Engineering Commons^™

Numerical Investigation Of Subglottal Stenosis Effects On Human Voice Production, Dariush Bodaghi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aimed to advance knowledge of how subglottal stenosis impacts voice production physiology. An in-house fluid-structure-acoustic interaction approach based on the hydrodynamic/acoustic splitting technique was employed. This technique was rigorously verified for simulating phonation by matching the acoustic behavior to a compressible flow solver for phonation-relevant geometries. Simulations of an idealized 2D vocal tract model demonstrated the effects of supraglottal acoustic resonance on vocal fold kinematics and glottal flow waveform. Results showed that the acoustic coupling between higher harmonics and formats generated pressure oscillations, modifying vocal fold dynamics and glottal flow rate.

A major novelty was the incorporation and …

Nanocellulose Based Foams For Low-Cost Disposable Medical Applications, Dominic Kugell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polyurethane foams have been a staple material for their use in medical positioners, such as post-surgery elevation pillows as well as specific tailored positioners for their use during surgery. Polyurethane foams are preferred because of their lower cost compared to other petroleum derived foams, their versatility, and suitable mechanical properties. However, the environmental impact, including both cost and perception, of these foams is immense. Therefore, alternatives are being explored with biopolymers emerging as a promising class of materials. Cellulose is one such polymer that has recently demonstrated desirable properties. In this study, cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), a household foaming agent, and …

Analyzing Pseudomonas Aeruginosa With Bacteriophage Tags Using Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry, Jennifer C. Schinke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The number of daily bacterial infections is climbing and the CDC explains that this is due to the antibiotic-resistant threat in the United States. Finding a faster way of bacterial identification is necessary as it currently takes 1-4 days for a medical lab to culture and identify bacteria. Photoacoustic flow cytometry (PAFC) can be used as an alternative method resulting in swift identification within an hour (Edgar, 2019). Pseudomonas aeruginosa, cell line PA01, will be coated in up to a few hundred red dyed phages making it detectible by the photoacoustic flow cytometry system. Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that …

Investigation Of Possible Inflammatory Response After Ultrasound And Microbubble Procedure In The Spinal Cord., Jenna Wilkerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this experiment is to explore the inflammatory effects of focused ultrasound paired with intravenously delivered microbubbles when used in the lumbar spinal cord. There are currently very few pharmaceuticals that can successfully enter the blood spinal cord barrier (BSCB). This technique used at the lumbar enlargement might allow targeted treatment of pathologies involving the spinal cord.

To test the possible inflammatory response of this technique, an animal experiment was performed. 15 animals were given a T12 laminectomy and allowed to fully recover. Once recovered, all animals received FUS+MB at L2 and were euthanized in groups of five …

Hybrid Power Spectral And Wavelet Image Roughness Analysis, Basel White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Two-Dimensional Wavelet Transform Modulus Maxima (2D WTMM) sliding window methodology has proven to be a robust approach, in particular for the extraction of the Hurst (H) roughness exponent from grayscale mammograms. The power spectrum is a computational analysis based on the Fourier transform that can be used to estimate the roughness of a scale-invariant image or region via the calculation of H. We aim to examine how the calculation of H in fractional Brownian motion (fBm) images and mammograms can be improved. fBm images are generated for H ∈ [0.00,1.00] for testing through the previous 2D …

Models And Algorithms For Trauma Network Design., Sagarkumar Dhirubhai Hirpara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trauma continues to be the leading cause of death and disability in the US for people aged 44 and under, making it a major public health problem. The geographical maldistribution of Trauma Centers (TCs), and the resulting higher access time to the nearest TC, has been shown to impact trauma patient safety and increase disability or mortality. State governments often design a trauma network to provide prompt and definitive care to their citizens. However, this process is mainly manual and experience-based and often leads to a suboptimal network in terms of patient safety and resource utilization. This dissertation fills important …

