Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Mapping Gadolinium Contrast In A Complex Ionic And Photosynthesis Environment Of Pineapple By Near-Infrared And X-Ray Imaging, Subhendra Sarkar, Zoya Vinokur, Chen Xu, Tetiana Soloviova, Amina Shahbaz, Aldona Gjoni

Publications and Research

This work explores the diffusivity of a lanthanide complex, Eovist (Gadolinium-Ethoxy Benzyl Diethylenetriamine pentaacetate) that is stable in neutral media but is not in acidic environment. In the current work an acidic fruit model like pineapple that is rich in transition metals was used and a possible transmetallation reaction among Eovist and transition metal complexes was tested using X-ray imaging. Another goal of this work was to perturb the usual and the unusual photosynthesis systems that pineapple has maintained for millions of years during the evolution of circadian genes for efficient water conservation by dark photosynthesis. To detect such photosynthesis …

Projecting The Covid-19 Weekly Deaths And Hospitalizations For Jefferson County, Kentucky, Seyed Karimi, Natalie Dupre, W. Paul Mckinney, Bert B. Little, Naiya Patel, Sarah Moyer

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Introduction: The trends in the numbers of active hospitalizations and fatalities caused by the COVID-19 in Jefferson County, Kentucky, were projected over the period May 7 to August 20, 2020.

Methods: The projections provided in this report are from a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) model. The model was calibrated using the COVID-19 transmission dynamics parameters from relevant literature and clinical dynamics parameters from the county’s data. The model was used to measure the impact of public health policy interventions designed to contain the infection. The policy was modeled by its intervention day and impact on the transmission of the virus such that …

An Improved Method For Spectroscopic Quality Classification, Elizabeth G. Mayer

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Spectral quality classification is a vital step in data cleaning before the

analysis of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data can be done. This

analysis compares five methods of quality classification; three of these are

legacy methods, Maudsley et al. (2006), Zhang et al. (2018), and

Bustillo et al. (2020), and two newly created methods that used a random forests

classifier (RFC) to inform their classifications. We found that the random forest

classifier was the most accurate at predicting spectra quality (balanced

accuracy for RF of 88% vs legacy of 70%, 72%, or 72%). A

Random-Forests-Informed Filtering method (RFIFM) for quality …

An Applied Ecology Of Fear Framework: Linking Theory To Conservation Practice, Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Michael J. Cherry, Sophie L. Gilbert, Michael T. Kohl, Courtney L. Larson, Thomas M. Newsome, Laura R. Prugh, Justin P. Suraci, Julie K. Young, Justine A. Smith

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Research on the ecology of fear has highlighted the importance of perceived risk from predators and humans in shaping animal behavior and physiology, with potential demographic and ecosystem-wide consequences. Despite recent conceptual advances and potential management implications of the ecology of fear, theory and conservation practices have rarely been linked. Many challenges in animal conservation may be alleviated by actively harnessing or compensating for risk perception and risk avoidance behavior in wild animal populations. Integration of the ecology of fear into conservation and management practice can contribute to the recovery of threatened populations, human–wildlife conflict mitigation, invasive species management, maintenance …

Β-Amyloid And Tau Drive Early Alzheimer's Disease Decline While Glucose Hypometabolism Drives Late Decline, Tyler C. Hammond, Xin Xing, Chris Wang, David Ma, Kwangsik Nho, Paul K. Crane, Fanny Elahi, David A. Ziegler, Gongbo Liang, Qiang Cheng, Lucille M. Yanckello, Nathan Jacobs, Ai-Ling Lin

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Clinical trials focusing on therapeutic candidates that modify β-amyloid (Aβ) have repeatedly failed to treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD), suggesting that Aβ may not be the optimal target for treating AD. The evaluation of Aβ, tau, and neurodegenerative (A/T/N) biomarkers has been proposed for classifying AD. However, it remains unclear whether disturbances in each arm of the A/T/N framework contribute equally throughout the progression of AD. Here, using the random forest machine learning method to analyze participants in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset, we show that A/T/N biomarkers show varying importance in predicting AD development, with elevated biomarkers of Aβ …

Nobiletin Affects Circadian Rhythms And Oncogenic Characteristics In A Cell-Dependent Manner, Sujeewa S. Lellupitiyage Don, Kelly L. Robertson, Hui-Hsien Lin, Caroline Labriola, Mary E. Harrington, Stephanie R. Taylor, Michelle E. Farkas

