Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Lxr Acts As A Differentiator In The Regulation Of Fas And G6pdh Gene Expression Under Insulin Resistant Conditions, Jaafar Hachem

Dissertations

Diabetes is a chronic disease that effects 10 percent of the world’s population and causes more than 1.5 million deaths a year and billions of dollars in associated health care cost. It can lead to very serious complications such as renal failure, liver cirrhosis, heart attack, and vision loss. The most common type of diabetes is type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes arises when blood glucose levels remain chronically high due to insulin resistance. The reason for this elevation is due to the failure of insulin to allow tissues to uptake glucose causing problems in subsequent metabolic pathways. Over the …

On Prediction Of Early Signs Of Alzheimer’S— A Machine Learning Framework, Abdalrahman Alsaedi

Dissertations

Dementia is a collective term used to indicate a loss of memory functions with the presence of at least one additional loss of a major cognitive ability that hinders a person’s previous level of functioning. Studies show that dementia is highly age- associated and that the most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Early recognition of Alzheimer’s disease, before irreversible damage to the brain has already occurred, is paramount to slowing or preventing the disease. Therefore, algorithms for the prediction of early signs of dementia are essential. Machine learning approach has been reported to use several data sources such …

Towards Development Of A Remote Charting System For Connected Healthcare, Alex Bodurka

Masters Theses

Health Care Providers play a crucial role in a patients well-being. While their primary role is to treat the patient, it is also vital to ensure that they can spend adequate time with the patient to create a unique treatment plan and build a personal relationship with their patients to help them feel comfortable during their treatment. Health Care Providers are frequently required to manually record patient data to track their healthcare progress during their hospital stay. However, with hospitals continuously trying to optimize their workflows, this crucial one-on-one time with the patient is often not practical.

As a solution, …

The Assessment Of Co2 Exposures, Workload Demands, And Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk On Heart Rate For Select Craft Brewery Job Tasks, David L. Huizen

Dissertations

Americans have embraced craft beer, and the ensuing demand has resulted in an ever-increasing number of craft breweries opening over the past 20 years. Craft brewers are generally small employers and, as such, lack the resources necessary to address the safety and health of their employees adequately. Brewers face many safety and health hazards in their work environment. These hazards include exposures to carbon dioxide (CO₂), workload demand, and MSD risk. It is essential to evaluate these hazards in craft breweries as they handle carbon dioxide (CO₂) differently than large breweries by having the CO_{2 …}

Biological Evaluation Of Fda-Approved Drugs As Mirna-31 Inhibitors Using Real Time Qrt-Pcr And A Luciferase Assay, Nicholas Sienkiewicz

Honors Theses

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of post-transcriptional, negative regulators of gene expression, consisting of ~19-24 nucleotides. Since their discovery in 1993, miRNAs have been found to be involved in a diverse amount of cellular and disease pathways, including certain types of cancer. Overexpression of certain oncogenic miRNAs, including miRNA-31, have been shown to play a role in cancer cell development. Recent findings have suggested that miRNAs play a significant role in every stage of colorectal cancer (CRC) initiation, progression, and development, as well as induce resistance to chemotherapy drugs like 5-FU. In particular, research has shown that increased levels of …

Mechanisms Of Sleep And The Brain, Doungbagai Leo

Honors Theses

One of the most important homeostatic functions of the brain and body is sleep. This literary review analyzes the genes that are involved in sleep: Clock, Bmal1, Period, and Cryptochrome. It also explains the role of melatonin, GABA, orexin, and melanopsin during sleep regulation. The genes and neurotransmitters influence the suprachiasmatic nuclei and the circadian rhythm that our brain, and every cell of our bodies, have connections to. These connection help to ensure the homeostatic function of our bodies. The analysis of sleep-like states in other animals may show an evolutionary connection of sleep from non-mammals to mammals, but may …

Similarity Based Classification Of Adhd Using Singular Value Decomposition, Taban Eslami, Fahad Saeed

Parallel Computing and Data Science Lab Technical Reports

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common brain disorders among children. This disorder is considered as a big threat for public health and causes attention, focus and organizing difficulties for children and even adults. Since the cause of ADHD is not known yet, data mining algorithms are being used to help discover patterns which discriminate healthy from ADHD subjects. Numerous efforts are underway with the goal of developing classification tools for ADHD diagnosis based on functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging data of the brain. In this paper, we used Eros, which is a technique for …

Organocatalyzed Synthesis Of Epoxides From Chalcones Utilizing Amino Acids, Sabrina N. Kegeler

Masters Theses

The epoxide functional group is important throughout the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as in nature. In the chemical industry, epoxides are present in resins and fragrances. In the pharmaceutical industry, epoxide-containing compounds are used as intermediates in the manufacturing of drugs. In nature, many natural products contain epoxide groups and are used for medicinal purposes, and for models to create synthetic molecules.

