Equipment and Supplies Commons^™

Improving Medical Diagnostics With Vision-Language Models: Convex Hull-Based Uncertainty Analysis, Ferhat Ozgur Catak, Murat Kuzlu, Taylor Patrick, Michel Audette

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

In recent years, vision-language models (VLMs) have been applied to various fields, including healthcare, education, finance, and manufacturing, with remarkable performance. However, concerns remain regarding VLMs' consistency and uncertainty, particularly in critical applications such as healthcare, which demand a high level of trust and reliability. This paper proposes a novel approach to evaluate uncertainty in VLMs' responses using a convex hull approach on a healthcare application for visual question answering (VQA). For any VLM, temperature refers to a sampling parameter used in probabilistic generation, which controls the randomness of the model's output. The LLM-CXR model is selected as the medical …

Recent Insight And Perspective Of Marine-Inspired Biopolymers For Wound Healing Applications - A Review, Muhammad Umar Aslam Khan, Saiqa Yousaf, Abdalla Abdal-Hay, Mohd Faizal Bin Abdullah, Sahar Madani, Muhammad Shahzad Zafar, Goran M. Stojanović, Lobat Tayebi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

There is an increasing necessity for advanced, sustainable, and biocompatible materials for wound healing as therapeutic and diagnostic products. Marine environments, characterized by high biodiversity, offer an underutilized source of natural resources with enormous potential for creating novel materials for dressings. This review highlights the revolutionary nature of polymeric biomaterials of marine origin, with a focus on polysaccharides, like alginate, chitosan, and carrageenan; proteins, such as collagen and gelatin. These biopolymers are outstanding in their physicochemical properties, such as biodegradability, bioactivity, and modifiable mechanical strength, which enable their use in wound-healing systems. Besides, these biomaterials may be easily chemically and …

Recent Advances In Bioceramics, Fundamental Properties And Future Perspective In Biomedical Applications ‒ A Review, Ayesha Younas, Muhammad Umar Aslam Khan, Mohd Faizal Binte Abdullah, Lobat Tayebi, Shuanghu Wang, Abdalla Abdal-Hay, Yichi Xu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Bioceramics are important biomaterials in biomedical engineering because of their biocompatibility, bioactivity, osteoconductivity, and structural resemblance to actual bone tissue. In recent years, materials science and nanotechnology have enabled the use of bioceramics in bone regeneration, dental restoration, tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, and implantable medical devices. This comprehensive review covers advances in bioceramics, including calcium phosphates, hydroxyapatite (HAp), tricalcium phosphate, bioactive glasses, zirconia, alumina, and multifunctional ceramic nanocomposites. Priority is given to techniques such as additive manufacturing, 3D printing, sol-gel processing, electrospinning, and nanostructuring to improve mechanical strength, porosity, bioactivity, and cell interactions. Recent advances include ion doping, surface …

Linker-Free Gold-Sputtered Tapered Optical Fiber Plasmonic Sensors For High-Sensitivity Refractive Index Detection In Microfluidic Platforms, Erem Ujah, Gymama Slaughter

Center for Bioelectronics Publications

Gold-sputtered tapered optical fiber (Au-TOF) sensors were developed for high-sensitivity refractive-index (RI) detection using aqueous glucose standards spanning 1.33–1.41 RIU (0–50% w/v). The sensors were fabricated using a reproducible workflow combining flame-brushing tapering, plasma surface preparation, and rotational magnetron sputtering, enabling azimuthally uniform gold coatings without the use of thiol or sulfur linker chemistries. Two sputtering durations (24 s and 30 s) were investigated to examine thickness-dependent plasmonic coupling and sensing performance. Optical measurements were conducted using a broadband supercontinuum source and compact spectrometer within a 20 µL microfluidic sensing chamber. Increasing glucose concentration produced a monotonic decrease in transmission …

Mechanistic Investigation Of Ring-Opening Polymerization Of Polycaprolactone Using Tin(Ii) Catalysts: Ligand Effects And Biomedical Applications, Eva-Larue M. Barber

Honors Scholar Theses

This research explores the mechanistic aspects of ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-caprolactone (CL) to produce polycaprolactone (PCL), a biodegradable polymer widely used in biomedical applications. The study investigates how light exposure and catalyst concentration influence polymerization efficiency, using tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate [Sn(Oct)₂] as the catalyst in a non-polar toluene solvent at 90 °C. Reactions were conducted under either ambient light or black light bulb (BLB) illumination, with monomer-to-catalyst ratios of 1:1 and 200:1.