Psychology: Faculty Publications

The natural product nobiletin is a small molecule, widely studied with regard to its therapeutic effects, including in cancer cell lines and tumors. Recently, nobiletin has also been shown to affect circadian rhythms via their enhancement, resulting in protection against metabolic syndrome. We hypothesized that nobiletin’s anti-oncogenic effects, such as prevention of cell migration and formation of anchorage independent colonies, are correspondingly accompanied by modulation of circadian rhythms. Concurrently, we wished to determine whether the circadian and anti-oncogenic effects of nobiletin differed across cancer cell lines. In this study, we assessed nobiletin’s circadian and therapeutic characteristics to ascertain whether these …

Covid-19 Peak Immunity Values Seem To Follow Lognormal Distribution, Julio Urenda, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich, Tonghui Wang

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

For the current pandemic, an important open problem is immunity: do people who had this disease become immune against further infections? In the immunity study, it is important to know how frequent are different levels of immunity, i.e., what is the probability distribution of the immunity levels. Different people have different rates of immunity dynamics: for some, immunity gets to the level faster, for others the immunity effect is slower. Similarly, in some patients, immunity stays longer, it others, it decreases faster. In view of this, an important characteristic is peak immunity. A recent study provides some statistics on the …

Optimal Control Of Linear Continuous-Time Systems In The Presence Of State And Input Delays With Application To A Chemical Reactor, Rohollah Moghadam, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the optimal regulation of linear continuous-time systems with state and input delays is introduced by utilizing a quadratic cost function and state feedback. The Lyapunov-Krakovskii functional incorporating state and input delays is defined as a value function. Next, the Bellman type equation is formulated, and a delay Algebraic Riccati equation (DARE) over infinite time horizon is derived. By using the stationarity condition for the Bellman type equation, the optimal control input is obtained. It is demonstrated that the proposed optimal control input makes the closed-loop system asymptotically stable. Finally, simulation results confirm the theoretical claims by applying …

Distributed Adaptive State Estimation And Tracking Scheme For Nonlinear Systems Using Active Passive Sensor Networks, Akhilesh Raj, S. Jagannathan, Tansel Yucelen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a novel adaptive neural network (NN) based distributed state estimation scheme for a heterogeneous sensor network (HSN), to estimate the state vector of an unknown nonlinear process/target by using sensed output when the target input remains unknown. The active nodes in the HSN can sense the target output based on the detection range. By using a connected graph, the active nodes will communicate their estimated state vector from their adaptive NN observer to other passive nodes in the neighborhood that cannot sense the target, so that they can estimate the target state vector. Next, a subset of …

Covid-19 Pandemic: Role Of Technology In Transforming Business To The New Normal, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

COVID-19 has disrupted our lives and the economy. In this paper, we outline approaches in which information technology can be used to implement business strategies to enhance resilience by coping with, adapting to, and recovering from adversity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss how information technology such as digital supply chain, data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, digital commerce, and Internet of Things can be used to enhance resilience and continuity of business.

Availability-Resilient Control Of Uncertain Linear Stochastic Networked Control Systems, Chandreyee Bhowmick, S. Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The resilient output feedback control of linear networked control (NCS) system with uncertain dynamics in the presence of Gaussian noise is presented under the denial of service (DoS) attacks on communication networks. The DoS attacks on the sensor-to-controller (S-C) and controller-to-actuator (C-A) networks induce random packet losses. The NCS is viewed as a jump linear system, where the linear NCS matrices are a function of induced losses that are considered unknown. A set of novel correlation detectors is introduced to detect packet drops in the network channels using the property of Gaussian noise. By using an augmented system representation, the …

Dynamic Trajectory Generation And A Robust Controller To Intercept A Moving Ball In A Game Setting, Ravi Prakash, Laxmidhar Behera, Santhakumar Mohan, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Complex and interactive robot manipulation skills, such as playing a game of table tennis against a human opponent, are a novel problem with multifaceted challenges. Accurate dynamic trajectory generation in order to respond to the tennis ball from the opponent and a novel control scheme for robust and high-performance tracking of the ball in such dynamic situations is a prerequisite to winning the game. In this paper, the dynamic movement primitives (DMPs) are employed for the stable generation of dynamic trajectories in the presence of environmental uncertainties such as ball position and velocity, opponent position and velocity and so on. …