One approach to epoxide synthesis involves the use of an alkene precursor, a base, and an oxidizing agent. This is where my investigations began. The first step was to optimize the epoxidation reaction, examining substrate scope, …

Determining Best Practices Of Peer Mediation Methods In Kalamazoo Public Schools, Melanie Bourgeau, Dagan Hammar, Neil Hughes, Sarah Kemp, Sydney Spitler, Cathy L. Kothari Phd

Research Day

Determining Best Practices of Peer Mediation methods in Kalamazoo Public Schools Melanie Bourgeau, Dagan Hammar, Neil Hughes, Sarah Kemp, Sydney Spitler, Catherine Kothari BACKGROUND Peer mediation is a method of conflict resolution in which a conflict between two people or groups is guided by a fellow student in order to reach an agreement. Peer mediation has been shown to be an effective tool in helping students resolve conflict and how to respond to future conflicts. This has led to a reduction in school violence and suspensions in schools that have adopted this method. Several methods have been employed in the …

Benefit Of Ultrasound Curriculum Development For Family Medicine Residents, Nithin Natwa, Uzair Munshey, Duncan Vos, Robert Baker

Research Day

Introduction/Purpose: Musculoskeletal problems comprise some of the most common reasons for ambulatory care encounters in the United States, accounting for 8.3% of the 1.2 billion visits per year according to the CDC. Musculoskeletal Ultrasound use has become more common in primary care for diagnosis and therapeutics. In Family Medicine Residency (FMR) Programs there is a deficiency of a structured, competency-based musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSK US) training despite its growing popularity. Currently, there is no formalized requirement for Ultrasound education as in other residency programs in spite of its benefit. Methods: We received a positive response on our needs analysis survey for …

Delivery Of Health Education In Adolescents With Behavioral Health Challenges, Ashley Akkal, Ransome Eke Md, Phd, Sulin Wu, Amy Rechenberg, Michael Madrid, Jose Lopez-Vera, Duncan Vos

Research Day

BACKGROUND Adolescents with behavioral health issues tend to have inadequate access to health education, and are thus less aware of the importance of personal and dental hygiene, exercise, and healthy diet and lifestyle habits. Due to this disparity, this population has been known to harbor a higher prevalence of STI’s, drug and alcohol abuse, physical altercations, juvenile detention, and suicide attempts. PURPOSE The overall objective of this study was to examine the effect of integrating a health science curriculum in this population. METHODS Participants aged 5-17 years old were recruited and assigned to either control or science groups by Family …

High Performance Bayesian Applications In Medical, Economics And Climate Sciences, Ahmed Almulihi

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

We apply high performance numerical integration to problems in Bayesian statistics. These are applied to data arising in the analysis of problems in such areas as medical statistics (birth weight data, heart transplant data, photocarcinogen data, radio therapy data), climate (global weather, tornado data), and general statistics applications (multivariate logistic distribution, multivariate normal, nonlinear regression). We compute Bayesian moment integrals using the ParInt integration software that runs efficiently on computer clusters. We compare our results to those in the literature and show excellent performance with respect to accuracy and execution time.

Gpu-Accelerated Influenza Simulations For Operational Modeling, Peter Holvenstot

Masters Theses

Simulations of influenza spread are useful for decision-making during public-health emergencies. Policy-makers use models to predict disease spread and estimate the effects of various intervention strategies. Effective modeling of targeted intervention strategies requires accurate modeling of individual-level behavior and transmission. However, this greatly increases the computational costs of these agent-based models. In addition, if the models are used as an outbreak progresses, some operational decisions must occur rapidly in order to contain the spread of the disease.

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are a type of specialized processor used to drive graphical displays. Many recent devices also allow users to write …

Biophysical Characterization Of The First Four Metal-Binding Domains Of Human Wilson Disease Protein, Alia V.H. Hinz

Dissertations

Wilson disease protein (WLNP) is a P_1b-type ATPase crucial for maintaining copper homeostasis in humans. Mutations in this protein result in the autosomal recessive disorder Wilson disease, a condition characterized by copper accumulation in the liver and brain. WLNP provides copper for incorporation into cuproproteins and exports excess copper into the bile for excretion. There are six metal-binding domains (MBDs) in WLNP, found within the first 650 amino acids of this 1,465 amino acid protein. Though each MBD has a different amino acid sequence, all MBDs possess a similar ferredoxin fold with a conserved hydrophobic core and a …

A Metaevaluation Of Evaluations Of Health Care Programs That Employ The Chronic Care Model, Jan Fields

