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Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2013, 133rd Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Twenty-Third Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Aeronautics and Space Science

Collegiate Academy: Biology

Biological and Medical Sciences

Nebraska Chapter, National Council for Geographic Education

Chemistry and Physics

Collegiate Academy: Chemistry and Physics

Junior Academy, Senior High Competition

Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session

Anthropology

Nebraska Wesleyan University Health and Sciences Graduate School Fair

Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session

Maiben Memorial Lecture: Making People Smarter Using "Habits of Mind," Bob Feurer, North Bend High School

Collegiate Academy: Biology

Teaching of Science and Math

Applied Science and Technology

Junior Academy, Junior High Competition

Extracting Fuzzy Rules For The Diagnosis Of Breast Cancer, Ali̇ Keleş, Aytürk Keleş

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

About one million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Breast cancer makes up one-third of all cancer diagnoses in women. Diagnosing breast cancer early is vital for successful treatment. Among the breast cancer screening methods available today, mammography is the most effective, although the low precision rate of breast biopsy caused by mammogram interpretation results in approximately 70% unnecessary biopsies with benign outcomes. The aim of this study was to extract strong diagnostic fuzzy rules for the inference engine of an expert system to be used for the diagnosis of breast cancer. These rules have been extracted through …

The Effects Of Hydrostatic Pressure On Early Endothelial Tubulogenic Processes, Ryan M. Underwood

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

The effects of mechanical forces on endothelial cell function and behavior are well documented, but have not been fully characterized. Specifically, fluid pressure has been shown to elicit physical and chemical responses known to be involved in the initiation and progression of endothelial cell-mediated vascularization. Central to the process of vascularization is the formation of tube-like structures. This process—tubulogenesis—is essential to both the physiological and pathological growth of tissues. Given the known effects of pressure on endothelial cells and its ubiquitous presence in the vasculature, we investigated pressure as a magnitude-dependent parameter for the regulation of endothelial tubulogenic activity. To …

Myoglobin Detection On Sic: Immunosensor Development For Myocardial Infarction, Alexandra Oliveros Villalba

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Silicon carbide (SiC) has been around for more than 100 years as an industrial material and has found wide and varied applications because of its unique electrical and thermal properties. In recent years there has been increased attention on SiC as a viable material for biomedical applications. Among these applications are those where SiC is used as a substrate material for biosensors and biotransducers, taking advantage of its surface chemical, tribological and electrical properties.

In this work we have used the proven bio- and hema-compatibility of SiC to develop a viable biorecognition interface using SiC as the substrate material for …

Robotic Swarming Without Inter-Agent Communication, Daniel Jonathan Standish

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many physical and algorithmic swarms utilize inter-agent communication to achieve advanced swarming behaviors. These swarms are inspired by biological swarms that can be seen throughout nature and include bee swarms, ant colonies, fish schools, and bird flocks. These biological swarms do not utilize inter-agent communication like their physical and algorithmic counterparts. Instead, organisms in nature rely on a local awareness of other swarm members that facilitates proper swarm motion and behavior. This research aims to pursue an effective swarm algorithm using only line-of-sight proximity information and no inter-agent communication. It is expected that the swarm performance will be lower than …

Vapor-Liquid-Solid(Vls) Grown Silica (Siox) Nanowires As The Interface For Biorecognition Molecules In Biosensors, Eduardo Murphy-Pérez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

SiOx nanowires grown through the VLS mechanism were electrophoretically deposited on top of Au electrodes. GOx was immobilized using APTES and the EDC-NHS chemistry. Cyclic Voltammetry was used as the method to characterize the electrodes through their processing steps, and CV was also used to detect glucose in a PBS based solution. Ferro-Ferri Cyanide couple was used as the mediator.