Addressing Parameter Uncertainty In Sd Models With Fit-To-History And Monte-Carlo Sensitivity Methods, Wayne Wakeland, Jack Homer

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present a practical guide, including a step-by-step flowchart, for establishing uncertainty intervals for key model outcomes in the face of uncertain parameters. The process starts with Powell optimization (e.g., using VensimTM) to find a set of uncertain parameters (the “optimum” parameter set or OPS) that minimize the model fitness error relative to available reference behavior data. The optimization process also helps in refinement of assumed parameter uncertainty ranges. Next, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) or conventional Monte Carlo (MC) randomization is used to create a sample of parameter sets that fit the reference behavior data nearly as well as …

Covid-19 Testnorm: A Tool To Normalize Covid-19 Testing Names To Loinc Codes, Xiao Dong, Jianfu Li, Ekin Soysal, Jiang Bian, Scott L Duvall, Elizabeth Hanchrow, Hongfang Liu, Kristine E Lynch, Michael Matheny, Karthik Natarajan, Lucila Ohno-Machado, Serguei Pakhomov, Ruth Madeleine Reeves, Amy M Sitapati, Swapna Abhyankar, Theresa Cullen, Jami Deckard, Xiaoqian Jiang, Robert Murphy, Hua Xu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Large observational data networks that leverage routine clinical practice data in electronic health records (EHRs) are critical resources for research on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Data normalization is a key challenge for the secondary use of EHRs for COVID-19 research across institutions. In this study, we addressed the challenge of automating the normalization of COVID-19 diagnostic tests, which are critical data elements, but for which controlled terminology terms were published after clinical implementation. We developed a simple but effective rule-based tool called COVID-19 TestNorm to automatically normalize local COVID-19 testing names to standard LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) …

Online Optimal Adaptive Control Of A Class Of Uncertain Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems, Rohollah Moghadam, Pappa Natarajan, Krishnan Raghavan, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a multi-layer neural network (MNN) based online optimal adaptive regulation of a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems in affine form with uncertain internal dynamics is introduced. The multi-layer neural networks (MNN)-based actor-critic framework is utilized to estimate the optimal control input and cost function. The temporal difference (TD) error is derived from the difference between actual and estimated cost function. The MNN weights of both critic and actor are tuned at every sampling instant as a function of the instantaneous temporal difference and control policy errors. The proposed approach does not require the selection of any basis …

Analysis On Suicidal Ideation Among Adolescents (12-17 Years) In The Usa, Himani Raturi

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Suicide is one of the leading health concerns in United States among adolescents and the presence of suicidal ideation (SI) is quite high, with ~20-30% of adolescents reporting it at some point. Though we have seen growth and development in the prevention of suicide, there is limited research on the ability to identify the adolescents which might be at risk for SI. The objective behind the project is to identify adolescents with SI using machine learning.

The project shows statistics from different articles on adolescents in the U.S. For this study, adolescent data was taken from NSDUH 2018. Moreover, detailed …

Frontal Vehicle Illumination Via Rear-Facing Lighting Reduces Potential For Collisions With White-Tailed Deer, Travis L. Devault, Thomas W. Seamans, Bradley Blackwell

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

nimal–vehicle collisions cause many millions of animal deaths each year worldwide and present a substantial safety risk to people. In the United States and Canada, deer (Odocoileus spp.) are involved in most animal–vehicle collisions associated with human injuries. We evaluated a vehicle-based collision mitigation method designed to decrease the likelihood of deer–vehicle collisions during low-light conditions, when most collisions occur. Specifically, we investigated whether the use of a rear-facing light, providing more complete frontal vehicle illumination than standard headlights alone, enhanced vehicle avoidance behaviors of white-tailed deer (O. virginianus). We quantified flight initiation distance (FID), the likelihood …

Thermotropic And Lyotropic Phase Behaviours Of Spontaneously Self-Assembled Amphiphilic Branched-Chain Glycosides With Various Chain Length, Abdul Hamid Hairul Amani

Student Works (2020-2029)

Lipid polymorphism is a process which illustrates the self-assembly of lipid aggregation depending on the environment. Lipids such as branched-chain glycolipids which are amphiphilic molecules also known as amphitropic tend to generate mesophases in thermotropic (dry) and lyotropic (solvation) conditions. These molecules are capable of self-aggregating into various types of glycolipid self-assemblies offering an interesting insight in relation to their functions in living cells. Hence, this study aims to investigate the mesophases of ꞵ-D-glycosides which are branched-chain synthetic glycolipids, namely, ꞵ-D-glucosides and ꞵ-D-maltosides. The study was carried out on the thermotropic phases of dry glycosides and the lyotropic phases of …

