Identification Of Neurobiological Mechanisms Associated With Attention Deficits In Adults Post Traumatic Brain Injury,
2020
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Identification Of Neurobiological Mechanisms Associated With Attention Deficits In Adults Post Traumatic Brain Injury, Ziyan Wu
Dissertations
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the major public health concerns with approximately 70 million new cases occurring worldwide per year. It is often caused by a forceful bump, blow, or jolt to the head, resulting in brain tissue damage and normal brain functions disruption. All grades of TBI, ranging from mild to severe, can cause wide-ranging and long-term effects on affected individuals, resulting in physical impairments, and neurocognitive consequences that permanently affect their abilities to perform daily activities. Attention deficits are the most common persisting neurocognitive consequences following TBI, which significantly contribute to poor academic and social functioning, …
Neurobiological Markers For Remission And Persistence Of Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,
2020
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Neurobiological Markers For Remission And Persistence Of Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Yuyang Luo
Dissertations
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders in children. Symptoms of childhood ADHD persist into adulthood in around 65% of patients, which elevates the risk for a number of adverse outcomes, resulting in substantial individual and societal burden. A neurodevelopmental double dissociation model is proposed based on existing studies in which the early onset of childhood ADHD is suggested to associate with dysfunctional subcortical structures that remain static throughout the lifetime; while diminution of symptoms over development could link to optimal development of prefrontal cortex. Current existing studies only assess basic measures including regional brain activation …
Functional Connectivity Of Eeg Is Subject-Specific, Associated With Phenotype, And Different From Fmri,
2020
CUNY City College
Functional Connectivity Of Eeg Is Subject-Specific, Associated With Phenotype, And Different From Fmri, Maximilian Nentwich, Lei Ai, Jens Madsen, Qawi K. Telesford, Stefan Haufe, Michael P. Milham, Lucas C. Parra
Publications and Research
A variety of psychiatric, behavioral and cognitive phenotypes have been linked to brain ‘’functional connectivity’’ -- the pattern of correlation observed between different brain regions. Most commonly assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), here, we investigate the connectivity-phenotype associations with functional connectivity measured with electroencephalography (EEG), using phase-coupling. We analyzed data from the publicly available Healthy Brain Network Biobank. This database compiles a growing sample of children and adolescents, currently encompassing 1657 individuals. Among a variety of assessment instruments we focus on ten phenotypic and additional demographic measures that capture most of the variance in this sample. The largest …
Model-Based Deep Siamese Autoencoder For Clustering Single Cell Rna-Seq Data,
2020
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Model-Based Deep Siamese Autoencoder For Clustering Single Cell Rna-Seq Data, Zixia Meng
Theses
In the biological field, the smallest unit of organisms in most biological systems is the single cell, and the classification of cells is an everlasting problem. A central task for analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data is to identify and characterize novel cell types. Currently, there are several classical methods, such as K-means algorithm, spectral clustering, and Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), which are widely used to cluster the cells. Furthermore, typical dimensional reduction methods such as PCA, t-SNE, and ZIDA have been introduced to overcome “the curse of dimensionality”. A more recent method scDeepCluster has demonstrated improved and promising performances in …
Schwann Cells In Combination With Gag-Mimetic Scaffolds For Spinal Cord Repair,
2020
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Schwann Cells In Combination With Gag-Mimetic Scaffolds For Spinal Cord Repair, Sharareh Hashemi
Dissertations
Spinal cord injury (SCI) being a devastating neurological dysfunction can cause extensive irreversible neuronal loss and axonal damage. Fifty-four cases of spinal cord injury per million people occur annually in the United States. Due to the loss of glial cells and demyelination of axons, the neuronal function of surviving neurons is disrupted leading to permanent loss of sensory and motor functions. The glial scar formed by astrogliosis at the chronic stage protects undamaged tissues, but it is known to be a major barrier for axonal regeneration. The limited regeneration capacity of spinal cord makes it challenging to successfully treat the …