The Role Of Generative Adversarial Networks In Bioimage Analysis And Computational Diagnostics., Ahmed Naglah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Computational technologies can contribute to the modeling and simulation of the biological environments and activities towards achieving better interpretations, analysis, and understanding. With the emergence of digital pathology, we can observe an increasing demand for more innovative, effective, and efficient computational models. Under the umbrella of artificial intelligence, deep learning mimics the brain’s way in learn complex relationships through data and experiences. In the field of bioimage analysis, models usually comprise discriminative approaches such as classification and segmentation tasks. In this thesis, we study how we can use generative AI models to improve bioimage analysis tasks using Generative Adversarial Networks …

Labeling Melanoma Cells With Black Microspheres For Improved Sensitivity In Detection Via Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry, Tori Kocsis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer known for developing into metastatic disease. Current clinical diagnostics, including medical imaging and tissue biopsy, provide a poor prognosis since the cancer is in the late stages of disease progression. In recent years, photoacoustic flow cytometry has allowed for the detection of circulating melanoma cells within patient blood samples in vitro. Although this method exploits the naturally-produced melanin within the cells, it has only successfully detected highly-pigmented melanoma cell lines. Since various forms of melanoma exist, each with varying melanin concentrations, this research aims to provide a novel method for detecting lightly-pigmented …

Computer Aided Diagnosis System For Breast Cancer Using Deep Learning., Asma Baccouche

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The recent rise of big data technology surrounding the electronic systems and developed toolkits gave birth to new promises for Artificial Intelligence (AI). With the continuous use of data-centric systems and machines in our lives, such as social media, surveys, emails, reports, etc., there is no doubt that data has gained the center of attention by scientists and motivated them to provide more decision-making and operational support systems across multiple domains. With the recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, the use of machine learning and deep learning models have achieved remarkable advances in computer vision, ecommerce, cybersecurity, and healthcare. Particularly, numerous …

Role Of Deep Learning Techniques In Non-Invasive Diagnosis Of Human Diseases., Hisham Abouelseoud Elsayem Abdeltawab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning, a sub-discipline in the domain of artificial intelligence, concentrates on algorithms able to learn and/or adapt their structure (e.g., parameters) based on a set of observed data. The adaptation is performed by optimizing over a cost function. Machine learning obtained a great attention in the biomedical community because it offers a promise for improving sensitivity and/or specificity of detection and diagnosis of diseases. It also can increase objectivity of the decision making, decrease the time and effort on health care professionals during the process of disease detection and diagnosis. The potential impact of machine learning is greater than …

Investigating The Effect Of Dissolved Oxygen-Assisted Corneal Cross-Linking (Cxl) On Porcine Corneas, Julianni Dar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Corneal cross-linking is a clinical procedure that is known to stop the progression of keratoconus, an eye disease that affects the cornea’s structure, ultimately leading to vision loss in its advanced stages. The typical treatment plan includes riboflavin and UV-A exposure in the hope to increase the mechanical properties of the cornea. There are two types of CXL pathways, with Type-II CXL requiring oxygen. Naturally, the dissolved oxygen is limited in the cornea; therefore, limiting the effect of Type-II CXL. This study proposes to improve the Type-II CXL contribution by integrating dissolved oxygen during the standard CXL treatment used in …

Collaborative Human-Machine Interfaces For Mobile Manipulators., Shamsudeen Olawale Abubakar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of mobile manipulators in service industries as both agents in physical Human Robot Interaction (pHRI) and for social interactions has been on the increase in recent times due to necessities like compensating for workforce shortages and enabling safer and more efficient operations amongst other reasons. Collaborative robots, or co-bots, are robots that are developed for use with human interaction through direct contact or close proximity in a shared space with the human users. The work presented in this dissertation focuses on the design, implementation and analysis of components for the next-generation collaborative human machine interfaces (CHMI) needed for …

