, accurate energy-related information …

Quantitatively Studying Tissue Damage In Multiple Sclerosis Using Gradient Recalled Echo Mri Sequences, Biao Xiang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain the body. MS is the most common progressive neurologic disease of young adults, affecting approximately 2.3 million people worldwide. It is estimated that more than 700,000 individuals are affected by MS in United States. While MS has been studied for decades, the cause of it is still not definite and a fully effective treatment for MS is not yet available. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used extensively in MS diagnosis and …

System Integration Of C-Arm Robotic Prototype Using Motion Capture Guidance For Accurate Repositioning, Alireza Yazdanshenas

Mechanical Engineering Theses

One of the important surgical tools in spinal surgery is the C-Arm X-ray System. The C-Arm is a large “C” shaped and manually maneuvered arm that provides surgeons and X-ray technicians the ability to take quick quality X-rays during surgery. Because of its five degrees of freedom, the C-Arm can be manually maneuvered around the patient to provide many angles and perspectives, ensuring surgical success.

This system works fine for most surgical procedures but falls short when the C-Arm must be moved out of the way for complicated surgical procedures.

The aim of this thesis is to develop an accurate …

Towards Stable Electrochemical Sensing For Wearable Wound Monitoring, Sohini Roychoudhury

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wearable biosensing has the tremendous advantage of providing point-of-care diagnosis and convenient therapy. In this research, methods to stabilize the electrochemical sensing response from detection of target biomolecules, Uric Acid (UA) and Xanthine, closely linked to wound healing, have been investigated. Different kinds of materials have been explored to address such detection from a wearable, healing platform. Electrochemical sensing modalities have been implemented in the detection of purine metabolites, UA and Xanthine, in the physiologically relevant ranges of the respective biomarkers. A correlation can be drawn between the concentrations of these bio-analytes and wound severity, thus offering probable quantitative insights …

A Microfluidics-Based Cross-Flow Filtration Platform For Rapid Processing Of Amphiphilic Biomarkers From Blood, Kiersten D. Lenz

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Early and accurate detection of bacterial infections can help save lives, prevent the spread of disease, and decrease the overuse of antibiotics. Our team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed novel assays to detect bacterial biomarkers from patient blood at the point-of-care in order to facilitate a universal diagnostic platform. However, these biomarkers are amphiphilic in nature, and this biochemical property causes them to be sequestered by high-density and low-density lipoproteins (HDL and LDL) in the host’s blood. Extraction of the bacterial biomarkers from the lipoprotein complexes is thereby required for the development and deployment of a diagnostic …

Neurostimulator With Waveforms Inspired By Nature For Wearable Electro-Acupuncture, Jose Aquiles Parodi Amaya

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The work presented here has 3 goals: establish the need for novel neurostimulation waveform solutions through a literature review, develop a neurostimulation pulse generator, and verify the operation of the device for neurostimulation applications.

The literature review discusses the importance of stimulation waveforms on the outcomes of neurostimulation, and proposes new directions for neurostimulation research that would help in improving the reproducibility and comparability between studies.

The pulse generator circuit is then described that generates signals inspired by the shape of excitatory or inhibitory post-synaptic potentials (EPSP, IPSP). The circuit analytical equations are presented, and the effects of the circuit …

Calidad Microbiológica Del Aire En Una Clínica Óptica, Nicolás Duarte, Sebastián Roa, Francy Méndez-C

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

Introducción: el aire como fluido está presente en diferentes espacios. Es probable quecontenga diferentes contaminantes, incluyendo microorganismos patógenos, que, debidoa factores ambientales, se encuentran dispersos en el entorno hospitalario, donde son responsablesde causar enfermedades en poblaciones vulnerables. Además de ser consideradascomo un riesgo para la salud, las enfermedades nosocomiales generan costos de tratamientomuy altos, que varían de 13 a 15 millones de pesos por enfermedad durante el tratamiento.Objetivo: determinar la calidad microbiológica del aire en los baños, los pasillos, la recepcióny algunos espacios de almacenamiento de una clínica óptica en Colombia. Método: serealizó una visita inicial a la clínica para …

Endoftalmitis Infecciosa Postraumática: Reporte De Caso, Yhisetd Gerardine Parada Jaimes, Manuel Fernando Buitrago

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

Introducción: la endoftalmitis es una inflamación severa del globo ocular; su mayor prevalencia es la exógena posquirúrgica; actualmente se evidencian pocos casos reportados por endoftalmitis infecciosa exógena postraumática por agente micótico; además, se tiene un factor de riesgo en su evolución, como lo es la diabetes mellitus tipo 2. Objetivo: describir las características nosológicas de la endoftalmitis postraumática. Métodos: se realizó un estudio observacional descriptivo tipo reporte de caso, que acogió los principios éticos de la declaración de Helsinki y la Resolución 8430 de 1993. Resultados: paciente masculino de 51 años de edad, de procedencia rural, ocupación agricultor; asiste al …