A Study On The Optimization Of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, Md Imran Khan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Considering biocompatibility, the Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSC) based on titanium dioxide should play a major role in the future of solar energy. In this ongoing study, different components and ambient process conditions for the fabrication of were investigated. Titanium dioxide substrate thickness and morphology was found to have a direct impact on the cell efficiency. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the TiO2 nanostructure. Different chemical treatments and electrolytes were also explored towards optimizing the cell performance. A group of porphyrin based organic dyes were synthesized and evaluated. Standard solar cell characterization techniques such as current-voltage and …

Ion Beam Nano-Engineering Of Erbium Doped Silicon For Enhanced Light Emission At 1.54 Microns, Sebastian Naczas

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Erbium doped silicon is of great interest as a potential light source in Silicon Photonics research due to its light emission at 1.54 μm, which corresponds to the minimal loss of optical transmission in silica fibers for telecommunications. In this thesis a basic mechanism for excitation and de-excitation of Er in Si is reviewed. Based on such fundamental understanding, an innovative approach is proposed and implemented to improve Er luminescence properties through the formation of metal nanoparticles via impurity gettering in Si nanocavities.

Microfluidic-Assisted Atomic Force Microscopy For The Mechanical Characterization Of Soft Biological Materials, Aaron Peter Mosier

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Viable methods for bacterial biofilm remediation require a fundamental understanding of biofilm mechanical properties and their dependence on dynamic environmental conditions. Mechanical test data, quantifying elasticity or adhesion, may be used to perform physical modeling of biofilm behavior, thus enabling the development of novel remediation strategies. To achieve real-time, dynamic measurements of these properties, a novel analysis platform consisting of a microfluidic flowcell device has been designed and fabricated for in situ analysis using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The flowcell consists of microfluidic channels for biofilm establishment that are then converted into an open …

Probe Immobilization Strategies And Device Optimization For Novel Transistor-Based Dna Sensors, Nicholas Michael Fahrenkopf

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The research presented herein exploits the terminal phosphate group on single stranded DNA molecules for direct immobilization to surfaces utilized in semiconductor device fabrication with the end goal of transistor based DNA sensors. As a demonstration of the feasibility of this immobilization strategy DNA immobilization to a variety of surfaces was evaluated for usefulness in biosensor applications. It was determined that DNA can be directly immobilized to a variety of semiconductor surfaces through the terminal phosphate group. Further, this immobilization allows for the hybridization of the immobilized DNA to complementary target in solution. The immobilization of DNA to hafnium dioxide …

The Localized Manipulation Of The Extracellular Matrix Within 3d Collagen Cell Cultures Using A Biomems Device, Ashley N. Clark

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Approximately 90% of all cancer related deaths can be attributed to the occurrence of metastasis. There are multiple changes that occur within the tumor microenvironment that have been correlated with the onset of metastasis. Different cell types, extracellular matrices, blood vessels, and soluble factors are some of the various components that make up the complex, heterogeneous microenvironment that exists within a tumor. The dynamic relationship between tumor cells and their surrounding environment makes it an ideal environment to study triggers of metastasis, such as the modification of the extracellular matrix. Changes in the multiple aspects of extracellular matrix composition have …

Defining An Optimal Surface Chemistry For Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture In 2d And 3d, Michael Roy Zonca Jr.

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Surface chemistry is critical for growing pluripotent stem cells in an undifferentiated state. There is great potential to engineer the surface chemistry at the nanoscale level to regulate stem cell adhesion. However, the challenge is to identify the optimal surface chemistry of the substrata for ES cell attachment and maintenance. Using a high-throughput polymerization and screening platform, a chemically defined, synthetic polymer grafted coating that supports strong attachment and high expansion capacity of pluripotent stem cells has been discovered using mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells as a model system. This optimal substrate, N-[3-(Dimethylamino)propyl] methacrylamide (DMAPMA) that is grafted on 2D …

Detection Of Microcalcification Clusters In Digitized X-Ray Mammograms Using Unsharp Masking And Image Statistics, Peli̇n Kuş, İrfan Karagöz