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy was used to analyze conversion efficiency by tracking the disappearance of monomer signals and appearance of characteristic PCL peaks. Results revealed …

Use Of Electrical Bone Growth Stimulators In High-Risk Patients Following Spinal Fusion, Soumya Malhotra, Khavir Sharieff

HCA-NSU MD Research Day

Title: Use of Electrical Bone Growth Stimulators in High-Risk Patients Following Spinal Fusion Authors: Soumya Malhotra, BA., MS1 & Khavir Sharieff, DO, MBA2 1Class of 2027, Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2Assistant Professor of Surgery, Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, Tampa Bay, FLNova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the advantages of EBGSs following high-risk spinal fusions. Background: Pseudarthrosis is a condition where bones fail to fuse after an injury or surgery. It causes significant …

Correlation Enhanced Distribution Adaptation For Prediction Of Fall Risk, Ziqi Guo, Teresa Wu, Thurmon Lockhart, Rahul Soangra, Hyunsoo Yoon

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

With technological advancements in diagnostic imaging, smart sensing, and wearables, a multitude of heterogeneous sources or modalities are available to proactively monitor the health of the elderly. Due to the increasing risks of falls among older adults, an early diagnosis tool is crucial to prevent future falls. However, during the early stage of diagnosis, there is often limited or no labeled data (expert-confirmed diagnostic information) available in the target domain (new cohort) to determine the proper treatment for older adults. Instead, there are multiple related but non-identical domain data with labels from the existing cohort or different institutions. Integrating different …

Non-Invasive Monitoring Device For Early Detection Of Breast Cancer Related Lymphedema, Amy Prendergast

Honors Theses and Capstones

Breast Cancer Related Lymphedema (BCRL) is a common co-morbidity in cancer survivors following neoadjuvant therapies such as chemotherapy, radiation, and/or surgery. It is brought about by the disruption in the lymphatic system (think lymph node biopsy) that leads to a buildup of lymphatic fluid in the arm. Current diagnostic strategies for this condition are merely retroactive, and fairly limited in the parameters that are examined to ensure patient well-being long term. We hypothesize that with an approach that mimics bioimpedance spectroscopy analysis, we will be able to provide a clinical support tool that would better determine early stages of lymphedema …

Getting Off On The Right Foot: Addressing Severe Lymphedema Through A Novel Shoe Design, Carl R. Russell Iii, Anjollie M. Ramakrishna, Christopher H. Johns Iii, Alana V. Van Wijnen

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) is a service-learning design program run by the College of Engineering at Purdue University. EPICS teaches students design skills by providing solutions for individuals, communities, and organizations in the surrounding area while mirroring engineering industry standards. Biomedical Engineering is a team within EPICS that strives to serve community partners through biomedical applications. HR is a patient who suffers from severe lymphedema. This condition results in her foot swelling three times its original size and requires her to utilize weekly leg compression therapy. Prescription shoes are slightly adequate. However, they lead to sores and pain …

Air-Jet Bioprinting Of Stem Cell-Encapsulated Alginate Micro-Droplets For Organoid Biomanufacturing, Mirabella B. Stump

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biomanufactured 3D-organoids show promise for modeling and treating various conditions, particularly insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type-1 diabetes). Pancreatic islet organoids serve as sustainable sources of insulin-producing β-cells, potentially restoring insulin regulation in patients and providing a long-term solution for diabetes. Hydrogel droplet printing is an emerging technique in regenerative medicine due to its advantageous tunability and biocompatibility; however, challenges of consistency, quality control, and scalability persist. To address these issues, we developed a novel air-jetting based droplet bioprinting system for the generation of monodispersed alginate micro-droplets. The objective of this project was to incorporate human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into …