Effects Of A Primary Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury On The Susceptibility To Behavioral And Neuronal Deficits On A Susequent Blunt Trauma,
2020
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Effects Of A Primary Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury On The Susceptibility To Behavioral And Neuronal Deficits On A Susequent Blunt Trauma, Aswati Aravind
Dissertations
Soldiers are often exposed to more than one traumatic brain injury (TBI) event over the course of their service. In recent years, more attention has been drawn to the increased risk of neurological deficits caused by the 'blast plus' polytrauma, which typically is a blast trauma combined with other forms of TBI. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate if exposure to a blast TBI predisposes the brain to increased neurological deficits when followed with a second blunt head trauma. The behavioral and neuronal deficits resulting from a blast plus injury involving a mild-moderate blast followed by a mild …
Brain Structure Changes Over Time In Normal And Mildly Impaired Aged Persons,
2020
University of Kentucky
Brain Structure Changes Over Time In Normal And Mildly Impaired Aged Persons, Charles D. Smith, Linda J. Van Eldik, Gregory A. Jicha, Frederick A. Schmitt, Peter T. Nelson, Erin L. Abner, Richard J. Kryscio, Richard R. Murphy, Anders H. Andersen
Neurology Faculty Publications
Structural brain changes in aging are known to occur even in the absence of dementia, but the magnitudes and regions involved vary between studies. To further characterize these changes, we analyzed paired MRI images acquired with identical protocols and scanner over a median 5.8-year interval. The normal study group comprised 78 elders (25M 53F, baseline age range 70-78 years) who underwent an annual standardized expert assessment of cognition and health and who maintained normal cognition for the duration of the study. We found a longitudinal grey matter (GM) loss rate of 2.56 ± 0.07 ml/year (0.20 ± 0.04%/year) and a …
Can Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Motor Threshold Estimate Individualized Tdcs Doses Over The Prefrontal Cortex? Evidence From Reverse-Calculation Electric Field Modeling,
2020
Medical University of South Carolina
Can Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Motor Threshold Estimate Individualized Tdcs Doses Over The Prefrontal Cortex? Evidence From Reverse-Calculation Electric Field Modeling, Kevin A. Caulfield, Bashar W. Badran, Xingbao Li, Marom Bikson, Mark S. George
Publications and Research
No abstract provided.
Parametric Nasopharyngeal Swab For Sampling Covid-19 And Other Respiratory Viruses: Open Source Design, Sla 3-D Printing And Uv Curing System,
2020
Michigan Technological University
Parametric Nasopharyngeal Swab For Sampling Covid-19 And Other Respiratory Viruses: Open Source Design, Sla 3-D Printing And Uv Curing System, Nicole Gallup, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce
Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1
Access to nasopharyngeal swabs for sampling remain a bottleneck in some regions for COVID19 testing. This study develops a distributed manufacturing solution using only an open source manufacturing tool chain consisting of two types of open source 3-D printing and batch UV curing, and provides a parametric fully free design of a nasopharyngeal swab. The swab was designed using parametric OpenSCAD in two components (a head with engineered break point and various handles), which has several advantages: i) minimizing print time on relatively slow SLA printers, ii) enabling the use of smaller print volume open source SLA printers, iii) reducing …
Control And Locomotion Of Inertially And Magnetically Actuated Multi-Scale Robotic Systems,
2020
Southern Methodist University
Control And Locomotion Of Inertially And Magnetically Actuated Multi-Scale Robotic Systems, Ehab Al Khatib
Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations
In this research, two actuation systems were introduced, inertial and magnetic actuation. In the inertial actuation, the robot used the transfer of momentum to navigate, and this momentum could be generated by spinning masses and wheels. Recent studies in our System Laboratory proved that a wide range of inertially actuated locomotion systems could be generated. This can be achieved by using a family tree approach, starting from a very simple system, and progressively evolving it to more complex ones. The motion diversity of these robots inspired us to extend their locomotion from a macro scale to millimeter and micro scales. …
The Role Of Gene Transcription And Inflammatory Cytokines In Bone Fracture Repair,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