Actualización En Carcinoma Basocelular Periocular: Abordaje Semiológico Y Diagnóstico Diferencial, Luis Miguel Amaya Nieto, Luisa Fernanda Sierra Patiño, Héctor Horacio Pérez Estepa

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

Introducción: este artículo se basa en la revisión y profundización de conceptos actuales rela¬cionados con la semiología clínica y el diagnóstico diferencial, referentes al carcinoma basoce¬lular periocular (CBPO). Objetivo: describir las características semiológicas y los diagnósticos diferenciales del CBPO. Metodología: se realizó una revisión de literatura en las bases de datos ScienceDirect, BVS, Pubmed, SciELO y EBSCO/Medline, mediante los términos MeSH y DeCS “carcinoma”, “basal cell” y “carcinoma basocelular”, con el operador booleano “and” y el término “periocular”, en el periodo 2012-2018. Según el total de estudios relacionados con los términos de la búsqueda, fueron seleccionados artículos escritos en francés, …

Videojuegos Con Un Enfoque Binocular: Una Nueva Tendencia Para El Tratamieno De La Ambliopía, María José Navas Fernández, Diana Paola Ramírez Arcos

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

En la actualidad se estudia la importancia de reconocer la ambliopía como un desorden binocular, y por ello se empiezan a explorar nuevas alternativas para su tratamiento basadas en este principio. A pesar de que durante siglos la oclusión ha sido el tratamiento predilecto para esta condición y ha evidenciado mejoras en la agudeza visual, se dejan de lado características de la visión como la sensibilidad al contraste y la visión binocular. Este artículo analizará la información de fuen¬tes primarias y secundarias reportadas en la literatura sobre el enfoque binocular a través de la estimulación dicóptica con videojuegos, con el …

Prevalencia De Ojo Seco En Pacientes Que Acuden A La Clínica De Optometría De La Fesi, Unam, Pedro Navarro Luna, Alicia Vázquez Mendoza, Javier Alonso Trujillo, Álvaro Édgar González Aragón Pineda, Óscar Antonio Ramos Montes

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

Objetivo: estimar la prevalencia de ojo seco y determinar si existen diferencias entre pacientesjóvenes y adultos que acuden a la Clínica de Optometría de la Facultad de EstudiosSuperiores Iztacala, UNAM. Materiales y métodos: se seleccionaron 1957 pacientes de 15a 65 años de edad evaluados en el Centro de Diagnóstico de Alteraciones de la SuperficieOcular de la Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala de la Universidad NacionalAutónoma de México, de agosto del 2016 a agosto del 2017. Los pacientes resolvieron elcuestionario de diagnóstico en su versión digital OSDI y se les evaluó el patrón de arborizaciónde mucinas mediante Test Lagrimal de Ferning …

Rosácea Ocular: Diagnóstico Y Manejo Optométrico, Marcelo Carrizosa Murcia, Katherine Milena Mesa Tobar, Jhonier Fabián Sanabria Alayón

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

Objetivo: describir la rosácea ocular, con el fin de guiar un acertado diagnóstico y tratamiento.Materiales y métodos: se realizó una búsqueda sistemática de artículos de revisión disponiblesen texto completo, en bases de datos como PubMed, Ebsco Host, Proquest, Medline, Elsevier,Scielo y Springer, así como textos literarios relacionados con el tema, escritos en inglés, español,alemán, francés y portugués. Se implementó una estrategia de búsqueda con palabras como “rosáceaocular”, “manejo y fisiopatología de la rosácea”, “ojo seco”, “disfunción de glándulas demeibomio” y “Demodex”. Se seleccionaron escritos con un periodo de publicación comprendidoentre el 2000 y el 2015. Conclusión: el manejo de la …

Plantas Medicinales: Aspectos Básicos De Una Alternativa Terapéutica Emergente Para El Control De Las Infecciones Oculares Bacterianas, Wendy Johanna Velasco García, Ludy C. Pabón, Patricia Hernández-Rodríguez

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

Las bacterias son los patógenos principales relacionados con infecciones que afectan las estructuras del ojo de forma intra- o extraocular; el género Staphylococcus es el grupo más prevalente asociado con este tipo de infección. Para el control de las infecciones oculares se utilizan antibióticos como oxacilina y meticilina, que en muchos casos llevan a la resistencia bacteriana. Además, el alto costo de los medicamentos, que en Colombia alcanzan cifras tres o cuatro veces mayores que en otros países, se constituyen en desventajas para su uso. Lo anterior ha llevado a estudiar la actividad antimicrobiana de las plantas frente a los …

Optometría: Retos Y Oportunidades Hacia Futuro, Nancy Piedad Molina-Montoya

Ciencia y Tecnología para la Salud Visual y Ocular

No abstract provided.