Dissertations

Background: The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the use of metaevaluation to evaluate the quality of healthcare studies conducted on programs that employ the Chronic Care Model (CCM) to provide chronic illness care. In this study, healthcare studies of CCM programs are regarded as program evaluations. Method: Using a non-experimental cross-sectional design, 28 healthcare studies of CCM programs were evaluated using the accuracy standards portion of the Program Evaluations Metaevaluation Checklist (Stufflebeam, 2011). The results of the metaevaluations were analyzed and compared to the HEAL grade of the same healthcare studies as determined by the Hierarchy of Evidence …

Study Of The Insulin Mimetic Sodium Orthovanadate In Glucosamine Induced Insulin Resistnace In Primary Rat Hepatocytes, Kalan Mcpherson

Masters Theses

Insulin resistance and type II diabetes is a disease state characterized by a lack of sensitivity of insulin to provoke a proper response in insulin sensitive tissues. Currently, we utilize glucosamine to increase flux through the Hexosamine Biosynthetic Pathway (HBP) to induce an insulin resistance like state in primary rat hepatocytes. We tested the effectiveness of the insulin mimetic sodium orthovanadate to determine if it could elicit an insulin-like response under these conditions. Mixed results were obtained on the effectiveness of vanadate as an insulin mimetic in this insulin resistant model.

Privacy And Security Issues In Iot Healthcare Applications For The Disabled Users A Survey, Wassnaa Al-Mawee

Masters Theses

Aging of the population resulted in new challenges for the society and healthcare systems. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) that depends on Internet of Things (IoT) provides assistance to the disabled people and supports their vital daily life activities. Affordability of and accessibility to AAL and the usage of IoT starts revolutionizing healthcare services. This Thesis is a survey of the privacy and security issues in IoT healthcare applications for the disabled users. Introduction includes definitions of privacy and security terms, and discusses their relationship. Then, it presents an overview of the IoT, including its architecture and components. Next, the Thesis …

Western Michigan University Occupational Therapy Department Web Page, Holly Pietrzak, Melissa Byrne

Honors Theses

Website designed for WMU's Occupational Therapy department.

Sds Non-Acrylamide Polymeric Gel-Filled Capillary Electrophoresis For Molecular Size Separation Of Protein, Devon Andres

Honors Theses

Sodium dodecyl sulfide (SDS) non-acrylamide gel-filled capillary columns are a new technology being used for analysis and separation of biotechnology-derived proteins. This research was to compare this new technology to the current methods of SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC). The molecular mass of four different recombinant proteins were determined by two commercialized SDS non-acrylamide gel-filled capillary columns, SDS-PAGE, and HPSEC. The data obtained showed that the SDS non-acrylamide gel-filled capillary columns were compatible with the SDS-PAGE technique for molecular mass determination. HPSEC was shown to be unreliable for molecular weight determination. SDS non-acrylamide gel-filled capillary …

Signal Processing With Neural Networks, Pero Smrzlic

Masters Theses

In this study, we introduce the Adaptive Back Propagation (ABP) learning algorithm, computationally superior to the standard Back Propagation. The ABP is based on the new activation function, with its corresponding adaptive learning parameter. By using the combination of computer simulations and analysis in the domain of activation function, the Method of One Hidden layer was developed for the effective utilization of units in one-hidden layer networks. A parallel version of the ABP was designed and implemented on a nCUBE-2 supercomputer with 128 processors.

The simulation results suggested a strong correlation between frequency of signals and the role of hidden …

Time Delay Neural Networks And Speech Recognition: Context Independence Of Stops In Different Vowel Environments, Gregory Andrew Makowski

Masters Theses

A series of speech recognition experiments was conducted to investigate time-dynamic speech recognition of stop consonants invariant of vowel environment using data from six talkers. The speech preprocessing was based on previous studies investigating acoustic characteristics which correlate to the place of articulation (Blumstein and Stevens 1979). The place of articulation features were statistically abstracted using four moments and the energy level of the speech sample.

Both statistical and neural network pattern recognition methods were used. Statistical methods included linear and quadratic discriminant functions, maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and K-nearest neighbors (KNN). The neural network approach used was Time Delay …

The Survival Of Mesophilic And Thermophilic Bacteria Subjected To Uv Irradiation, Sajida A. Shaikh

Masters Theses

Survival curves were determined for the mesophile, Bacillus licheniformis and the thermophile, Bacillus stearothermophilus after subjecting the cells to ultraviolet irradiation. Cells were grown at 37°C for the mesophile and at 55°C for the thermophile.

At low UV exposure times, the thermophile was more resistant to UV irradiation (had a better survival rate) than was the case for the mesophile. At higher exposure times, the situation was reversed, the mesophile having a greater survival rate than the thermophile.

The effect of changes in the temperature during irradiation was also determined. Thermophiles were greatly affected by changes in temperature while the …