Using Noninvasive Calibrated Cuff Plethysmography To Observe The Effects Of Cold-Water Immersion On Arterial Compliance, Rita M. Grigorian

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

As the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases continues to exponentially grow in populations across the globe, the necessity of determining underlying factors, effective methods of diagnoses, and universally available preventive measures also grows. Early detection of endothelial dysfunction, a proven precursor of cardiovascular diseases, can be extremely impactful in encouraging preventative measures and early intervention before medical conditions become chronic. In recent years, ice plunging, a form of cryotherapy involving full body immersion in cold water, has gained popularity within circles of fitness and health practitioners, gaining the interest of people of all backgrounds. Certain parallels observed between the human physiological …

A Portable And Reliable Tool For On-Site Physical Reaction Time (Rt) Measurement, Brent Harper, Michael Shiraishi, Rahul Soangra

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

The drop-stick test system (DTS) invention has the capability to measure reaction accurately for sideline mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) assessment. The reaction time (RT) measurements showed moderate to good inter-instrument reliability with an overall ICC of 0.82 (95 % CI 0.78–0.85). RT is a useful biomarker of mTBI or concussion, but existing technologies in controlled laboratory environments are not feasible for assessments in the field. With wearable technologies and wireless connection with smartphones, it is now easier to conduct RT assessments on the field. The purpose was to develop a portable DTS involving wearable inertial sensors translatable from the …

Redesigning Nasogastric Feeding Tubes To Prevent Dislodgement, Sydney Ruth Rester, Shelby Lynn Berry

Honors Theses

Seniors at the University of Mississippi studying biomedical engineering complete a senior project that seeks to solve a problem in healthcare. Our team, composed of Sydney Rester, Shelby Berry, Andrew Ulmer, and Alex Bromley, sought to improve care associated with nasogastric feeding tubes. We identified two major problems: clogging and tube dislodgement. To address the problem of dislodgement, the team crafted a new feeding tube design with a balloon attachment. The attachment prevents a patient from pulling the feeding tube out and keeps the tube from dislodging due to normal patient movement. We further determined that our tube should be …

Redesigning Nasogastric Feeding Tubes To Prevent Dislodgement, Shelby Lynn Berry, Sydney Ruth Rester

Honors Theses

Seniors at the University of Mississippi studying biomedical engineering complete a senior project that seeks to solve a problem in healthcare. Our team, composed of Sydney Rester, Shelby Berry, Andrew Ulmer, and Alex Bromley, sought to improve care associated with nasogastric feeding tubes. We identified two major problems: clogging and tube dislodgement. To address the problem of dislodgement, the team crafted a new feeding tube design with a balloon attachment. The attachment prevents a patient from pulling the feeding tube out and keeps the tube from dislodging due to normal patient movement. We further determined that our tube should be …

3-In-1 Medical Lancet, Jonathan J. Panella, Gage Vogtlin, Marissa Koski, Benjamin Neyland

Mechanical Engineering

First responders need a quick, sterile, and convenient way to sample blood for glucose testing because glucose levels are a vital metric in assessing time-critical emergency situations. The blood sampling process consists of pre-sterilizing the sample site on the skin with an alcohol pad, pricking the skin with a lancet, and lastly, after sampling, putting a bandage over the prick site. The scope of this project is to design a device which integrates and streamlines the use of the three sub-processes (sterilization, lancing, and bandaging) while upholding the necessary requirements of a single-use medical device and considering other factors which …

Non-Invasive Peripheral Venous And Arterial Line Air Detector For Embolization Prevention, Alexandria Kwong, Kevin Shu, Dylan Meinster

Biomedical Engineering

The scope of this project includes designing a non-invasive bubble detector for peripheral venous and arterial lines. For minimally invasive cardiac procedures, arterial and venous access is necessary for these procedures as is constant flow through the tubing to prevent clotting and to administer drugs. Air bubbles are common in these lines and can be consequential if enough air is introduced into the human system. Air embolisms are the most common and relevant issues during these procedures. The goal of this device is to create an attachable detector for air bubbles in saline that can also terminate flow and alert …

