Biomedical Commons^™

Breast Cancer Risk In Women With Breast Bilateral Asymmetry: Machine Learning Based Risk Analysis And Mitigation Through Developing A Framework For Customized Bra Design, Xi Feng

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer globally, accounting for 12.5% of all new cases annually. Research has found a significant correlation between breast bilateral asymmetry and an increased risk of cancer, with women diagnosed with breast cancer having higher levels of bilateral asymmetrical breast volume. Unfortunately, 87% of women with breast asymmetry lack adequate tools for assessing their cancer risk. Early screening using bilateral asymmetry to predict a woman's long-term risk of breast cancer can help physicians make informed decisions about whether to recommend sequential imaging and the frequency of screening. Another important factor in understanding the …

Atlas-Based Shared-Boundary Deformable Multi-Surface Models Through Multi-Material And Two-Manifold Dual Contouring, Tanweer Rashid, Sharmin Sultana, Mallar Chakravarty, Michel Albert Audette

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a multi-material dual “contouring” method used to convert a digital 3D voxel-based atlas of basal ganglia to a deformable discrete multi-surface model that supports surgical navigation for an intraoperative MRI-compatible surgical robot, featuring fast intraoperative deformation computation. It is vital that the final surface model maintain shared boundaries where appropriate so that even as the deep-brain model deforms to reflect intraoperative changes encoded in ioMRI, the subthalamic nucleus stays in contact with the substantia nigra, for example, while still providing a significantly sparser representation than the original volumetric atlas consisting of hundreds of millions of voxels. The …

Creating Reel Designs: Reflecting On Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita In The Community, Iris Layadi

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Because of its extreme rarity, the genetic disease arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) and the needs of individuals with the diagnosis are often overlooked. AMC refers to the development of nonprogressive contractures in disparate areas of the body and is characterized by decreased flexibility in joints, muscle atrophy, and developmental delays. Colton Darst, a seven-year-old boy from Indianapolis, Indiana, was born with the disorder, and since then, he has undergone numerous surgical interventions and continues to receive orthopedic therapy to reduce his physical limitations. His parents, Michael and Amber Darst, have hopes for him to regain his limbic motion and are …

New Tools For Viscoelastic Spectral Analysis, With Application To The Mechanics Of Cells And Collagen Across Hierarchies, Behzad Babaei

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Viscoelastic relaxation spectra are essential for predicting and interpreting the mechanical responses of materials and structures. For biological tissues, these spectra must usually be estimated from viscoelastic relaxation tests. Interpreting viscoelastic relaxation tests is challenging because the inverse problem is expensive computationally. We present here (1) an efficient algorithm and (2) a quasi-linear model that enable rapid identification of the viscoelastic relaxation spectra of both linear and nonlinear materials. We then apply these methods to develop fundamental insight into the mechanics of collagenous and fibrotic tissues.

The first algorithm, which we term the discrete spectral approach, is fast enough to …

Mechanics Of Early Retina And Lens Development In The Embryo, Alina Oltean

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Mechanical forces play an essential role in morphogenesis, the shaping of embryonic structures. This research focuses mainly on eye development, a problem that has been studied for decades using a variety of approaches. However, the mechanics of the early stages of eye formation remain incompletely understood.

The embryonic eyes begin as bilateral protrusions called optic vesicles (OVs) that grow outward from the anterior end of the brain tube. The optic vesicles contact and adhere to the overlying surface ectoderm (SE) via extracellular matrix (ECM). Then, both layers thicken in the region of contact to form the retinal and lens placodes, …