Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Presentations (UMKC)
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Items in this collection are the scholarly output of the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering faculty, staff, and students, either alone or as co-authors, and which may or may not have been published in an alternate format.
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Item Development of a Telemetry Unit for Wireless Monitoring of Bone Strain(2010-03) Moiz, Fahad; Huang, Qian; Leon-Salas, Walter D. (Walter Daniel); Johnson, Mark L. (Mark Louis); University of Missouri (System); Missouri Life Sciences Summit (2010: University of Missouri--Kansas City)A telemetry unit designed to monitor strain in bones is presented. This unit allows studying the relationship between bone load and bone mass in scenarios that were not possible with current setup. The current measuring setup employs a bench top load instrument and a data acquisition unit to read the output of strain gage sensors attached to the ulna of a mouse. Although precise, this setup is bulky and requires complete immobilization of the mouse. The telemetry unit developed by the authors replaces the data acquisition unit in the current setup and is able to wirelessly transmit the readings of the strain gage to a remote computer. The telemetry unit makes possible the collection of bone strain data in scenarios where the mouse is free to move or while performing fatigue-inducing exercises. The unit has been designed around an ultra low-power microcontroller (MSP430). The microcontroller makes the design highly flexible and programmable. The telemetry unit also includes a high-performance instrumentation amplifier to amplify the strain gage output. The gain and offset of the amplifier are digitally set by the microcontroller eliminating the use of manual potentiometers. The board has an expansion connector that allows up to 16 additional strain gages to be connected to the unit and incorporates a low-power radio transceiver operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. The data transmitted by the unit is received by a base station connected to a computer via a USB cable. The telemetry unit has been tested in a lab setting and is able to transmit the strain data at distances greater than 20 m while consuming less than 30 mW of power. This low power consumption allows the unit to be powered by a micro-battery weighting less than 3 grams. The telemetry unit can be used in other biomedical applications such as in the monitoring of orthopedic implants and can be easily configured to use other type of sensors.Item An Intelligent Online System for Enhanced Recruitment of Patients for Clinical Research(2010-03) Lee, Yugyung, 1960-; Dinakarpandian, Deendayal; Wubbenhorst, John; Owens, Dennis; Dinakarpandian, Deendayal; Mathur, Sachin; Katakam, Nikhilesh, 1987-; Krishnamoorthy, Saranya; University of Missouri (System); Missouri Life Sciences Summit (2010: University of Missouri--Kansas City)The recruitment and retention of subjects for clinical research has been identified as one of the bottlenecks in the development of new drugs and treatments by the healthcare industry. The Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute has been instrumental in bringing together the Midwest Psychiatric Research Group and researchers from the School of Computing and Engineering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City to address this important problem. The resulting academic-corporate partnership has been funded by a 2-year Small Business Innovation Research Grant of $518,298 awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health. The project is based on developing and employing a novel internet-based system to enhance the voluntary enrollment of research subjects for studies conducted by Clinical Research Organizations. This will proactively engage patients and their caregivers who desire to be informed about clinical trials that might be relevant for their specific diagnoses, disease states and other characteristics. An important goal of the project is to facilitate accurate matches between the requirements of a clinical research study and the profile of research volunteers. To achieve this, state of the art knowledge representation and search techniques are being employed. Phase I of the project is focused on the development of a system for recruitment for clinical research trials on “Generalized Anxiety Disorder,” with eventual expansion to the inclusion of volunteers for studies on other mental health disorders.Item Effect of Radius on Load Distribution within Mouse Forearm Structure: Experimental and Numerical Analyses(2010-03) Lu, Yunkai; Thiagarajan, Ganesh, 1963-; Johnson, Mark L. (Mark Louis); University of Missouri (System); Missouri Life Sciences Summit (2010: University of Missouri--Kansas City)It has been hypothesized that osteocytes are stimulated by local strain distribution within the bone subjected to mechanical loadings. This collaborative research project between bone biologists and mechanical engineers is attempting to identify local strain fields around osteocytes that can account for their behavior in response to loading. Using CT images we have built and conducted an extensive finite element study of the mouse forearm. Our model incorporates many components of forearm anatomy not previously included in these models such as the radius and marrow cavities. The results of the current research will shed light on how bone perceives mechanical load and the pathway whereby a physical load is transduced into a biochemical signal that eventually results in new bone formation. The study will help in developing new treatments for bone diseases such as osteoporosis.Item Motion Tracking for Smart Home Care(2010-03) Moiz, Fahad; Leon-Salas, Walter D. (Walter Daniel); Lee, Yugyung, 1960-; University of Missouri (System); Missouri Life Sciences Summit (2010: University of Missouri--Kansas City)Human body motion capture has a wide range of applications and is being extensively investigated. Areas of application include virtual and augmented reality, biomechanics, sign language translation, gait analysis and graphics in movies and video games. The goal of this work is to develop