Multilateration Index., Chip Lynch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We present an alternative method for pre-processing and storing point data, particularly for Geospatial points, by storing multilateration distances to fixed points rather than coordinates such as Latitude and Longitude. We explore the use of this data to improve query performance for some distance related queries such as nearest neighbor and query-within-radius (i.e. “find all points in a set P within distance d of query point q”). Further, we discuss the problem of “Network Adequacy” common to medical and communications businesses, to analyze questions such as “are at least 90% of patients living within 50 miles of a covered emergency …

Development And Evaluation Of A Body Weight Support Treadmill For Use With Locomotor Training On Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury Patients., Winston T Rauch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The consequences of spinal cord injury (SCI) are devastating regardless of the age of a patient. When the injury occurs in children five years old or younger, however, the impact is magnified due to the inevitable development of scoliosis (96%) and hip dysplasia (57%) (Schottler et al., 2012). To reduce occurrence of these complications and improve the quality of life for these patients, specialized activity-based therapies such as locomotor training (LT) are being increasingly used to improve overall trunk control and muscle activity in the lower extremities (Harkema et al., 2012; Howland et al., 2014). The aim of this therapy …

Bilateral Ground Reaction Force Jumping Asymmetry And Performance, Keith Painter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of asymmetry in performance research has increased in recent years with mixed results. Much of the performance research has focused on unilateral jumping activities attempting to show relationships to other performance variables. However, bilateral ground reaction forces (bGRF) from jumps are more frequently assessed in athlete monitoring programs and the asymmetry from those jumps could be a simple addition to data already being collected. Research into bGRF asymmetries is lacking and no studies have addressed longitudinal changes. Additionally, research into the relationship of asymmetries to performance have infrequently used athletes. For these reasons, this dissertation will focus on …

Machine Learning Applied To Colloidal Properties Of Perfluorocarbon Nanoemulsions For Imaging In Ards/Ali, Marco Hosfeld

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Acute Respiratory distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Acute Lung Injury (ALI) are inflammatory lung pathologies consisting of non-hydrostatic pulmonary edema leading to hypoxia and impaired gas exchange in the lungs. ARDS/ALI is both difficult to study and treat as it is not in itself a specific pathology but rather a syndrome consisting of many pathologies that vary case by case. It is, however, consistently characterized by an explosive acute inflammatory response in the lung parenchyma leading to hypoxia. Although time has seen to an increase in the understanding of ARDS/ALI, the mortality rate remains in the range of 30-50%. For these …

Covid-19 Serological Diagnostic Development Using A Sars-Cov-2 Rbd Foldon Fusion, Joey Emery Breckenridge Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Serological tests are conducted to assess humoral response against viral protein antigens, to assess viral exposure and protection from pathogens. The rapid development and modularity of serological assays have proven critical to managing the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 is within the trimeric Spike protein and serves as a highly immunogenic target for potentially neutralizing antibodies. Current receptor binding domain serological assays use recombinant monomers or dimers of the receptor binding domain. The receptor binding domain is presented to the immune system natively in the context of the Spike protein trimer. Therefore, a recombinant trimeric receptor …

Handling And Manipulation Of Water- And Air- Borne Biological Samples Using Liquid-Infused Surfaces, Daniel P. Regan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on novel materials to handling water- and airborne samples for biological threats analysis is in great demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Work conducted on a new field of material science, called liquid-infused surfaces, demonstrate strong potential for the handling and manipulation of biological samples. As a result of the field’s infancy, only a limited number of studies have explored how liquid-infused surfaces can apply droplet manipulation strategies to address real-world problems. Presented in this dissertation are two platforms that leverage liquid-infused surfaces to address the challenges associated with handling water- and airborne biological samples. When dealing with waterborne …

Mechanisms Of Sensory Adaptation In The Primate Visual System, Boris Isaac Peñaloza Rojas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Under ecological conditions, the luminance impinging on the retina varies within a dynamic range of 220 dB. Stimulus contrast can also vary drastically within a scene, and eye movements leave little time for sampling luminance. In addition, the amount of information reaching our visual system far exceeds the brain’s information processing capacity. Given the limited dynamic range of its neurons and its limited capacity in processing visual information in real-time, the brain deploys both structural and functional solutions that work in tandem to adapt to the surroundings. In this work, employing visual psychophysics and computational neuroscience, we study the mechanisms …

