Engineering Commons^™

Accelerating Multiparametric Mri For Adaptive Radiotherapy, Shraddha Pandey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

MR guided Radiotherapy (MRgRT) marks an important paradigm shift in the field of radiotherapy. Superior tissue contrast of MRI offers better visualization of the abnormal lesions, as a result precise radiation dose delivery is possible. In case of online treatment planning, MRgRT offers better control of intratumoral motion and quick adaptation to changes in the gross tumor volume. Nonetheless, the MRgRT process flow does suffer from some challenges that limit its clinical usability. The primary aspects of MRgRT workflow are MRI acquisition, tumor delineation, dose map prediction and administering treatment. It is estimated that the acquisition of MRI takes around …

Tutorial: Neuro-Symbolic Ai For Mental Healthcare, Kaushik Roy, Usha Lokala, Manas Gaur, Amit Sheth

Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for mental healthcare (MHCare) have been ever-growing after realizing the importance of early interventions for patients with chronic mental health (MH) conditions. Social media (SocMedia) emerged as the go-to platform for supporting patients seeking MHCare. The creation of peer-support groups without social stigma has resulted in patients transitioning from clinical settings to SocMedia supported interactions for quick help. Researchers started exploring SocMedia content in search of cues that showcase correlation or causation between different MH conditions to design better interventional strategies. User-level Classification-based AI systems were designed to leverage diverse SocMedia data from various MH conditions, …

Élimination Des Vapeurs Toxiques Par Oxydation : Développement De Procédures D'Évaluation Des Systèmes De Purification De L'Air Des Conduits De Ventilation, Chang-Seo Lee, Fariborz Haghighat, Alireza Haghighat Mamaghani, Zahra Shayegan, Ali Bahloul, Mélanie Huard, Lexuan Zhong, Mitra Bahr

Rapports de recherche scientifique

L'exposition à des composés organiques volatils (COV) dans les lieux de travail peut avoir des effets aigus, notamment sous forme d'irritation de la peau, des yeux, de la bouche et du nez. Certains produits peuvent également provoquer des effets chroniques, comme l'asthme et le cancer. La prévention de tels effets nocifs sur la santé des travailleurs par l'adoption et la mise en œuvre de mesures visant à en éliminer ou à tout le moins réduire le risque s'avère importante. Parmi les approches développées à ce jour pour réduire l'exposition aux polluants de l'air intérieur – dont les COV –, la …

Removal Of Toxic Vapors By Oxidation: Development Of Laboratory Test Procedures For In-Duct Air Cleaning Systems, Chang-Seo Lee, Fariborz Haghighat, Alireza Haghighat Mamaghani, Zahra Shayegan, Ali Bahloul, Mélanie Huard, Lexuan Zhong, Mitra Bahr

Rapports de recherche scientifique

L'exposition à des composés organiques volatils (COV) dans les lieux de travail peut avoir des effets aigus, notamment sous forme d'irritation de la peau, des yeux, de la bouche et du nez. Certains produits peuvent également provoquer des effets chroniques, comme l'asthme et le cancer. La prévention de tels effets nocifs sur la santé des travailleurs par l'adoption et la mise en œuvre de mesures visant à en éliminer ou à tout le moins réduire le risque s'avère importante. Parmi les approches développées à ce jour pour réduire l'exposition aux polluants de l'air intérieur – dont les COV –, la …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 63 Number 2, Fall 2022 [Print Issue 62:2], Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

14 - AFTER THE CANNONBALL What does it mean to wrestle with your own human limitations and vulnerability as you follow the footsteps of a saint? Hung Pham, S.J.

18 - GROWING When I was little, there seemed to be this nondescript era of life, a foggy “someday,” when becoming an adult just happened. Nikhita Panjnani ’24.

20 - HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT'S GOING For decades, the internet has shaped the way we communicate, but two years of being extremely online hit fast forward on its real-world impact. Matt Morgan.

26 - NURTURING NATURE A story in two stories: …

Learning To Automate Follow-Up Question Generation Using Process Knowledge For Depression Triage On Reddit Posts, Shrey Gupta, Anmol Agarwal, Manas Gaur, Kaushik Roy, Vignesh Narayanan, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, Amit Sheth

Publications

Conversational Agents (CAs) powered with deep language models (DLMs) have shown tremendous promise in the domain of mental health. Prominently, the CAs have been used to provide informational or therapeutic services (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) to patients. However, the utility of CAs to assist in mental health triaging has not been explored in the existing work as it requires a controlled generation of follow-up questions (FQs), which are often initiated and guided by the mental health professionals (MHPs) in clinical settings. In the context of `depression', our experiments show that DLMs coupled with process knowledge in a mental health questionnaire …

Synthesis Of Alginate/Hydroxyapatite Beads For Acetaminophen Delivery, Anesylvia Angan, Nonni Soraya Sambudi