Left Atrial Appendage Printing Process, Areli Reyes, Brandon James Mukai, Mia Noelle Von Knorring

Biomedical Engineering

The left atrial appendage senior design team aims to assist in closing off the left atrial appendage that is susceptible to coagulation due to non-valvular atrial fibrillation. Coagulation in the left atrial appendage (LAA) can be life threatening as it can lead to a stroke. Dr. Chris Porterfield performs a procedure that uses the Boston Scientific Watchman to close the appendage. He finds that sizing the Watchman properly is difficult with limited visuals from live CT scans. He proposed converting the CT scans into a 3D printed model of the left atrial appendage and left atrium so he can visually …

Seeing Eye To Eye: A Machine Learning Approach To Automated Saccade Analysis, Maigh Attre

Honors Scholar Theses

Abnormal ocular motility is a common manifestation of many underlying pathologies particularly those that are neurological. Dynamics of saccades, when the eye rapidly changes its point of fixation, have been characterized for many neurological disorders including concussions, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and Parkinson’s disease. However, widespread saccade analysis for diagnostic and research purposes requires the recognition of certain eye movement parameters. Key information such as velocity and duration must be determined from data based on a wide set of patients’ characteristics that may range in eye shapes and iris, hair and skin pigmentation [36]. Previous work on saccade analysis has …

Direct Quantification Of Deubiquitinating Enzyme Activity In Single Intact Cells, Nora Safabakhsh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Challenges in drug efficacy occur during the treatment of most types of cancer due to the heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment. This has led to the development of personalized medicine. Due to the clinical success of the proteasome inhibitors Bortezomib and Carfilzomib in treatment of multiple myeloma, interest has shifted towards molecularly-targeted chemotherapeutics for ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are an essential part of this pathway which have been found to promote Bortezomib resistance in multiple myeloma patients. Unfortunately, there is a lack of specific, high throughput biochemical assays to characterize DUB activity in patient samples before and after …

A Novel Hybrid Imaging System To Aid In Surgical Decision Making, Lawrence Yip, Madeleine Van De Kleut, Ivan Kosik, Astrid Chamson-Reig, Jeffrey Jl Carson

Western Research Forum

Background:

Breast cancer accounts for 25% of all cancer cases among women. In breast-conserving surgery, a common treatment, the tumour is excised with a healthy tissue margin. However, detection of the margin can be difficult. Current techniques to guide excision are often insufficient, and re-excision can occur up to 25% of the time.

Methods:

Photoacoustic imaging is a hybrid imaging modality that combines the advantages of optical imaging and ultrasound while using safe non-ionizing light. This project involves the development of a novel imaging system with a new scanner design to overcome common limitations and provide images to aid in …

A Non-Invasive Method Of Measuring Respiration While Providing Wireless Power For Rodents With Implantable Devices, Jynx O. Boyne, Daniel J. Pederson, Zhi Wang, Pedro Irazoqui Dr.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Respiratory measurements can be used as diagnostic and research tools. Spirometry is the gold standard for gaining these measurements, but is difficult to use in rodents as it requires an invasive procedure. Total Body Plethysmograpy (TBP) is a non-invasive way to measure respiration rates that does not cause stress to the rodent. In this system, the subject is encased in a solid, constant volume chamber with measurements determining the subject’s respiration. When using TBP in medical or research settings, challenges occur in powering devices within the TBP chamber as wires and other recording equipment compromise the airtightness of the chamber. …

Design And Development Of Two Component Hydrogel Ejector For Three-Dimensional Cell Growth, Thomas Dunkle, Jessica Deschamps, Connie Dam

Honors Scholar Theses

Hydrogels are useful in wound healing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering applications, but the available methods of injecting them quickly and noninvasively are limited. The medical industry does not yet have access to an all-purpose device that can quickly synthesize hydrogels of different shapes and sizes. Many synthesis procedures that have been developed result in the formation of amorphous hydrogels. While generally useful, amorphous hydrogels exhibit limited capability in tissue engineering applications, especially due to their viscous properties. This endeavor aims to modulate the appropriate gelation parameters, optimize the injection process, and create a prototype that allows for the extrusion …