The Role Of Gene Transcription And Inflammatory Cytokines In Bone Fracture Repair, Brandon Alan Coates
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
In most instances, the skeleton has a remarkable capacity for repair following injury. However, in 5 to 10% of patients, fractures fail to properly heal resulting in non-union. A need exists for a more comprehensive understanding of the complex biology of fracture repair, which involves the coordinated work of many cell types including osteoblasts, osteoclasts, and immune cells. Depending on the extent of injury, fractures will heal through either intramembranous bone formation, involving the direct formation of bone callus, or endochondral bone formation, featuring a cartilage intermediary prior to bone callus formation. Both processes begin with inflammation, which sets the …
Quantitative Fluorescence Imaging For Investigation And Treatment Of Disease,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
Quantitative Fluorescence Imaging For Investigation And Treatment Of Disease, Lemoyne Michael Habimana-Griffin
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
Molecular imaging is a powerful tool that enables interrogation of basic molecular mechanisms, diagnosis of disease, guidance of therapeutic modalities and monitoring of treatment response. Among the various imaging modalities, optical imaging is particularly suited for preclinical molecular imaging owing to its high sensitivity, lack of exposure to ionizing radiation, low cost, portability and scalability of imaging from the microscopic to macroscopic scale. In particular, fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) provides quantitative 3D reconstructions of fluorescence distributions down to picomole quantities allowing for whole animal molecular imaging. In this work, FMT is applied to detect disease-specific molecular probes, to monitor and …
Application Of Photoacoustic Imaging In Understanding Tissue Remodeling,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
Application Of Photoacoustic Imaging In Understanding Tissue Remodeling, Yuan Qu
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
Photoacoustic Imaging (PAI) as an imaging method in biomedical research can provide high spatial resolution, various contrasts, great detection sensitivity, and deep penetration. These advantages are attributed to the combination of optical excitation and acoustic detection, which releases PAI from the ballistic limit faced by other optical imaging technique with high spatial resolution. In this dissertation, we aim to apply this technique to understand the connective tissue remodeling that is a ubiquitous physiological change in various medical complications.Chapter 1 elaborates the mechanism of PAI as well as the motivation of my dissertation.In Chapter 2, I introduce a new contrast mechanism …
Tissue Engineering Of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells For The Development Of Novel Treatment Strategies For Osteoarthritis,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
Tissue Engineering Of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells For The Development Of Novel Treatment Strategies For Osteoarthritis, Alison Ross
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating joint disease that is primarily characterized by the degeneration of articular cartilage, the soft connective tissue that covers articulating bone surfaces in diarthrodial joints. While there are a number of risk factors for developing OA, the progression of this disease is mediated in part by pro-inflammatory cytokines from both the synovium and chondrocytes, the resident cells of articular cartilage. These cytokines, specifically interleukin 1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), induce aberrant expression of catabolic and degradative enzymes and inflammatory cytokines in OA, which promotes degradation of engineered tissues as well as native articular …
Ultrasound Guided Diffuse Optical Tomography For Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Algorithm Development,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
Ultrasound Guided Diffuse Optical Tomography For Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Algorithm Development, K M Shihab Uddin
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
According to National Breast Cancer Society, one in every eight women in United States is diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. American Cancer Society recommends a semi-annual breast-cancer screening for every woman which can be heavily facilitated by the availability of low-cost, non-invasive diagnostic method with good sensitivity and penetration depth. Ultrasound (US) guided Diffuse Optical Tomography (US-guided DOT) has been explored as a breast-cancer diagnostic and screening tool over the past two decades. It has demonstrated a great potential for breast-cancer diagnosis, treatment monitoring and chemotherapy-response prediction. In this imaging method, optical measurements of four different wavelengths are …