Makara Journal of Science

Conventional drug delivery systems usually involve the intake of multiple drugs, which could amplify the risk of overdosing. Acetaminophen is a widely used pain relief substance that is prone to accidental overdosing. Hence, a controlled drug delivery system is needed to ensure its efficacy. A nanocomposite hydroxyapatite/alginate system that was used as a drug carrier for acetaminophen was synthesized through the sol-gel method, and the mechanism underlying its controlled drug delivery was investigated. Spherical nanocomposite bead samples were synthesized by incorporating 5 wt%, 10 wt%, and 15 wt% hydroxyapatite into mixtures containing alginate. The mixtures were then dropped into calcium …

Predicting Insulin Pump Therapy Settings, Riccardo L. Ferraro, David Grijalva, Alex Trahan

SMU Data Science Review

Millions of people live with diabetes worldwide [7]. To mitigate some of the many symptoms associated with diabetes, an estimated 350,000 people in the United States rely on insulin pumps [17]. For many of these people, how effectively their insulin pump performs is the difference between sleeping through the night and a life threatening emergency treatment at a hospital. Three programmed insulin pump therapy settings governing effective insulin pump function are: Basal Rate (BR), Insulin Sensitivity Factor (ISF), and Carbohydrate Ratio (ICR). For many people using insulin pumps, these therapy settings are often not correct, given their physiological needs. While …

Mise Au Point Et Validation D’Une Approche Terrain De Prédiction Des Chargements Au Dos Basée Sur Des Données De Laboratoire, Alain Delisle, François Thénault, André Plamondon, Hakim Mecheri

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Les troubles musculosquelettiques (TMS) et particulièrement ceux au bas du dos affectent de nombreux travailleuses et travailleurs chaque année au Québec (Vézina et al., 2011). Le chargement mécanique au bas dos est reconnu comme un facteur de risque pouvant mener au développement de maux de dos, et la manutention de charges peut occasionner des chargements importants et répétés. La façon habituelle de quantifier le chargement au dos des individus est d’estimer le moment qui s’exerce à l’articulation lombo-sacrée (L5/S1). L’estimation de ce moment se fait généralement en laboratoire et nécessite la connaissance de la position et de l’orientation de …

Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook

Sustain Magazine

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic quickly spread from country to country and continent to continent in 2020, governments and scientists needed a way to track COVID-19 through populations in order to position public health interventions in the most impactful locations. Having a decision-based risk framework may help to guide policy creation that could minimize or prevent possible outbreaks and surges of infection within communities. The University of Louisville in partnership with Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness tested this strategy in 2021 and 2022. This Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook describes the decisions and actions of that academic and public …

Mesures À Haute Sensibilité Du Passage De Contaminants Nanométriques À Travers Les Gants De Protection Par Imagerie Médicale, Mahmoud Mohamed Omar, Amélie Augé, Myriam Laprise-Pelletier, Ludovic Tuduri, Marc-André Fortin

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Les gants de polymère sont utilisés comme équipements de protection individuels dans de nombreux secteurs d’activité professionnelle où les risques chimiques sont présents. Leur efficacité à bloquer le passage de certains contaminants doit être mesurée par des méthodes d’essais précises et standardisées. Les mesures de résistance chimique sont généralement effectuées en utilisant une cellule de perméation, un petit appareil contenant deux réservoirs séparés par la membrane dont on veut mesurer le potentiel-barrière : l’un contient le contaminant, l’autre contient un milieu collectant le contaminant après que celui-ci ait passé à travers la membrane. Au fur et à mesure de l’expérience, …

Changing Stem To Steam: An Analyzation On The Effects Of Art Integration Up To The University Level, Elizabeth Richmond

Honors Projects

This Honors Project is a combination of an artistic, creative project and a research driven analysis. The focus of this project is to research and understand the effects the arts have on both general students and STEM students in particular, what benefits come from art education and art integration, and if STEM students benefit from art integration. This goal was accomplished through a literature review and annotated bibliography featuring 18 sources. Another goal of the project was to understand where I fit into the research. In my creative portion of the project, I explored and analyzed how the arts affected …

Low-Cost Compact Optical Spectroscopy And Novel Spectroscopic Algorithm For Point-Of-Care Real-Time Monitoring Of Nanoparticle Delivery In Biological Tissue Models, Zahid Hasan, Jing Yan, Zhongchao Yi, Madison O. Korfhage, Sheng Tong, Caigang Zhu

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Objective: Real-time monitoring of nanoparticle delivery in biological models is essential to optimize nanoparticle- mediated therapies. However, few techniques are available for convenient real-time monitoring of nanoparticle concentrations in tissue samples. This work reported novel optical spectroscopic approaches for low-cost point-of-care real-time quantification of nanoparticle concentrations in biological tissue samples.

