5153 research outputs found
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A Hyperbolic Model of Neuronal Spiking Patterns in Parkinson’s Disease
No full textThis poster was also presented on 2015-04-30 at Northeast Section American Society for Engineering Education 2015 in Boston, MA.To investigate how different types of neurons in brain can produce well known spiking patterns, a new computationally efficient model is proposed in this poster. The model can demonstrate various neuronal behavior observed in vivo such as abnormal pattern of subthalamic nucleus (STN) in Parkinson’s disease. The irregular and arrhythmic behavior of STN firing pattern under normal conditions can easily be transformed to those caused by Parkinson’s disease through simple parameter modifications. This model can explicitly show the change of neuronal activity patterns in Parkinson’s disease, which may eventually lead to effective bio-chip designs that can be used to assist in the control, treatment, and ultimately, the cure of the disease
Histogram Analysis for Automatic Blood Vessels Detection: First Step of IOP
No full textMost individuals do not realize they have a broken vein in the eye until somebody lets them know or they look in a mirror. This condition is not tormenting, but commonly creates obtuse trauma to the eye. Treatment is often not required for subconjunctival drainage. In the event that a patient has recognized the presence of blood in his or her eye, it may be fitting for him or her to look for medical consideration. While a subconjunctival drain is occasionally risky, hyphema (blood in the front assembly of the eye, between the cornea and the iris) is conceivably a more serious condition, with more serious outcomes. This work first provides an overview of the most common techniques used to calculate the blood vessels in color images of the retina. Then, it presents a study that has been conducted to discuss the early steps of the intraocular pressure (IOP) detection in the eye, using histogram analysis
Efficient Use of Bio-Inspired Nanofabrication in Soft Electronics
No full textSelf-assembly plays an important role in the formation of different nanostructures either organic or inorganic. Controlled assembly of molecules into higher ordered hierarchical structures on the other hand require a thorough insight into the interactive forces that lie behind such an assembly. The interface between organic and inorganic materials is thus of primary significance when it comes to the tasks of selective deposition and assembly of inorganic molecules through organic agents. One of the bacterial species that belong to the class α-proteobacteria called Magnetospirillum magneticum (classified as AMB-1) is investigated in this study and it is found that this species is able to fulfill the requirements that are imposed by the complexity of the selective deposition and controlled assembly tasks. AMB-1 contain single-domain crystals of magnetite (Fe3O4) called magnetosomes that sense the external magnetic field that is further utilized for cellular displacement (magnetotaxis) through lash-like cellular appendages called flagella. The two flagella located at the proximal and distal ends of the cell consists of a protein monomer flagellin. Individual flagellin in turn that are located on the periphery of each of the flagellum's central channel consists of four sub-domains, two inner domains (D0, D1) made up of alpha helices and two outer domains (D2, D3) made up of beta sheets. However, it is the domain D3 that is exposed to the surrounding micro-environment, thereby interacting with the components to be selectively deposited, in this case, carbon nanotubes (CNT). Based on the electromagnetic and molecular dynamics simulations and the real-time experimental analysis involving optical microscopy utilizing 50 micron diameter conductor (44AWG) magnetic coils as directional magnetic field generation centers to visualize the motion of free as well as loaded AMB-1 as well as electron microscopy (TEM & SEM) to analyze the interactive forces between CNT and AMB-1 flagellum, it is found that once the domain D3 is functionalized with either metallic (m-) or semiconducting (s-) carbon nanotubes (CNT), the AMB-1 cell can be used as an efficient carrier for selective deposition tasks. Two aspects that are of particular interest are the phenomenal control of direction exhibited by AMB-1 using locally generated magnetic field and the efficient interactive forces in the form of short range forces (van der Waals, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds) and long range forces (electrostatic interactions) between m-CNT or s-CNT and D3. Thus, it is recognized that a compound semiconductor manufacturing technology involving bacterial carriers and carbon-based materials such as carbon nanotubes would be a desirable choice in the future
Fortified End-to-End Location Privacy and Anonymity in Wireless Sensor Networks: a Modular Approach
No full textWireless sensor network (WSN) consists of many hosts called sensors. These sensors can sense a phenomenon (motion, temperature, humidity, average, max, min, etc.) and represent what they sense in a form of data. There are many applications for WSNs; including object tracking and monitoring where in most of the cases these objects need protection. In these applications, data privacy itself might not be as important as the privacy of source location. In addition to the source location privacy, sink location privacy should also be provided. Providing an efficient end-to-end privacy solution would be a challenging task to achieve due to the open nature of the WSN. The key schemes needed for end-to-end location privacy are anonymity, observability, capture likelihood, and safety period. We extend this work to allow for countermeasures against multi-local and global adversaries. We present a network model that is protected against a sophisticated threat model: passive /active and local/multi-local/global attacks. This work provides a solution for end-to-end anonymity and location privacy as well. We will introduce a framework called fortified anonymous communication (FAC) protocol for WSN
Virtual Ayatollahs: The Expansion and Contraction of Religious Authority