An Improved Bone Age Assessment Using Advanced Image Processing And Deep Learning Approach, Kim Meng Liang

Student Works (2020-2029)

Pediatricians often apply bone age assessment to measure the skeletal maturity of children and to predict the future height. These discrepancies are good indicators for diagnosing growth disorders. Normally, left hand skeletal is employed in this assessment. The low quality of ossification sites of carpals deteriorates the pediatrician’s visibility in inspecting the pertinent radiographic manifestations. This in turn affects the bone age assessment. Therefore, we have to enhance the quality before assessing them. Histogram equalization is one of the contrast enhancement techniques that suit this type of enhancement. Existing histogram equalizations, however, are confronting with problems in preserving the brightness …

An Assessment Of Disinfection-Related Water Chemistry At Public Pools And Spas In Louisville, Kentucky, Thomas Gerding, Tim Wilder, Jason W. Marion

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The growth in the number of pools to more than 7.4 million in the U.S. has been accompanied by a rise in recreational water illnesses (RWIs). Effective pool management, though, can mitigate RWI risks. Inadequate management presumably occurs more frequently where training is less formalized and/or pool operation is a minor aspect of the job of the responsible pool manager(s). During summer 2018, weekly evaluations were performed at public venues in Louisville, Kentucky. Disinfectant levels and other items were monitored and compared with venue-specific (pool or spa) criteria. Among 1,312 venue surveys, 1,173 (89.4%) met criteria and 139 (10.6%) did …

Covid-19 Calls For Remote Reskilling And Retraining, C. Zou, W. Zhao, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cui Zou, Wangchuchu Zhao, and Keng Siau respond directly to COVID-19 by framing the skills and training necessary to survive crises. The authors focus on the importance of helping organizations prepare beyond the current pandemic by teaching everyone how to use the technology tools -- and exploit the processes -- around remote working.

Busting Myths And Dispelling Doubts About Covid-19, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG) at Singapore Management University (SMU) has embarked over past months on a programme of research designed to confront concerns about the pandemic and its control. Our interest is primarily directed to the ways in which AI-assisted technologies and mass data sharing have become a feature of pandemic control strategies. We want to know what impact these developments are having on community confidence and health safety. In developing this work, we have come across many myths that need busting.

Camps: Efficient And Privacy-Preserving Medical Primary Diagnosis Over Outsourced Cloud, Jianfeng Hua, Guozhen Shi, Hui Zhu, Fengwei Wang, Ximeng Liu, Hao Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the flourishing of ubiquitous healthcare and cloud computing technologies, medical primary diagnosis system, which forms a critical capability to link big data analysis technologies with medical knowledge, has shown great potential in improving the quality of healthcare services. However, it still faces many severe challenges on both users' medical privacy and intellectual property of healthcare service providers, which deters the wide adoption of medical primary diagnosis system. In this paper, we propose an efficient and privacy-preserving medical primary diagnosis framework (CAMPS). Within CAMPS framework, the precise diagnosis models are outsourced to the cloud server in an encrypted manner, and …

Lightweight And Privacy-Aware Fine-Grained Access Control For Iot-Oriented Smart Health, Jianfei Sun, Hu Xiong, Ximeng Liu, Yinghui Zhang, Xuyun Nie, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the booming of Internet of Things (IoT), smart health (s-health) is becoming an emerging and attractive paradigm. It can provide an accurate prediction of various diseases and improve the quality of healthcare. Nevertheless, data security and user privacy concerns still remain issues to be addressed. As a high potential and prospective solution to secure IoT-oriented s-health applications, ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) schemes raise challenges, such as heavy overhead and attribute privacy of the end users. To resolve these drawbacks, an optimized vector transformation approach is first proposed to efficiently transform the access policy and user attribute set into …

Identification Of Microscopy Cell Images By Using Convolutional Neural Network Application, Ajis Norfatin Farisya

Student Works (2020-2029)