Methods: Fiber probe measured diffuse reflectance can be described with a simple analytical model by introducing an explicit dependence on the reduced scattering coefficient. Relying on this, the changes on the inverse of diffuse reflectance are proportional to absorption change when the scattering perturbation is negligible. We developed this model …

A Qualitative Descriptive Study On Re-Assessing The Mental Certification By Faa For Future Pilots, Kaung Z. Min

Student Works

Mental illness becomes one of the main problems that most pilots do not usually address. It is not because pilots do not have the courage or are open enough to talk with someone, but because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) forces them to hide from mental depression. Most of the time, the pilots are not willing to declare such illnesses as they fear losing their job; simultaneously, the Federal Aviation Agencies across the world require pilots to be in peat health, including their mental condition, to operate the aircraft. While it can be said that the passengers’ and crews’ safety …

Back And Shoulder Exoskeletons For Occupational Use: A Review, Erkan Ozan

Theses

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) account for a large portion of all work-related injuries according to OSHA. Back and shoulder-related disorders make the most of work-related MSDs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Exoskeletons emerged in recent years with the potential to reduce the risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and injuries. Their use in occupational settings is increasing, and exoskeleton designs are rapidly evolving. This paper reviewed recent scientific articles (2015 and after) that evaluated back and shoulder-support passive industrial exoskeletons. The findings of these articles are summarized and analyzed to assess the benefits of passive upper-body exoskeletons by …

Using Design Science Research To Create A Virtual Environment For Nursing Students, Benjamin Botha, Lizette De Wet

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

This paper aims to provide insight into the design science research approach followed during a transdisciplinary research study between computer scientists and professional nurses. The researchers used a design science research approach to create a virtual environment where nursing students could practice managing a patient with a foreign object in the right lung. The virtual environment underwent multiple changes as it progressed through the different cycles of design science research. Within these cycles, namely the relevance, design, and rigor cycle, various iterations of each of the cycles took place. Presented in this paper the design science approach followed will be …

Analysis And Visualization Of Molecular Docking 2hi4 Protein, Innas Widiasti

Indonesian Journal of Medical Chemistry and Bioinformatics

The crystal structure of the human microsomal complex P450 1A2 with alpha-naphthoflavone, a cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme is particularly important, as it is abundant in the human liver and alters a more diverse xenobiotic array than any other group of metabolic enzymes. CYP1A2 is abundantly found in the liver and involved in the metabolism of about 10% of clinically used drugs metabolized by CYP enzymes. The current drug discovery and development mostly uses high-throughput screening (HTS). However, this regular method is time-consuming and costly. To address the issue, an advanced drug discovery and development method namely chemical compound database screening …

Cellular Bioenergetics: Experimental Evidence For Alcohol-Induced Adaptations, Liz Simon, Patricia E. Molina

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

At-risk alcohol use is associated with multisystemic effects and end-organ injury, and significantly contributes to global health burden. Several alcohol-mediated mechanisms have been identified, with bioenergetic maladaptation gaining credence as an underlying pathophysiological mechanism contributing to cellular injury. This evidence-based review focuses on the current knowledge of alcohol-induced bioenergetic adaptations in metabolically active tissues: liver, cardiac and skeletal muscle, pancreas, and brain. Alcohol metabolism itself significantly interferes with bioenergetic pathways in tissues, particularly the liver. Alcohol decreases states of respiration in the electron transport chain, and activity and expression of respiratory complexes, with a net effect to decrease ATP content. …

Machine Learning And Scalable Informatics Methods To Predict Disease Status From Multimodal Biomedical Data, Hossein Mohammadian Foroushani

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Biological understanding of complex diseases such as stroke and obesity is critical for the advancement of medicine. Further knowledge discovery can provide effective biomarkers to improve disease diagnosis and prognosis, identify driver mutations, predict individual genetic susceptibility for early prevention and effective disease management, and facilitate development of personalized drugs. Stroke is the second leading cause of death and long-term disability in the world. Thus, stroke management is a time-sensitive emergency. The initial hours after stroke onset map the trajectory of subsequent neurologic complications. Cerebral edema develops hours to days after acute ischemic stroke and may result in midline shift …

Intrinsic Cardiac Effects Of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 In Coronavirus Disease 2019, Brittany Danielle Brumback

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Cardiac arrhythmias, particularly ventricular arrhythmias, can be life-threatening and caused by both congenital genetic mutations and acquired cardiac injury. My thesis work was originally focused on delineating the effects of genetic mutation-driven dysregulation of a protein called Hey2 in Brugada Syndrome, a complex disease characterized by a predisposition to dangerous arrhythmias originating in the right ventricular outflow tract. In response to the pandemic, my thesis work shifted toward understanding the mechanisms of cardiovascular injury in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is associated with serious cardiovascular complications, including ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death as well as endothelial dysfunction and coagulopathies. …

