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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Towards Human Retinal Cones Spatial Distribution Modeling, Matteo Paolo Lanaro, Hélène Perrier, David Coeurjolly, Victor Ostromoukhov, Alessandro Rizzi May 2019

Towards Human Retinal Cones Spatial Distribution Modeling, Matteo Paolo Lanaro, Hélène Perrier, David Coeurjolly, Victor Ostromoukhov, Alessandro Rizzi

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.


Finding Human Proteins That Bind To A Lassa Virus Protein, Maria Alejandra Pardo Ruge, Veronica J. Heintz, Douglas J. Lacount Aug 2017

Finding Human Proteins That Bind To A Lassa Virus Protein, Maria Alejandra Pardo Ruge, Veronica J. Heintz, Douglas J. Lacount

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Viral hemorrhagic fevers are severe illnesses caused by many different viruses. Lassa Virus is one of these important pathogens in Western Africa, causing hemorrhagic fever and eventually death without early medical treatment. There is no vaccine and there is little information on host-pathogen interactions. Therefore, the interaction between viral proteins and host targets is useful to understand Lassa virus’s lifecycle and pathology, and to develop ways to prevent infection. In this project, we study the nucleoprotein of Lassa virus (NP), which has been reported to have anti-interferon (IFN) activity through elimination of double stranded RNA (dsRNA). These features could be …


Cartilage Engineering: Optimization Of Media For Chondrogenic Differentiation In Vitro, Evan Surma, Sherry L. Harbin, Hongji Zhang, Stacy Halum Aug 2016

Cartilage Engineering: Optimization Of Media For Chondrogenic Differentiation In Vitro, Evan Surma, Sherry L. Harbin, Hongji Zhang, Stacy Halum

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Lower back pain from intervertebral disc injury affects around 84% of the population at some point in their life, which at its worst may cause total immobilization. This pain can only be temporarily relieved by spinal fusion or intervertebral disc replacement; however, both of these cause loss of natural motion in patients by removing damaged fibrocartilage discs. While these techniques help mitigate pain briefly, no permanent solution exists currently to both relieve pain and preserve natural motion. My work may be a solution by eventually providing patient-specific implants that resemble native tissue in the regeneration process that could be absorbed …


Mechanical Reliability Of Implantable Polyimide-Based Magnetic Microactuators For Biofouling Removal, Christian G. Figueroa-Espada, Qi Yang, Hyowon Lee Aug 2016

Mechanical Reliability Of Implantable Polyimide-Based Magnetic Microactuators For Biofouling Removal, Christian G. Figueroa-Espada, Qi Yang, Hyowon Lee

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Hydrocephalus is a neurological disorder that typically requires a long-term implantation of a shunt system to manage its symptoms. These shunt systems are notorious for their extremely high failure rate. More than 40% of all implanted shunt systems fail within the first year of implantation. On average, 85% of all hydrocephalus patients with shunt systems undergo at least two shunt-revision surgeries within 10 years of implantation. A large portion of this high failure rate can be attributed to biofouling-related obstructions and infections. Previously, we developed flexible polyimide-based magnetic microactuators to remove obstructions formed on hydrocephalus shunts. To test the long-term …


Analyzing Mutations Of Spt7 Protein That Disrupt Interaction With Sf3b Subunits, Arryn T. Harris, Peyton J. Spreacker, Rachel Stegeman, Vikki M. Weake, Edwin C. Acosta Aug 2016

Analyzing Mutations Of Spt7 Protein That Disrupt Interaction With Sf3b Subunits, Arryn T. Harris, Peyton J. Spreacker, Rachel Stegeman, Vikki M. Weake, Edwin C. Acosta

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Proper transcription, the process of converting DNA to RNA, is crucial for the health and viability of an organism. This process is regulated by many proteins, such as co-transcriptional activators; one being the protein complex known as Spt-Ada-Gcn5-acetyltransferase, or SAGA. While much is known about the roles of SAGA in cell processes, how SAGA’s subunits promote functionality is still unknown. The focus of this study is to analyze the purpose of SAGA’s SF3B subunits. These subunits are also found in the spliceosome, the compound responsible for generating mature RNA. SAGA has no known functions relating to this process, so the …


Focusing On Selection For Fixation, John K. Tsotsos, Calden Wloka, Yulia Kotseruba May 2016

Focusing On Selection For Fixation, John K. Tsotsos, Calden Wloka, Yulia Kotseruba

MODVIS Workshop

Building on our presentation at MODVIS 2015, we continue in our quest to discover a functional, computational, explanation of the relationship among visual attention, interpretation of visual stimuli, and eye movements, and how these produce visual behavior. Here, we focus on one component, how selection is accomplished for the next fixation. The popularity of saliency map models drives the inference that this is solved; we suggested otherwise at MODVIS 2015. Here, we provide additional empirical and theoretical arguments. We then develop arguments that a cluster of complementary, conspicuity representations drive selection, modulated by task goals and history, leading to a …