Development Of A Pediatric Cardiac Assist Maglev Pump For Use With A Universal Driver System., Landon Heath Tompkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Heart failure (HF) remains the leading cause of death, affecting 26 million adults worldwide and 6.5 million adults in the United States. Pediatric HF patients have been a historically underserved population with few options for mechanical circulatory support (MCS) therapy, a leading treatment as an alternative to heart transplantation. To address this clinical need, the Inspired Universal MagLev System is being developed; a low cost, universal magnetically levitated extracorporeal MCS system with interchangeable single-use pumps that will ultimately provide adult and pediatric patients ventricular and respiratory assist therapies. The Inspired Pediatric VAD is the first single-use pump application for this …

Does Circularizing Source-Separated Food Waste Present A Risk To Our Food?, Astha Thakali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

About a third of the food produced annually is wasted. Food waste recycling can be a way to close the loop and attain a more sustainable food system, however, the system must be carefully monitored and managed to avoid the introduction and build-up of contaminants. To study the potential presence of contaminants in food waste, source-separated food waste was collected and screened for five classes of contaminants (physical contaminants, heavy metals, halogenated organic contaminants, pathogens, and antibiotic resistance genes) from two separate regulatory environments (voluntary vs mandated food separation). The regulatory environment did not affect the level of contamination, except …

Pilot Study Exploring The Effect Of Targeted Cox-2 Inhibition In Macrophages Responding To Neuronal Injury; Promoting Enhanced Axonal Regeneration, Alyssa Brauckmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Celecoxib nanoemulsion (CXB-NE) has been developed as a macrophage targeted analgesics by Dr. Janjic and her team at Duquesne University, (Janjic et al, 2018; Liu et al, 2020; Saleem et al, 2019b; Vasudeva et al, 2014). The CXB-NE nanoemulsion carrying a Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory (NSAID) inhibitor of COX-2 activity result in a reduction in PGE2 expression in macrophages. Using CXB-NE in rats that have peripheral nerve injury constricting the sciatic nerve relieves hypersensitivity, a pain-like behavior. The treatment also decreases inflammation associated with this chronic constriction injury (Janjic et al, 2018; Saleem et al, 2019b; Stevens et al, 2019). In this …

Evaluation Of Tracing Techniques In The Rat Spinal Cord Using A Custom Matlab Application., Rachel M. Zalla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research project is to evaluate the efficiency of traditional chemical tracing compared to dual-viral tracing for labeling long ascending propriospinal neurons (LAPNs) in the uninjured rat spinal cord, and to develop a MATLAB program which will accurately quantify this labeling.

To evaluate chemical tracing, Fluoro-Ruby (FR) was injected at the level of the axon terminals, and the number of ipsilateral labeled cell bodies at lumbar level was quantified. Similarly, two dual-viral systems were evaluated, by either injecting retro-AAV-Cre or HiRet-Lenti-Cre unilaterally in combination with a Cre-dependent adeno-associated virus. The HiRet-Lenti and FR groups labeled significantly greater …

Design And Development Of A Comprehensive And Interactive Diabetic Parameter Monitoring System - Betictrack, Nusrat Chowdhury

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel, interactive Android app has been developed that monitors the health of type 2 diabetic patients in real-time, providing patients and their physicians with real-time feedback on all relevant parameters of diabetes. The app includes modules for recording carbohydrate intake and blood glucose; for reminding patients about the need to take medications on schedule; and for tracking physical activity, using movement data via Bluetooth from a pair of wearable insole devices. Two machine learning models were developed to detect seven physical activities: sitting, standing, walking, running, stair ascent, stair descent and use of elliptical trainers. The SVM and decision …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Evaluation Of Metal Complexes With Cancer Selective Anti-Proliferative Effects And Hydrogen Evolution Catalytic Properties., Nicholas Vishnosky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bis-thiosemicarbazones (BTSC) and their metal chelates have properties that are useful in several different scientific fields. These systems have already received attention in major fields of biology and engineering. Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts need to be cheap and operate under minimal overpotentials with a long lifetime. The treatment of cancer requires, novel agents that have potent cytotoxic activity against cancer cells while displaying minimal side effects. In this dissertation the modular synthesis of these bis-thiosemicarbazone systems is utilized to regulate the redox chemistry for employment in the desired sector of chemistry. The ligand and metal chelates synthesized were characterized …

