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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Multi-Tap Extended Kalman Filter For A Periodic Waveform With Uncertain Frequency And Waveform Shape, And Data Dropouts, Justin Saboury Aug 2019

Multi-Tap Extended Kalman Filter For A Periodic Waveform With Uncertain Frequency And Waveform Shape, And Data Dropouts, Justin Saboury

Theses and Dissertations

Gait analysis presents the challenge of detecting a periodic waveform in the presence of time varying frequency, amplitude, DC offset, and waveform shape, with acquisition gaps from partial occlusions. The combination of all of these components presents a formidable challenge. The Extended Kalman Filter for this system model has six states, which makes it weakly identifiable within the standard Extended Kalman Filter network. In this work, a novel robust Extended Kalman Filter-based approach is presented and evaluated for clinical use in gait analysis. The novel aspect of the proposed method is that at each sample, the present and several past …


Improving And Modeling Bacteria Recovery In Hollow Disk System, Clifton Anderson Aug 2019

Improving And Modeling Bacteria Recovery In Hollow Disk System, Clifton Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Identifying antibiotic resistance in blood infections requires separating bacteria from whole blood. A hollow spinning disk rapidly removes suspended red blood cells by leveraging hydrodynamic differences between bacteria and whole blood components in a centrifugal field. Once the red cells are removed, the supernatant plasma which contains bacteria is collected for downstream antibiotic testing. This work improves upon previous work by modifying the disk design to maximize fractional plasma recovery and minimize fractional red cell recovery. V-shaped channels induce plasma flow and increase fractional plasma recovery. Additionally, diluting a blood sample spiked with bacteria prior to spinning it increased the …


Novel Non-Invasive Technology For The Detection Of Thin Biofilm In Piping Systems (Phase - 1), Sachin Davis May 2019

Novel Non-Invasive Technology For The Detection Of Thin Biofilm In Piping Systems (Phase - 1), Sachin Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Biofilms are formed when a group of cells of microorganisms stick to each other and often on a surface. The development of biofilm has been a major issue in many fields (medical field, food, chemical, and water industry are a few such fields). In the medical field alone, biofilm infections have reportedly cost over five billion USD in additional healthcare expenses. The food industry usually halts the operation of its plant eight hours, every day to ensure that their equipment and transportation channels are clean and free from any biofilm presence. Similarly, the water and chemical industry need to ensure …


Quantitative Evaluation Of Geared Manual Wheelchair Mobility In Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury: An Integrative Approach, Omid Jahanian May 2019

Quantitative Evaluation Of Geared Manual Wheelchair Mobility In Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury: An Integrative Approach, Omid Jahanian

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to quantify the effects of using geared wheelchair wheels on upper extremity biomechanics and energy expenditure during functional mobility tasks in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). The effects of using geared wheels on hand-rim biomechanics, glenohumeral joint dynamics, and shoulder muscle activity were investigated during manual wheelchair propulsion over tiled and carpeted level-floors and up a ramp in low gear (1.5:1) and standard gear (1:1) conditions. The results for the hand-rim biomechanics indicated that regardless of the terrain, using the geared wheels in the low gear condition significantly decreased the propulsion speed, stroke …


Novel Non-Invasive Technology For The Detection Of Thin Biofilm In Piping Systems (Phase - 1), Sachin Davis May 2019

Novel Non-Invasive Technology For The Detection Of Thin Biofilm In Piping Systems (Phase - 1), Sachin Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Biofilms are formed when a group of cells of microorganisms stick to each other and often on a surface. The development of biofilm has been a major issue in many fields (medical field, food, chemical, and water industry are a few such fields). In the medical field alone, biofilm infections have reportedly cost over five billion USD in additional healthcare expenses. The food industry usually halts the operation of its plant eight hours, every day to ensure that their equipment and transportation channels are clean and free from any biofilm presence. Similarly, the water and chemical industry need to ensure …


The Role Of The Mechanical Environment On Cd117+ Endothelial Cell Angiogenesis, Patrick Link Jan 2019

The Role Of The Mechanical Environment On Cd117+ Endothelial Cell Angiogenesis, Patrick Link

Theses and Dissertations

Angiogenesis is a complex process coordinating cell migration, proliferation, and lumen formation. Changes to the microenvironment regulate angiogenesis through mechanotransduction and cytokine signals. In pulmonary hypertension, something in the process becomes abnormal, resulting in changes to the microenvironment and the formation of a glomerulus of dysfunctional capillaries, called a plexiform lesion. Endothelial cells, expressing CD117 (CD117+ EC clones) increase in the plexiform lesions of pulmonary hypertension, independent of pro-angiogenic VEGF signaling. We hypothesize that the mechanical environment and the macromolecular composition of the extracellular matrix, both, contribute to the aberrant angiogenesis. When we changed the mechanical environment, we changed the …


Eralpha Isoforms Modulate The Tumorigenicity Of 24r,25(Oh)2d3 In Estrogen-Responsive Cancer, Anjali Verma Jan 2019

Eralpha Isoforms Modulate The Tumorigenicity Of 24r,25(Oh)2d3 In Estrogen-Responsive Cancer, Anjali Verma

Theses and Dissertations

Over 200,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year. Nearly 20% of these patients supplement their diets with some form of vitamin D. This high frequency of vitamin D supplement use may be due in part to research suggesting that cancer patients with higher serum vitamin D3 levels have better prognoses than patients with low serum vitamin D3. However, double-blind clinical trials on the efficacy of vitamin D3 supplementation in breast cancer have been inconclusive. A recent meta-analysis showed evidence of reduced cancer recurrence in patients taking vitamin D3 supplements who had ‘estrogen receptor positive’ …


The Role Of Kras In Mechanosensing In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Krista M. Powell Jan 2019

The Role Of Kras In Mechanosensing In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Krista M. Powell

Theses and Dissertations

Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer related death worldwide, with more than 1.6 million fatalities each year. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80-85% of all lung cancers, with KRAS being one of the most prevalent oncogenic driver mutations. Therapeutic approaches for KRAS-mutated NSCLC have been extensively explored due to the US National Cancer Institute RAS Initiative, but methods of directly targeting KRAS or downstream effectors, such as MEK, still have poor results. Previous reports have shown that KRAS-mutated NSCLC activate distinct receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) depending on the epithelial or mesenchymal state. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) …