Implantable Device For Wireless Regulation Of The Bladder Through Pelvic Nerve Stimulation, Kelsey C. Bayer, Chris Quinkert, Pedro Irazoqui Aug 2015

Implantable Device For Wireless Regulation Of The Bladder Through Pelvic Nerve Stimulation, Kelsey C. Bayer, Chris Quinkert, Pedro Irazoqui

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Urinary incontinence (UI) is the involuntarily urination that usually effects older people or is the result of an injury. UI affects more than eleven million people and the cost of incontinence management in the United States in 2000 was $19.5 billion. Where conventional physical therapies have failed, pelvic nerve stimulation is a promising form of regulating the bladder long term. Piezoresistive pressure sensors consist of two variable resistance values and two known resistance values that are represented on a daughterboard. This unknown resistance represents the change in pressure. The filling and voiding of the bladder was characterized through acute surgeries. …


Behavioral Outputs Of Fragile-X Autistic Mice Exposed To Open-Field, Randomized, Short-Term Visual Stimuli, Nicholas M. Dicola, Alexander A. Chubykin Aug 2015

Behavioral Outputs Of Fragile-X Autistic Mice Exposed To Open-Field, Randomized, Short-Term Visual Stimuli, Nicholas M. Dicola, Alexander A. Chubykin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Animal models of different neurological disorders are required for studying the pathophysiology of these diseases, and for potential development of pharmacological and behavioral treatments. The scientific community often uses mouse models for behavior studies due to their powerful genetic tools and low cost. However, subjective measurement techniques are often used when analyzing mice for behavioral traits which often results in discrepancies in results. An automated tracking software would aim to eliminate these discrepancies and subjective analysis. This lab has developed a software program which offered an ability to automatically collect open-field behavioral data with simultaneous on-line analysis. Python, an open …


Viewing The Extracellular Matrix: An Imaging Method For Tissue Engineering, Michael Drakopoulos, Sarah Calve Aug 2015

Viewing The Extracellular Matrix: An Imaging Method For Tissue Engineering, Michael Drakopoulos, Sarah Calve

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The field of regenerative medicine seeks to create replacement tissues and organs, both to repair deficiencies in biological function and to treat structural damage caused by injury. Scaffoldings mimicking extracellular matrix (ECM), the structure to which cells attach to form tissues, have been developed from synthetic polymers and also been prepared by decellularizing adult tissue. However, the structure of ECM undergoes significant remodeling during natural tissue repair, suggesting that ECM-replacement constructs that mirror developing tissues may promote better regeneration than those modeled on adult tissues. This work investigated the effectiveness of a method of viewing the extracellular matrix of developing …


The Effects Of Vagus Nerve Stimulation On Neuroinflammation In Epilepsy, Elizabeth A. St. Clair, Gabriel O Albors, Pedro Irazoqui Dr., Amy Brewster Aug 2015

The Effects Of Vagus Nerve Stimulation On Neuroinflammation In Epilepsy, Elizabeth A. St. Clair, Gabriel O Albors, Pedro Irazoqui Dr., Amy Brewster

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by chronic, unexplainable seizures. Recurring epileptic seizures are associated with long-term structural damage and cognitive deficits, and can even lead to sudden, unexplainable death. Approximately 30% of epilepsy cases are not responsive to medication. Epileptic seizures often induce inflammation in the brain and may increase the frequency of future seizures, resulting in a detrimental cycle. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a non-pharmaceutical treatment method for epilepsy that has been shown to reduce inflammation in peripheral pathways. The role of VNS in the modulation of neuroinflammation has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. To explore this, …


Validating Hemoglobin Saturation And Dissolved Oxygen In Tumors Using The Oxylab Probe And Photoacoustic Imaging, Jenna Burnett, Justin Sick, Ms, Marc Mendonca, Keith Stantz, Phd Aug 2014

Validating Hemoglobin Saturation And Dissolved Oxygen In Tumors Using The Oxylab Probe And Photoacoustic Imaging, Jenna Burnett, Justin Sick, Ms, Marc Mendonca, Keith Stantz, Phd

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The goal of this experiment is to validate the relationship between hemoglobin saturation (SaO2) and partial pressure of dissolved oxygen (pO2) in breast tumors in mice using photoacoustic computed tomographic (PCT) imaging and OxyLite probe, respectively. In its simplest form, the relationship is described by the dissociation curve, or Hill’s equation, for hemoglobin, and is modeled as a sigmoidal curve that is a function of two parameters – the Hill coefficient, n, and the net association constant of HbO2, K (or pO2 at 50% SaO2). First, a calibration study to validate …