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

A fully automated method for detecting microcalcification (MC) clusters in regions of interest (ROIs) extracted from digitized X-ray mammograms is proposed. In the first stage, an unsharp masking is used to perform the contrast enhancement of the MCs. In the second stage, the ROIs are decomposed into a 2-level contourlet representation and the reconstruction is obtained by eliminating the low-frequency subband in the second level. In the third stage, statistical textural features are extracted from the ROIs and they are classified using support vector machines. To test the performance of the method, 57 ROIs selected from the Mammographic Image Analysis …

Discovery Of The Connection Among Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Mthfr C677t And Pai 1 4g/5g Gene Polymorphisms, And Body Mass Index By Means Of Bayesian Inference Methods, Aydan Çelebi̇ler, Huseyin Seker, Bora Yüksel, Ahmet Orun, Si̇bel Bi̇lgi̇li̇, Muhammet Baysal Karaca

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the elderly. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the relationship between the presence of multiple gene polymorphisms and 2 distinct advanced `dry and wet' AMD phenotypes, and to assess gene interactions with the influence of personal factors in a Turkish population as a pilot study. For the analysis, the data were collected from 73 unrelated participants, grouped as 29 wet and 26 dry AMD patients, and 18 healthy controls. They were all genotyped for the multiple gene polymorphisms in 12 different genes. The data set …

A New Intelligent Classifier For Breast Cancer Diagnosis Based On A Rough Set And Extreme Learning Machine: Rs + Elm, Yilmaz Kaya

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women all around the world. Therefore, true and early diagnosis of breast cancer is an important problem. The rough set (RS) and extreme learning machine (ELM) methods were used collectively in this study for the diagnosis of breast cancer. The unnecessary attributes were discarded from the dataset by means of the RS approach. The classification process by means of ELM was performed using the remaining attributes. The Wisconsin Breast Cancer dataset (WBCD), derived from the University of California Irvine machine learning database, was used for the purpose of testing …

Novel Approaches For Automated Epileptic Diagnosis Using Fcbf Selection And Classification Algorithms, Baha Şen, Musa Peker

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper presents a new application for automated epileptic detection using the fast correlation-based feature (FCBF) selection and classification algorithms. This study consists of 3 stages: feature extraction, feature selection from electroencephalography (EEG) signals, and the classification of these signals. In the feature extraction phase, 16 attribute algorithms are used in 5 categories, and 36 feature parameters are obtained from these algorithms. In the feature selection phase, the FCBF algorithm is chosen to select a set of attributes that best represent the EEG signals. The resulting attributes are used as input parameters for the classification algorithms. In the classification phase, …

Optimal Placement And Sizing Of Distributed Generations In Distribution Systems For Minimizing Losses And Thd_V Using Evolutionary Programming, Aida Fazliana Abdul Kadir, Azah Mohamed, Hussain Shareef, Mohd Zamri Che Wanik

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Growing concerns over environmental impacts, improvement of the overall network conditions, and rebate programs offered by governments have led to an increase in the number of distributed generation (DG) units in commercial and domestic electric power production. However, a large number of DG units in a distribution system may sometimes contribute to high levels of harmonic distortion, even though the emission levels of the individual DG units comply with the harmonic standards. It is known that the nonoptimal size and nonoptimal placement of DG units may lead to high power losses, bad voltage profiles, and harmonic propagations. Therefore, this paper …

Negative Selection Algorithm For Dengue Outbreak Detection, Maryam Mousavi, Azuraliza Abu Bakar, Suhaila Zainudin, Zalizah Awang Long, Mazrura Sahani, Mohammadmahdi Vakilian

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Dengue is a critical communicable and vector-borne disease and is becoming a serious concern in Malaysia. It is important to have an early detection system that could provide immediate action, such as the control of dengue transmission at a specific location. However, the available strategy and action may give long-term effects to the community since inaccurate decision making or prediction may lead to other circumstances. Moreover, the need to have a system that can detect the outbreak in a reasonable amount of time is critical. In this study, a nature-inspired computing technique, the artificial immune system (AIS), is used for …