Differential Estimation Of Audiograms Using Gaussian Process Active Model Selection, Trevor Larsen

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Classical methods for psychometric function estimation either require excessive resources to perform, as in the method of constants, or produce only a low resolution approximation of the target psychometric function, as in adaptive staircase or up-down procedures. This thesis makes two primary contributions to the estimation of the audiogram, a clinically relevant psychometric function estimated by querying a patient’s for audibility of a collection of tones. First, it covers the implementation of a Gaussian process model for learning an audiogram using another audiogram as a prior belief to speed up the learning procedure. Second, it implements a use case of …

Data Visualization Of Treatment Outcomes For Tuberculosis Patients, Joy Jenkins

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, and different treatments have been discovered over the years. However, patients may develop various drug resistance levels that affect the likelihood of becoming cured or dying. In this study, we sought to employ data visualization to explore the relationship between treatment trajectory, as indicated by smear and culture results in the follow-up tests and patient outcomes. A large sample of patients have been broken down by demographics including age, gender, and drug resistance status. Sankey diagrams were used to visualize the pathway progression of the patients over time split between two time periods- months 0-6 …

Seeing Eye To Eye: A Machine Learning Approach To Automated Saccade Analysis, Maigh Attre

Honors Scholar Theses

Abnormal ocular motility is a common manifestation of many underlying pathologies particularly those that are neurological. Dynamics of saccades, when the eye rapidly changes its point of fixation, have been characterized for many neurological disorders including concussions, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and Parkinson’s disease. However, widespread saccade analysis for diagnostic and research purposes requires the recognition of certain eye movement parameters. Key information such as velocity and duration must be determined from data based on a wide set of patients’ characteristics that may range in eye shapes and iris, hair and skin pigmentation [36]. Previous work on saccade analysis has …

Left Atrial Model, Borna Sobati, Sarah Porello, Tess Pate

Biomedical Engineering

The objective is to produce an electrophysiological model of an adult human left atrium. This model will be used to test mapping probe catheters used for locating cardiac arrhythmias against current technology used in practice. Dr. Chris Porterfield requested this model and other physicians or probe catheter manufacturers may also use this product in the future. Dr. Porterfield also discussed the possibility of future senior project groups using the model as a bench test for designing new catheter tips. The model will precisely simulate electrical behaviors of the heart in normal as well as arrhythmic conditions. Ideally, the model will …

Simulating Alternative Tuberculosis Diagnosis Methods In Underdeveloped Countries, Luke Turner

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease in the world; it is especially rampant in underdeveloped countries because they do not have the infrastructure, technology, or funding to properly combat the infection. However, the development of portable point-of-care diagnosis machines can reverse this epidemic as they far surpass conventional laboratory identification. The question now is where to place these machines, which is a difficult decision with a lack of data. Therefore, a flexible simulation model is created to test the implementation of these machines with different countries and configurations. The simulation tests the baseline model and three proposed implementations of the …

The Effect Of Mechanical Agitator Geometry On Catheter Directed Thrombectomy, Sanghun Alex Lee

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a vascular disease in which a blood clot forms inside of a vein, most often deep in the legs, groin, or arm. Two types of VTE exist, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). DVT occurs when a clot in a deep vein forms, risking embolism and causing swelling as the clot obstructs blood flow. An embolism occurs when a part or all the thrombus breaks off and travels in the circulation, getting lodged in the lungs. A pulmonary embolism is a very serious medical condition and can be fatal if not treated immediately. Current …

Quantifying Iron Overload Using Mri, Active Contours, And Convolutional Neural Networks, Andrea Sajewski, Stacey Levine

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Iron overload, a complication of repeated blood transfusions, can cause tissue damage and organ failure. The body has no regulatory mechanism to excrete excess iron, so iron overload must be closely monitored to guide therapy and measure treatment response. The concentration of iron in the liver is a reliable marker for total body iron content and is now measured noninvasively with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI produces a diagnostic image by measuring the signals emitted from the body in the presence of a constant magnetic field and radiofrequency pulses. At each pixel, the signal decay constant, T2*, can be calculated, …