Breast cancer has been the major factor of cancer death and the second main cause of women’s deaths in the world. The false positive results of this cancer cell detection during the screening test leads to false treatment and emotional disturbance of the patients. Thus, breast cancer cell lines (MCF7) is used as the microscopy image samples together with the Human Bone Osteosarcoma Epithelial Cells (U2OS), and Human Hepatocyte as control to study the effectiveness of convolutional neural network (CNN) as a method of image recognition. The objectives of this study are to determine the ability of convolutional neural network …

Visualization Of Brown Fat Using X-Ray Dark Field Imaging, Troy D. Jacobs

LSU Master's Theses

Introduction: Obesity has become a major societal issue. Many researchers are looking for ways to combat this growing epidemic. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) might be a way to help individuals overcome the challenges associated with weight loss and maintenance of weight loss, but a better understanding of BAT and how to control and utilize it is needed. BAT differs from white adipose tissue (WAT) in that BAT is rich with mitochondria and therefore is metabolically active. BAT is a source of non-shivering thermogenesis and can be activated both by cold exposure and pharmacologically. Current methods of assessing BAT activity are …

Evaluating The Importation Of Yellow Fever Cases Into China In 2016 And Strategies Used To Prevent And Control The Spread Of The Disease, Chao Li, Dan Li, Shirley Joann Smart, Lei Zhou, Peng Yang, Jianming Ou, Yi He, Ruiqi Ren, Tao Ma, Nijuan Xiang, Haitian Sui, Yali Wang, Jian Zhao, Chaonan Wang, Yeping Wang, Daxin Ni, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, Dexin Li, Yangmu Huang, Qun Li

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

During the yellow fever epidemic in Angola in 2016, cases of yellow fever were reported in China for the first time. The 11 cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Angola, were identified in March and April 2016, one to two weeks after the peak of the Angolan epidemic. One patient died; the other 10 cases recovered after treatment. This paper reviews the epidemiological characteristics of the 11 yellow fever cases imported into China. It examines case detection and disease control and surveillance, and presents recommendations for further action to prevent additional importation of yellow fever into China.

Active Deep Learning Method To Automate Unbiased Stereology Cell Counting, Saeed Alahmari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell quantification in histopathology images plays a significant role in understanding and diagnosing diseases such as cancer and Alzheimers. The gold-standard for quantifying cells in tissue sections is the unbiased stereology approach. Unfortunately, in unbiased stereology current practices rely on a well-trained human to manually count hundreds of cells in microscopy images. However, this human-based manual approach is time-consuming, labor-intensive, subject to human errors, recognition bias, fatigue, variable training, poor reproducibility, and inter-observer error. Thus, the lack of high-throughput technology for automating unbiased stereology analyses remains a major obstacle to further progress in a wide range of neuroscience and cancer …

Developing Alternatives To Protect Domestic Sheep From Predation In South Africa, David L. Bergman, Nico L. Avenant, Michael J. Bodenchuk, Eddie Steenkamp

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

South Africa has approximately 8,000 commercial small livestock farms and 5,800 communal/subsistence farmers throughout the country. Reported rates of small livestock loss to predation range from 3-13% and 0.5-19% from communal farming areas. A range of predators exist on the African continent, but in southern Africa major livestock losses are primarily due to black-backed jackal and caracal. South Africans have been managing caracals and jackals for over 300 years with no elimination of predation. During the aforementioned time frame, producers have used and/or developed a number of techniques including lethal, nonlethal, and integrated predator damage management to address predation losses. …

Spermine Synthase And Myc Cooperate To Maintain Colorectal Cancer Cell Survival By Repressing Bim Expression, Yubin Guo, Qing Ye, Pan Deng, Yanan Cao, Daheng He, Zhaohe Zhou, Chi Wang, Yekaterina Y. Zaytseva, Charles E. Schwartz, Eun Young Lee, B. Mark Evers, Andrew J. Morris, Side Liu, Qing-Bai She

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Dysregulation of polyamine metabolism has been linked to the development of colorectal cancer (CRC), but the underlying mechanism is incompletely characterized. Here, we report that spermine synthase (SMS), a polyamine biosynthetic enzyme, is overexpressed in CRC. Targeted disruption of SMS in CRC cells results in spermidine accumulation, which inhibits FOXO3a acetylation and allows subsequent translocation to the nucleus to transcriptionally induce expression of the proapoptotic protein Bim. However, this induction is blunted by MYC-driven expression of miR-19a and miR-19b that repress Bim production. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of MYC activity in SMS-depleted CRC cells dramatically induces Bim expression and apoptosis …