Exploring Attacks And Defenses In Additive Manufacturing Processes: Implications In Cyber-Physical Security,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
Exploring Attacks And Defenses In Additive Manufacturing Processes: Implications In Cyber-Physical Security, Nicholas Deily
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
Many industries are rapidly adopting additive manufacturing (AM) because of the added versatility this technology offers over traditional manufacturing techniques. But with AM, there comes a unique set of security challenges that must be addressed. In particular, the issue of part verification is critically important given the growing reliance of safety-critical systems on 3D printed parts. In this thesis, the current state of part verification technologies will be examined in the con- text of AM-specific geometric-modification attacks, and an automated tool for 3D printed part verification will be presented. This work will cover: 1) the impacts of malicious attacks on …
Ultrasensitive Biodetection Based On Plasmonically-Active Materials,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
Ultrasensitive Biodetection Based On Plasmonically-Active Materials, Jingyi Luan
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
A broad range of biomarkers continue to emerge as potentially important parameters for early detection of many pathological conditions.1 A disease biomarker (e.g. protein, a fragment of a pro-tein, DNA/RNA, or metabolites) is a ‘molecular signature’ of the physiological state of patient at specific time and is therefore extremely important for early and possibly pre-symptomatic diagno-sis and accurate monitoring of therapeutic intervention. Relevant concentrations of biomarkers related to diseases such as cancer, heart disease, inflammation, and neurological disorders can range in many orders of magnitude from μg/ml levels to sub-fg/ml, some of which possibly still remain unidentified due to the …
The Mechanobiology Of Elbow Contracture: Pathogenesis And Prevention,
2020
Washington University in St. Louis
The Mechanobiology Of Elbow Contracture: Pathogenesis And Prevention, Chelsey Dunham
McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations
Post-traumatic elbow contracture is a multi-tissue pathology which develops in up to 50% of patients following elbow trauma (e.g., fracture, dislocation). It is unclear which periarticular soft tissues are driving the functional deficit following injury because it is not possible in clinical settings to isolate each soft tissues’ mechanical and biological contributions to elbow contracture. Therefore, an animal model is needed to identify the primary periarticular soft tissue(s) which contribute to contracture. The first animal models of contracture were developed in the knee; however, these studies are not generalizable to the elbow due to anatomical and functional differences between these …
Screening And Characterization Of A Pan-Gtpase Inhibitor,
2020
University of New Mexico - Main Campus
Screening And Characterization Of A Pan-Gtpase Inhibitor, Leyla Akhadov
Biomedical Engineering ETDs
Abnormal functioning of small GTPases is implicated in a variety of diseases, ranging from neurological and developmental diseases to cancer. In fact, mutant GTPases are found in up to 30% of cancers. Thus, small GTPases are a highly relevant target in drug discovery and development. High-throughput targeted screening of small molecules is the most productive method of discovering compounds that can give insights into drug development. This thesis describes improvements made to a high-throughput GTPase-targeted screening method to minimize confounding systematic error. It also describes the follow-up characterization of a compound that was identified in a high-throughput screen. The compound …
Wearable Blood Pressure Device For Detection Of Orthostatic Hypotension,
2020
University of Connecticut
Wearable Blood Pressure Device For Detection Of Orthostatic Hypotension, Mariam Hafez
Honors Scholar Theses
Orthostatic hypotension may be described as an inevitable response from the body in the form of a drop in blood pressure after changing positions. This quick drop in blood pressure can cause a syncopal episode, often injuring victims. There are limitations in the currently used cuff-type blood pressure sensor, which is used in healthcare settings, in that it does not continuously measure blood pressure. This research project developed a wearable device that measures heart rate variability (HRV) to detect changes in blood pressure using the correlation between the two measurements. The instrumentation was developed and included a commercially available pulse …