Visual Contributions To Balance Control During Gait, Kyle Brozek

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

We propose to isolate the contributions of continuous OF to the orthogonal relationship between balance and gait control during treadmill walking using a series of conditions. Manipulating the direction of OF using a CAREN (Motek Medical, Amsterdam, Netherlands) virtual reality treadmill environment will isolate these visual contributions in human subjects as they walk. We plan to tease out the effect of OF direction on the relationship between gait and balance control by having healthy young adults perform a series of treadmill walking trials while immersed in a VR environment. This will be done by manipulating the direction of walking and …

Estimating Variations In Metabolic Cost Within The Stride Cycle During Level And Uphill Walking, Arash Mohammadzadeh Gonabadi

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Indirect calorimetry provides the average cost of a stride cycle and prevents from identifying which part of the gait cycle causes increased metabolic cost in patients, however, recent simulation methods allow estimating the time profile of metabolic cost within the stride cycle. In this study, we compare the estimations of the time profile of the metabolic cost of two simulation methods for level and uphill walking. We used kinematic, kinetic and electromyography data from level and uphill walking (one participant) to estimate the time profiles of metabolic cost using the muscle-level metabolic model of Umberger using electromyography and kinematic data …

Applications Of Supervised Machine Learning In Autism Spectrum Disorder Research: A Review, Kayleigh K. Hyde, Marlena N. Novack, Nicholas Lahaye, Chelsea Parlett-Pelleriti, Raymond Anden, Dennis R. Dixon, Erik Linstead

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research has yet to leverage "big data" on the same scale as other fields; however, advancements in easy, affordable data collection and analysis may soon make this a reality. Indeed, there has been a notable increase in research literature evaluating the effectiveness of machine learning for diagnosing ASD, exploring its genetic underpinnings, and designing effective interventions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of 45 papers utilizing supervised machine learning in ASD, including algorithms for classification and text analysis. The goal of the paper is to identify and describe supervised machine learning trends in ASD literature as …

The Comparison Of Verbalized Feedback In Human To Computer Interfacing Versus Human To Human Interaction, Kea Francis

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The project evaluates response to social robots for purposeful tasks. The study uses a social robot, Rapiro, along with a smartphone that serves as a visual interface for the robot system. My role was to design a program on a Raspberry Pi that allows simultaneous control of Rapiro’s actions and a response from a phone application. The phone app is downloaded to an Android phone and designed using MIT App Inventor software. This allows pre-programmed and real-time control of the robot. The user inputs what they want the robot to say through the terminal of the Raspberry Pi. Through serial …

A Brain-Computer Interface For Closed-Loop Sensory Stimulation During Motor Training In Patients With Tetraplegia, Sarah Helen Thomas

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Normal movement execution requires proper coupling of motor and sensory activation. An increasing body of literature supports the idea that incorporation of sensory stimulation into motor rehabilitation practices increases its effectiveness. Paired associative stimulation (PAS) studies, in which afferent and efferent pathways are activated in tandem, have brought attention to the importance of well-timed stimulation rather than non-associative (i.e., open-loop) activation. In patients with tetraplegia resulting from spinal cord injury (SCI), varying degrees of upper limb function may remain and could be harnessed for rehabilitation. Incorporating associative sensory stimulation coupled with self-paced motor training would be a means for supplementing …

Healthcare Robotics: Key Factors That Impact Robot Adoption In Healthcare, Sujatha Alla, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

In the current dynamic business environment, healthcare organizations are focused on improving patient satisfaction, performance, and efficiency. The healthcare industry is considered a complex system that is highly reliant of new technologies to support clinical as well as business processes. Robotics is one of such technologies that is considered to have the potential to increase efficiency in a wide range of clinical services. Although the use of robotics in healthcare is at the early stages of adoption, some studies have shown the capacity of this technology to improve precision, accessibility through less invasive procedures, and reduction of human error during …

Feature-Guided Deep Radiomics For Glioblastoma Patient Survival Prediction, Zeina A. Shboul, Mahbubul Alam, Lasitha Vidyaratne, Linmin Pei, Mohamed I. Elbakary, Khan M. Iftekharuddin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Glioblastoma is recognized as World Health Organization (WHO) grade IV glioma with an aggressive growth pattern. The current clinical practice in diagnosis and prognosis of Glioblastoma using MRI involves multiple steps including manual tumor sizing. Accurate identification and segmentation of multiple abnormal tissues within tumor volume in MRI is essential for precise survival prediction. Manual tumor and abnormal tissue detection and sizing are tedious, and subject to inter-observer variability. Consequently, this work proposes a fully automated MRI-based glioblastoma and abnormal tissue segmentation, and survival prediction framework. The framework includes radiomics feature-guided deep neural network methods for tumor tissue segmentation; followed …