an electronic device to translate arms motion and hand gestures into computer commands for smart home applications. This device is expected to improve the communication and lifestyle of elderly and disable people. We envision a device that is wearable, seamless and easy to use. Current state-of-the-art body motion capture employs high-speed and high-resolution cameras. Although this method is accurate and useful in laboratory settings, it requires the user to be inside the field of view of the cameras, a condition that is not always feasible during everyday activities. Instead, our approach relies on small sensors nodes that are worn on the wrists and around the waist. Inertial sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes have been employed before to develop wearable motion-tracking sensors due to their small size. However, they suffer from drift which causes the position estimations to have large errors. Ultrasonic sensors have also been employed to track motion. Although more accurate, ultrasonic sensors are affected by intermittent signal blockage produced by the body. Our approach is to combine these two sensing modalities in a way that the position estimation error is reduced. To that end, the outputs of the inertial and ultrasonic sensors are fused using a Kalman filter. The sensor nodes implement a multilateration algorithm that calculates the position of body-mounted sensors by measuring the time of travel of ultrasound bursts traveling between the sensor nodes. An electronic board for the sensor nodes have been designed, fabricated and programmed. The board measures 3.2 cm x 4.8 cm and includes a low-power microcontroller, a radio unit, a three-axis accelerometer, a two-axis gyroscope, an ultrasonic transmitter and an ultrasonic receiver. Our ongoing activities include the development of a 3D virtual simulation of a smart home. In the virtual smart home, various electronic devices such as computers, cell phones and household appliances like microwaves and televisions are networked for ubiquitous services. The wearable sensors capture the limb movements and relay this data to a central controller where it is interpreted to adjust the home environment. The sensors can also be used for emergency care by detecting any abnormal movements. Our approach will significantly improve current motion capture systems that are too cumbersome to wear or require the subject to be confined to a controlled environment or within the view range of the camera. Besides their use in smart home scenarios, the proposed wearable motion-tracking sensors can be used in biomechanic studies, virtual reality and interactive games.Item Hyperthermia Induces Functional and Molecular Modifications in Cardiac, Smooth and Skeletal Muscle Cells(2010-03) Romero, Sandra; Hall, Todd; Touchberry, Chad; Elmore, Chris; Silswal, Neerupma; Parelkar, Nickil; Baker, Kendra; Loghry, Michael; Rizk, Hatem Ibrahim; Mo, Chenglin; Brotto, Leticia; Leon-Salas, Walter D. (Walter Daniel); Wacker, Michael J.; Andresen, Jon; Brotto, Marco; University of Missouri (System); Missouri Life Sciences Summit (2010: University of Missouri--Kansas City)Hyperthermia is used for the treatment of a number of diseases, including muscle injuries, inflammations, tendinitis, and osteoarticular disorder. More recently, hyperthermia has been used as an adjuvant in cancer treatment. Only two studies have shown that hyperthermia leads to hypertrophy in in-vitro models of cardiac and skeletal muscle cells. Functional, biochemical and molecular mechanisms of hyperthermia-induced hypertrophy in muscles remain largely undiscovered. We investigated the effects of mild heat shock (HS) on C2C12 skeletal, HL-1 cardiac and AR-75 smooth muscle cells. Mild HS (20 min 43ºC) induced increases in the cell area in all muscle cells tested. C2C12 cells are a well-accepted model of skeletal muscle fibers, and were selected for complementary studies. First, to biochemically confirm an increase in protein synthesis we measured and found an increase of ~6% in total protein content 24 hrs after HS. Second, we examined potential modifications in calcium (Ca) homeostasis regulation by measuring intracellular Ca. We detected a lower resting level of intracellular Ca and smaller and longer caffeine-induced Ca transients in C2C12 muscle cells 24 hrs after HS. Next, to search for molecular mechanisms involved with HS-induced hypertrophy and calcium homeostasis modifications, mRNA from C2C12 muscle cells was analyzed at different time points after HS (0, 1, 2, and 24 hrs). We used an ABI Step One Plus RT2 PCR Array System and a custom-built 96 gene array. We report for the first time that the expression of key heat-shock, hypertrophy/ metabolic, and Ca+2 signaling genes were altered after HS. Hsp70 and Hsp72 genes were highly expressed (211-1829 fold change) after HS. Also, Myh7 (MHC-I), Myh6, Srf, Ppp3r1 and Pck1 were up-regulated by 2-6 fold change compared with control cells.. Furthermore, a reduction in the expression of RyR and Trdn genes was observed (2- 3.6 fold change) with an associated increase in the expression of IP3R genes (2-4 fold change). These results indicate that hyperthermia modulates not only heat-shock related and hypertrophy genes, but also genes involved with metabolism, apoptosis repression, calcium homeostasis and signaling, and cell homeostasis. Our studies offer an initial exploration of the functional, biochemical and molecular mechanisms that may help explain the beneficially adaptive effects of hyperthermia on muscle function. Our studies shall also prove useful for the refinement of a specific device (EM-Stim) to be employed for the treatment of muscle and bone diseases (See poster by Hatem et al). Importantly, our studies have potential translational applications. By learning how to more precisely use hyperthermia to control specific genes that can improve or treat muscle injuries, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular diseases, the ensuing benefits shall be unmistakable. Our short and long-term goals are: i) optimize our protocols; ii) test HS in animal models; iii) manipulate expression of promising genes of interest in vitro and in in-vivo animal models; iv) initiate clinical studies to fully translate from the bench to the bed-side.