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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Neural Network Supervised And Reinforcement Learning For Neurological, Diagnostic, And Modeling Problems, Donald Wunsch Iii Jan 2021

Neural Network Supervised And Reinforcement Learning For Neurological, Diagnostic, And Modeling Problems, Donald Wunsch Iii

Masters Theses

“As the medical world becomes increasingly intertwined with the tech sphere, machine learning on medical datasets and mathematical models becomes an attractive application. This research looks at the predictive capabilities of neural networks and other machine learning algorithms, and assesses the validity of several feature selection strategies to reduce the negative effects of high dataset dimensionality. Our results indicate that several feature selection methods can maintain high validation and test accuracy on classification tasks, with neural networks performing best, for both single class and multi-class classification applications. This research also evaluates a proof-of-concept application of a deep-Q-learning network (DQN) to …


In Vitro And In Vivo Response To A Novel Borophosphate Bioactive Glass, Nada Abokefa Jan 2021

In Vitro And In Vivo Response To A Novel Borophosphate Bioactive Glass, Nada Abokefa

Masters Theses

"Bioactive glasses have been widely used in several biomedical and tissue engineering applications since the late 1960s. Numerous families of bioactive glasses have emerged over the years, with each having its own advantage and disadvantage. One concern common to all families is that most bioactive glasses create a basic or acidic environment when degraded and, therefore, are toxic for cells. Recently, there has been an increased interest in borophosphate bioactive glass (BPBGs) because of their neutral pH, release of therapeutic ions, and biodegradable properties. Despite the growing interest, there is little reported on the bioactivity of BPBGs. The biological effects …


Fluid Flow In A Krogh Cylinder: A Model For A Single Capillary And Surrounding Tissue, Xianjie Qiu Jan 2018

Fluid Flow In A Krogh Cylinder: A Model For A Single Capillary And Surrounding Tissue, Xianjie Qiu

Masters Theses

"A model describing the flow of plasma from the capillaries to the interstitial space in the extravascular tissue and back into the capillaries is constructed and solved. The flow through the tissue or the interstitial spaces is described by the Brinkman equation for porous medium, modified to account for the presence of cells considered as spheres. The flow of blood through the capillaries is considered to be that of a Newtonian fluid. The flow between capillary and tissue is coupled by the permeability of the capillary wall. The nature of flow and its magnitude was found to be highly dependent …


Classification Of Basal Cell Carcinoma Using Telangiectatic Vessels And Machine Learning, Hemanth Yadav Aradhyula Jan 2017

Classification Of Basal Cell Carcinoma Using Telangiectatic Vessels And Machine Learning, Hemanth Yadav Aradhyula

Masters Theses

“Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is one of the most common types of skin cancer in the United States. Early detection of BCC by noninvasive techniques can decrease delay in treatment and save cost. A recent study estimated that 5.4 million cases of non-melanocytic skin cancer (NMSC) occur each year in the US. BCC accounts for 50% of NMSC cases. Telangiectasia, which appears in most BCCs is an important feature for identification of BCC for an automatic diagnostic system. In this thesis, three methods for detection of telangiectasia present in dermoscopy lesion image (DI) were proposed. Detected telangiectasia in DI was …


Combination Of Bmp-2 And Relaxin To Induce Osteogenesis In Vivo, Sahitya Injamuri Jan 2017

Combination Of Bmp-2 And Relaxin To Induce Osteogenesis In Vivo, Sahitya Injamuri

Masters Theses

"Bone grafts are a common procedure for treating craniofacial injuries such as trauma, surgery, and reconstruction. Autografts and allografts have limitations which encourages the use of synthetic bone grafts. While synthetic bone grafts, such as hydroxyapatite (HA) microspheres, are advantageous for their cost and reproducibility, they lack the cells and growth factors needed for proper osteoinduction. Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) has been shown to increase the osteoinduction of grafts but the effective dose is above physiological levels and causes undesired effects on the body. Relaxin has been shown to enhance BMP-2's ability to induce bone formation in vitro and thus …


Phytoforensics Tools: The Degradation And Detection Of Chlorinated Solvents In Integrated Systems, Tommy J. Goodwin Jr. Jan 2016

Phytoforensics Tools: The Degradation And Detection Of Chlorinated Solvents In Integrated Systems, Tommy J. Goodwin Jr.

Masters Theses

"Due to decades of mismanaged pollutants entering groundwater, subsurface pollution of various compounds has become a widespread challenge. Chlorinated solvents are the most common groundwater contaminants that persist in aquifers, and remediation of these wide-spread plumes is difficult. Bioremediation, permeable reactive barriers, and phytoremediation are remedial technologies that have been developed and applied to chlorinated solvents in groundwater systems. This study integrates these technologies in different combinations to demonstrate the remediation potential of this approach. Zerovalent iron (ZVI) and bioaugmentation with a Dehalococcoides sp. (DHC) culture were applied separately and in combination for degradation of perchloroethene (PCE). Salix pentandra were …


Artificial Neural Network Approach To Predict Blast-Induced Ground Vibration, Airblast And Rock Fragmentation, Raymond Ninnang Tiile Jan 2016

Artificial Neural Network Approach To Predict Blast-Induced Ground Vibration, Airblast And Rock Fragmentation, Raymond Ninnang Tiile

Masters Theses

"Blasting has been widely used as an economical and cheap way of rock breakage in mining and civil engineering applications. An optimal blast yields the best fragmentation in a safe, economic and environmentally friendly manner. The degree of fragmentation is vital as it determines to a large extent the utilization of equipment, productivity and mill throughput. Explosive energy, besides rock fragmentation, creates health and safety issues such as ground vibration, air blast, fly rock, and back breaks among others. As a result, the explosive energy impacts structures and buildings located in the vicinity of the blasting operation, and causes human …


Healing Of Bone Defects In A Rodent Calvarial Defect Model Using Strong Porous Bioactive Glass (13-93) Scaffolds, Yinan Lin Jan 2015

Healing Of Bone Defects In A Rodent Calvarial Defect Model Using Strong Porous Bioactive Glass (13-93) Scaffolds, Yinan Lin

Masters Theses

"The main objective of this project was to evaluate the capacity of strong porous silicate (13-93) bioactive glass scaffolds prepared by a robocasting technique to regenerate bone and stimulate angiogenesis in a rat calvarial defect model. The scaffolds were created with the same grid-like microstructure but in a variety of formulations: (i) as-fabricated, (ii) pretreated in an aqueous phosphate solution to convert the glass surface to hydroxyapatite, (iii) loaded with bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) (1 µg per scaffold), and (iv) doped with copper (0.4-2.0 wt. % CuO). When compared to the as-fabricated scaffolds, the pretreated scaffolds enhanced bone regeneration at …


Detecting Diesel Particulate Matter Using Real Time Monitoring Under The Influence Of An Exhaust Fan System, Yasir Helal Alghamdi Jan 2015

Detecting Diesel Particulate Matter Using Real Time Monitoring Under The Influence Of An Exhaust Fan System, Yasir Helal Alghamdi

Masters Theses

"Diesel Particulate Matter (DPM) is a complex mixture of diesel exhaust gas that consists of carbon, ash, metallic abrasion particles, sulfates and silicates. The diesel soot particle includes a solid core made of elemental carbon, and organic carbon compound attached to the surface of the soot particle. The main source of DPM is diesel exhaust gas. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have determined that DPM is the source of most of the emissions of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxide of nitrogen, and hydrocarbons in underground coal, metal and non metal …