Artificial Immunity-Based Induction Motor Bearing Fault Diagnosis, Hakan Çaliş, Abdülkadi̇r Çakir, Emre Dandil

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this study, the artificial immunity of the negative selection algorithm is used for bearing fault detection. It is implemented in MATLAB-based graphical user interface software. The developed software uses amplitudes of the vibration signal in the time and frequency domains. Outer, inner, and ball defects in the bearings of the induction motor are detected by anomaly monitoring. The time instants of the fault occurrence and fault level are determined according to the number of activated detectors. Anomaly detection in the frequency domain is implemented by monitoring the fault indicator bearing frequencies and harmonics, calculated using the bearing dimensions and …

System Designs To Perform Bioinformatics Sequence Alignment, Çağlar Yilmaz, Mustafa Gök

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The emerging field of bioinformatics uses computing as a tool to understand biology. Biological data of organisms (nucleotide and amino acid sequences) are stored in databases that contain billions of records. In order to process the vast amount of data in a reasonable time, high-performance analysis systems are developed. The main operation shared by the analysis tools is the search for matching patterns between sequences of data (sequence alignment). In this paper, we present 2 systems that can perform pairwise and multiple sequence alignment operations. Through the optimized design methods, proposed systems achieve up to 3.6 times more performance compared …

A Comparative Review Of Regression Ensembles On Drug Design Datasets, Mehmet Fati̇h Amasyali, Kadri̇ Okan Ersoy

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Drug design datasets are usually known as hard-modeled, having a large number of features and a small number of samples. Regression types of problems are common in the drug design area. Committee machines (ensembles) have become popular in machine learning because of their good performance. In this study, the dynamics of ensembles used in regression-related drug design problems are investigated with a drug design dataset collection. The study tries to determine the most successful ensemble algorithm, the base algorithm--ensemble pair having the best/worst results, the best successful single algorithm, and the similarities of algorithms according to their performances. We also …

A New Tool For Qt Interval Analysis During Sleep In Healthy And Obstructive Sleep Apnea Subjects: A Study On Women, Kemal Ali̇can Kaya, Bülent Yilmaz

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

By monitoring the Q wave/T wave (QT) interval computed from electrocardiography (ECG) signals during sleep, it is possible to create a link between the ventricular repolarization and sleep stages. In this study, we aimed to find a robust and simple approach to automatically determine the fiducials on each 30-s sleep epoch, such as the Q, R, and T-end points, on long sleep ECG recordings in order to statistically analyze the effect of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and sleep stages on QT intervals. This is a retrospective study in which the ECG data extracted from the polysomnography recordings of 7 healthy …

Economic Power Dispatch Of Power Systems With Pollution Control Using Artificial Bee Colony Optimization, Linda Slimani, Tarek Bouktir

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper presents a solution for the emission-controlled economic dispatch (ECED) problem of medium-sized power systems via an artificial bee colony algorithm. The ECED problem, which accounts for the minimization of both the fuel cost and the emission, is a multiple objective function problem. The objective is to minimize the total fuel cost of the generation and environmental pollution caused by fossil-based thermal generating units and to also maintain an acceptable system performance in terms of the limits on the generator's real and reactive power outputs, bus voltages, shunt capacitors/reactors, and power flow of transmission lines. The proposed algorithm is …

A New Color Image Quality Measure Based On Yuv Transformation And Psnr For Human Vision System, Yildiray Yalman, İsmai̇l Ertürk

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Various methods for measuring perceptual image quality attempt to quantify the visibility of differences between an original digital image and its distorted version using a variety of known properties of the human vision system (HVS). In this paper, we propose a simple and effective full-reference color image quality measure (CQM) based on reversible luminance and chrominance (YUV) color transformation and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) measure. The main motivation of this new measure relies on a unique feature of the human eye response to the luminance and color. Experimental studies about the applicability of the CQM on a well-known test image …