Evaluation And Clinical Implementation Of A Dual-Energy Ct Stopping-Power Ratio Mapping Technique For Proton-Therapy Treatment Planning, Maria Jose Medrano Matamoros

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Proton radiotherapy has the potential to treat tumors with better conformal dose distribution than competing modalities when the rapid dose falloff at the end of the proton-beam range is correctly aligned to the edge of the clinical target volume (CTV). However, its clinical potential is dependent on the accurate localization of the Bragg-peak position from predicted stopping-power ratio maps. The method that is most commonly used in today’s clinical practice for predicting stopping-power ratio (SPR) consists of a stoichiometric calibrationtechnique based on single-energy CT (SECT) for direct estimation of patient-specific SPR distribution from vendor-reconstructed Hounsfield Unit (HU) images. Unfortunately, this …

Advancing The Portability, Field Of View, And Spatiotemporal Resolution Of Multi-Parametric Photoacoustic Microscopy, Fenghe Zhong

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Capable of structural, functional, molecular, and metabolic imaging with high spatial resolution in vivo, photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is an emerging tool in biomedical research. Further, recent advances in multi-parametric acquisition and analysis make PAM uniquely capable of simultaneously mapping the total concentration of hemoglobin (CHb), oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (sO2), and blood flow speed. However, there are multiple major limitations, including, the large footprint, low imaging speed, limited imaging contrast, and insufficient axial resolution, which impedance its applications in basic and translational research. In this dissertation, I presented potential solutions to overcome the limitations above.In the first part of this …

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 …

Utilization Of Finite Element Analysis Techniques For Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Surgical Planning, Michael A. Polanco

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis, a three-dimensional deformity of the thoracolumbar spine, affects approximately 1-3% of patients ages 10-18. Surgical correction and treatment of the spinal column is a costly and high-risk task that is consistently complicated by factors such as patient-specific spinal deformities, curve flexibility, and surgeon experience. The following dissertation utilizes finite element analysis to develop a cost-effective, building-block approach by which surgical procedures and kinematic evaluations may be investigated. All studies conducted are based off a volumetric, thoracolumbar finite element (FE) model developed from computer-aided design (CAD) anatomy whose components are kinematically validated with in-vitro data. Spinal ligament stiffness …

Effects Of Imu Sensor Location And Number On The Validity Of Vertical Acceleration Time-Series Data In Countermovement Jumping, Dianne Althouse

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Many devices are available for measuring the height of a CMJ. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) measures linear acceleration, orientation, and angular velocity. As an alternative to using IMU estimates of flight time, CMJ height could be estimated by integrating the IMU time-series signal for vertical acceleration to derive CMJ take-off velocity in order to track whole-body center of mass (WBCoM) movement, yet this approach would require valid IMU acceleration data. Thus, the purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of IMU sensor location and number on the validity of vertical acceleration estimation in CMJ. Thirty young adults …

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 …

Development Of A New Affinity Membrane For Rapidly Purifying Non-Antibody Proteins, Friendship Edioma

All Theses

This thesis project describes the modification and evaluation of a new affinity membrane for rapid chromatographic purification of non-antibody proteins. The affinity membrane utilizes Im7/CL7 coupling technology developed by Dr. Vassylyev's lab at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB), licensed by TriAltus Bioscience. The behavior of the membrane was evaluated using purified CL7-tagged Cas9 as my model protein for static and dynamic binding capacity analysis.

Chapter one provides an overview on biopharmaceutical drug production process development. I discuss how protein drugs are produced, isolated, and purified from the cell supernatant after upstream phases are completed. Despite increasing demands for biologics, …

A Digital Healthcare Application For Patient Monitoring And Assessment, Brandon Shumin

All Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic strained our healthcare resources and exacerbated the existing issues of primary care shortages and burnout rates for healthcare professionals. Due in part to these factors, telehealth has seen more wide-spread use during this time. However, current asynchronous telehealth applications require stable Internet to function fully. Since many medically underserved populations in the United States lack Internet access in their homes, an application that offers patient monitoring and assessment could extend their access to medical resources. This work proposes such a digital healthcare application for iOS devices and evaluates it based on the system requirements of availability, data …

Improving Patient Safety, Patient Flow And Physician Well-Being In Emergency Departments, Vishnunarayan Girishan Prabhu

All Dissertations

Over 151 million people visit US Emergency Departments (EDs) annually. The diverse nature and overwhelming volume of patient visits make the ED one of the most complicated settings in healthcare to study. ED overcrowding is a recognized worldwide public health problem, and its negative impacts include patient safety concerns, increased patient length of stay, medical errors, patients left without being seen, ambulance diversions, and increased health system expenditure. Additionally, ED crowding has been identified as a leading contributor to patient morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, this chaotic working environment affects the well-being of all ED staff through increased frustration, workload, stress, …