Nanopulse Generators: Their Design And Application To Cancer Therapy Studies, Daniel P. Wernig

Senior Honors Theses

Effective nanopulse generators have become critical in recent decades concerning the study of subcellular affects in response to nanosecond pulsed electric fields. It has been observed that nanosecond duration electric pulses can target intracellular organelles, ultimately leading to cell apoptosis, suggesting the possibility of a new, minimally invasive, low risk cancer therapy methodology. The standard topology for developing a medical nanopulser is the Blumlein “transmission line” approach. This approach relies on the nearly infinitesimal, yet finite amount of time required for an electromagnetic field to propagate down a short transmission line. Prior to design, requirements and constraints must be defined …

Beach Wheelchair Project, Rory Aronson, Joshua Marcum, Samuel Coyne, Alex Hayes, Alexa Colburn, Max Hessel, Benedikt Strauss, Marvin Rimmele, Marco Pietsch

Mechanical Engineering

The Beach Wheelchair, Sandcrawler, is a machine intended to help give people with disabilities the full beach experience. The non-profit organization Bridge II Sports sponsored this project, and tasked us with developing the design and fabricating a prototype. This chair has several features including a linkage mechanism that raises and lowers a chair relative to an external frame, hand crank drive with Gates Carbondrive belt and sprockets, buoyant Wheeleez balloon tires, and much more.

Biomedical Photoacoustic Imaging Using Gas-Coupled Laser Acoustic Detection, Jami Johnson

Student Research Initiative

Several detection methods have been explored for photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging of biological tissues. Piezoelectric transducers are commonly used, which require contact with the sample to be imaged and have limiting bandwidth characteristics. Interferometry detection exhibits improved bandwidth characteristics and resolution, yet generally require complicated optics and the incorporation of a contacting reflective medium. In this paper, we report the use of a noncontact photoacoustic imaging system that does not require the use of a reflective layer. A simple, robust technique known as gas-coupled laser acoustic detection is used, which has previously been applied to evaluation of composite materials. This …

Micromechanical Analysis Of Nanoparticle-Reinforced Dental Composites, Yi Hua, Linxia Gu, Hidehiko Watanabe

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The mechanical behavior of TiO₂ nanoparticle-reinforced resin-based dental composites was characterized in this work using a three-dimensional nanoscale representative volume element. The impacts of nanoparticle volume fraction, aspect ratio, stiffness, and interphase zone between the resin matrix and nanoparticle on the bulk properties of the composite were characterized. Results clearly demonstrated the mechanical advantage of nanocomposites in comparison to microfiber-reinforced composites. The bulk response of the nanocomposite could be further enhanced with the increased nanoparticle volume fraction, or aspect ratio, while the influence of nanoparticle stiffness was minimal. The effective Young’s modulus and yield strength of the composite was …

Parameter Optimization For Image Denoising Based On Block Matching And 3d Collaborative Filtering, Ramu Pedada, Emin Kugu, Jiang Li, Zhanfeng Yue, Yuzhong Shen, Josien P.W. Pluim (Ed.), Benoit M. Dawant (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Clinical MRI images are generally corrupted by random noise during acquisition with blurred subtle structure features. Many denoising methods have been proposed to remove noise from corrupted images at the expense of distorted structure features. Therefore, there is always compromise between removing noise and preserving structure information for denoising methods. For a specific denoising method, it is crucial to tune it so that the best tradeoff can be obtained. In this paper, we define several cost functions to assess the quality of noise removal and that of structure information preserved in the denoised image. Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2) …

Soft X-Rays, William F. Roherty

Bachelors’ Theses

Traditionally, radiation of those wavelengths produced by a potential of from 2 to 25kv. has been classified as "Grenz" or "soft" x-rays. The peculiar property of this radiation is its low penetrating power. While being transparent to more energetic radiation, animal tissue and similar materials are sufficiently opaque to Grenz rays as to be studied in detail. Since the radiation is of the continuous type, it can be made soft enough to reveal any object, providing, of course, that the tube window and object medium be not opaque. Soft x-rays are produced in exactly the same manner as others, except …