Development Of 3d Printed And 3d Metal-Based Micro/Nanofabricated, And Nano-Functionalized, Microelectrode Array (Mea) Biosensors For Flexible, Conformable, And In Vitro Applications, Charles Didier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emerging fields such as "Organs on a Chip", disease modeling in vitro, stem cell manufacturing and wearable bioelectronics are demanding rapid development of 3D Microelectrode Arrays (MEAs) for electrical interfacing with biological constructs. The work reported in this thesis focuses on two developmental tracks: "Dynamic 3D MEAs" and metal microfabrication for 3D MEAs. In the first part of the thesis, we explore the capabilities and limitations of 3D printed microserpentines (µserpentines) and utilize these structures to develop dynamic 3D microelectrodes. Analytical modeling of µserpentines flexibility followed by integration into a flexible Kapton® package and PDMS insulation are demonstrated. These 3D …

Evaluation Of Drug-Loaded Gold Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity As A Function Of Tumor Tissue Heterogeneity., Hunter Allan Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inherent heterogeneity of tumor tissue presents a major challenge to nanoparticle-medicated drug delivery. This heterogeneity spans from the molecular to the cellular (cell types) and to the tissue (vasculature, extra-cellular matrix) scales. Here we employ computational modeling to evaluate therapeutic response as a function of vascular-induced tumor tissue heterogeneity. Using data with three-layered gold nanoparticles loaded with cisplatin, nanotherapy is simulated with different levels of tissue heterogeneity, and the treatment response is measured in terms of tumor regression. The results show that tumor vascular density non-trivially influences the nanoparticle uptake and washout, and the associated tissue response. The drug …

Developing A Risk Assessment Protocol To Quantify Distribution And Uptake Of Persistent Organic Pollutants In Glacial Outflows, Kimberley Rain Miner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pollutants released by industrialized nations between 1960 and 2004 have been transported northward through atmospheric processes and deposited into glaciated alpine ecosystems. Many of these chemicals retain their original structure and are absorbed into the biota thousands of miles away from where they were originally utilized. With a warming climate increasing the melt of alpine glaciers, these glaciers may be introducing growing amounts of toxins into the watershed. While studies have demonstrated the existence of resident pollutants within glaciated ecosystems, no one has developed a risk assessment to identify sources and quantity of risk posed by these compounds when released …

Chronic Risk And Disease Management Model Using Structured Query Language And Predictive Analysis, Mamata Ojha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with chronic conditions are the ones who use health care most frequently and more than 50% of top ten causes of death are chronic diseases in United States and these members always have health high risk scores. In the field of population health management, identifying high risk members is very important in terms of patient health care, disease management and cost management. Disease management program is very effective way of monitoring and preventing chronic disease and health related complications and risk management allows physicians and healthcare companies to reduce patient’s health risk, help identifying members for care/disease management along …

Studying Facial Expression Recognition And Imitation Ability Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Interaction With A Social Robot, Farzaneh Askari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience limited abilities in recognizing non-verbal elements of social interactions such as facial expressions [1]. They also show deficiencies in imitating facial expressions in social situations. In this Master thesis, we focus on studying the ability of children with ASD in recognizing facial expressions and imitating the expressions using a rear-projected expressive humanoid robot, called Ryan. Recent studies show that social robots such as Ryan have great potential for autism therapy. We designed and developed three studies, first to evaluate the ability of children with ASD in recognizing facial expressions that are presented to …