Multiobjective Daily Volt/Var Control In Distribution Systems With Distributed Generation Using Binary Ant Colony Optimization, Reza Azimi, Saeid Esmaeili

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper presents a multiobjective daily voltage and reactive power control (Volt/VAr) in radial distribution systems, including distributed generation units. The main purpose is to determine optimum dispatch schedules for on-load tap changer (OLTC) settings at substations, substation-switched capacitors, and feeder-switched capacitors based on the day-ahead load forecast. The objectives are selected to minimize the voltage deviation on the secondary bus of the main transformer, total electrical energy losses, the number of OLTCs, and capacitor operation and voltage fluctuations in distribution systems for the next day. Since this model is the weighted sum of individual objective functions, an analytic hierarchy …

Chaos Control Of Single Time-Scale Brushless Dc Motor With Sliding Mode Control Method, Yilmaz Uyaroğlu, Bariş Cevher

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, the sliding mode control (SMC) scheme of single time-scale brushless DC motor (BLDCM) is investigated. The SMC method consists of 2 sections. To simplify the directive of the stability of the controlled single time-scale BLDCM in the sliding mode, first a special type of PI switching surface is adopted. Second, the SMC controller is obtained to guarantee the occurrence of the PI switching surface. The effectiveness of the theoretical analysis is evaluated by numerical simulations. Thus, the numerical results are used to show the verification and trustworthiness of the proposed method.

Controlling The Chaotic Discrete-Hénon System Using A Feedforward Neural Network With An Adaptive Learning Rate, Kürşad Gökce, Yilmaz Uyaroğlu

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper proposes a feedforward neural network-based control scheme to control the chaotic trajectories of a discrete-Hénon map in order to stay within an acceptable distance from the stable fixed point. An adaptive learning back propagation algorithm with online training is employed to improve the effectiveness of the proposed method. The simulation study carried in the discrete-Hénon system verifies the validity of the proposed control system.

An Automated Signal Alignment Algorithm Based On Dynamic Time Warping For Capillary Electrophoresis Data, Fethullah Karabi̇ber

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Correcting the retention time variation and measuring the similarity of time series is one of the most popular challenges in the area of analyzing capillary electrophoresis (CE) data. In this study, an automated signal alignment method is proposed by modifying the dynamic time warping (DTW) approach to align the time-series data. Preprocessing tools and further optimizations were developed to increase the performance of the algorithm. As a demonstrative case study, the developed algorithm is applied to the analysis of CE data from a selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE) evaluation of the RNA secondary structure. The time-shift problem …

A Computer-Aided Diagnosis System For Breast Cancer Detection By Using A Curvelet Transform, Nebi̇ Gedi̇k, Ayten Atasoy

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The most common type of cancer among women worldwide is breast cancer. Early detection of breast cancer is very important to reduce the fatality rate. For the hundreds of mammographic images scanned by a radiologist, only a few are cancerous. While detecting abnormalities, some of them may be missed, as the detection of suspicious and abnormal images is a recurrent mission that causes fatigue and eyestrain. In this paper, a computer-aided diagnosis system using the curvelet transform (CT) algorithm is proposed for interpreting mammograms to improve the decision making. The purpose of this study is to develop a method for …

Comparison Study Of Computational Parameter Values Between Lrn And Narx In Identifying Nonlinear Systems, Farah Hani Nordin, Farrukh Hafiz Nagi, Aidil Azwin Zainul Abidin

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

To determine the nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous inputs (NARX) parameter values is not an easy task, even though NARX is reported to successfully identify nonlinear systems. Apart from the activation functions, number of layers, layer size, learning rate, and number of epochs, the number of delays at the input and at the feedback loop need to also be determined. The layer recurrent network (LRN) is seen to have the potential to outperform NARX. However, not many papers have reported on using the LRN to identify nonlinear systems. Therefore, it is the aim of this paper to investigate and analyze …