No full textBeginning the early 1990s the ways in which humans communicated with one another went through a rapid and irreversible evolution, based upon the invention and spread of the Internet. Reaching into all aspects of human life – communication, science, education and of course, religion – the structural changes that took place have impacted humanity in various ways. In Shi’ite Islam various competing religious authoritative sources have been created, and old ones have evolved to accommodate the newly free access to information made possible through the Internet
Image processing tool for the Microorganism cell counting and its recognition
No full textMicroorganism cell counting is a basic laboratory technique which was frequently used in Microbiology Lab, hospital and pharmaceutical company. The traditional technique which is called “Hemocytometer method” counts the cells smeared on Hemocytometer (A special micro slide) under a microscope. It is the most popular and cheapest way to count cells or microorganisms. However, Hemocytometer method is not always accurate enough and counting cells under microscopes is a tedious job. Therefore, the engineers have developed lots of new means to achieve higher accuracy and shorter processing times. But those new means require fastidious preparation and complicated operation. Furthermore, most basic labs cannot afford those equipments. Therefore, Hemocytometer method still is the top choice for most researchers. With my background and experience in computer science and biomedicine, I am developing simple software to improve the accuracy and reduce the counting time for Hemocytometer method. The general idea of this software is to digitally process the images taken under an optical microscope. The general steps are: Eliminating noise and impurities, Gridding recognition, Cell recognition, Cell counting and gathering the data. The benefit of this software is to achieve more accurate results while avoiding arduous tasks performed by the technicians and scientists
Computing the Fundamental Interactions Between Carbon Nanotubes and Pulmonary Surfactant Proteins
No full textMolecular dynamic computation is one of the most direct and detailed approaches for investigating protein and carbon nanotube interaction at the atomic level. Molecular dynamic computation can address the events occurring in a protein’s structure and on the surface of the carbon nanotube. Molecular dynamic computation can also explain the structural changes in protein, including (i) secondary and tertiary structure changes, (ii) orientation and reorientation of the protein before and after adsorption, (iii) behavior of each amino acid residual group, (iv) hydrogen-bonding, (v) pi-pi stacking of carbon atoms of proteins and carbon nanotube, and other things as well. These fundamental properties have to address the adsorption of protein on a carbon nanotube surface, and estimates of this process are produced by molecular dynamic computations. Also, molecular dynamic computation is an attractive method for 3D imaging in bio-nanotechnology because it can give a complete trajectory over time (tens or hundreds of nanoseconds) of all atoms of protein interacting with carbon nanotubes and thus clarify their behavior in a given environment. This work presents the fundamental understanding of the human pulmonary surfactant proteins SP-A, SP-B, SP-C, and SP-D and their interaction with a single-walled carbon nanotube. This is accomplished using nanoscale molecular dynamic computation. Atomistic molecular dynamic simulation is performed and a trajectory over 100 ns is computed. Results show that all four pulmonary surfactant proteins are adsorbed on the surface of a carbon nanotube. The main driving force of interaction is the Van der Waals force of attraction. From the root mean square deviation of all four protein trajectories, stability is achieved. Both hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues of proteins are adsorbed on the surface of a carbon nanotube. These results will be helpful in developing nano-electro-chemical biosensors in the future
Myanmar as a Potential Candidate for SAARC: Pave to Political and Economic Integration (PEI) with Bangladesh
No full textBeing neighbors, both Bangladesh and Myanmar (formerly Burma), although they possess potential opportunity for political and economic integration, have very limited economic, geographic and strategic cooperation over time. There are some key factors- long standing disputes over maritime boundary (now resolved) and the Rohinga Refugee problem over the decades, behind this unwillingness for being liberal in economic transactions through business and trade. Also the border (land) between Bangladesh and Myanmar occupies significant attention. This border is viewed as one of the top smuggling routes of the world. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for political and economic cooperation in South Asia, was given its institutional and organizational framework in 1985. SAARC is an economic and geographical organization comprised of eight countries- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka and Afghanistan of South and Southeast Asia, consisting of 21% of the world’s total population and occupy 3% of the world’s area. In terms of GDP, the economy of SAARC represents the third largest in the world. Based on the aim “to work together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding” and “to accelerate the process of economic and social development in member states,” SAARC has been becoming a hub of international attention for political, economic and geographic integration. Being included in SAARC, Myanmar will be able to expand its business and trade horizons in wider aspects, which in turn will benefit its national economy. On the other hand, as a neighbor, Bangladesh will be able to gain its market in Myanmar. As Bangladesh and Myanmar have very good ways of communication (both land and water), both the countries can gain the most from the economic integration. Combined sea-ports for both countries can be the landmark for further development in trade and commerce with the rest of the globe. The mutual off-shore resource exploration and exploitation can build the base for escaping the fuel crisis. And finally, this, in turn, will be coordinated with ASEAN, BIMSTEC and BCIM as well
