Miloš Žefran, ECE; Matteo Corno, ECE; Maxim Kolesnikov, ECE Primary Grant Support: NSF; UIC College of Dentistry
Problem Statement and Motivation •
New surgical procedures are introduced at a high rate. Each requires costly training.
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Haptic simulators provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional training: no need to travel, 24/7 availability, easy to create additional units as needed.
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Existing paradigm for haptics is not suitable for teaching sensorimotor skills. Lack of good models and of realistic haptic rendering are main obstacles to creating useful simulators.
Key Achievements and Future Goals
Technical Approach Position and force information are simultaneously displayed to facilitate motor skill acquisition. The user is modeled as a three-input, single-output system.
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Developed a new paradigm for teaching of sensorimotor skills with haptics.
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Proposed a new model for a user responding to haptic and visual stimuli. The model experimentally verified.
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The model of the human enables stability analysis through the Lyapunov second method; traditional passivity techniques can not be used. Time delays are critical for stability and are explicitly modeled.
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Stability analysis of the system performed. Stability boundaries explicitly identified.
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Implemented a new method for haptic rendering.
The Euclidean group SE(3) used to develop haptic rendering algorithms that properly account for translations and rotations. Kinetic energy provides an intrinsic way to define the penetration which is in turn used to compute the reaction force.
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Future work: applications in medical training, rehabili-tation; faster implementation of the haptic rendering; implementation on cheap haptic displays; extensions of the new paradigm for collaborative haptics.
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Investigators: Mitra Dutta, ECE; Michael Stroscio, ECE, BioE, Physics Primary Grant Support: AFSGO
Problem Statement and Motivation •
Mercury ions and other heavy metals are found in environmental waters, which can lead to toxicity in humans
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A rapid detection method for environmental monitoring and exposure levels in humans is needed
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Engineering a nanoconstruct to detect these heavy metals in fluids can be done using quantum dots and single stranded DNA
Hg 2+ 10000
: eFluor® 650NC
: DNA aptamer
Intensity (a. u.)
: Nanogold : Hg 2+
0 Hg
5000
500 nM Hg 824 mM Hg
0 600
650
700
Wavelength (nm)
Key Achievements and Future Goals
Technical Approach •
DNA aptamers used as molecular recognition elements in sensing strategies for ions and biomolecules
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Mercury ions were detected using a spectrometer to measure the fluorescence intensity of the QD
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Aptamers can perform like antibodies with affinity to a wide range of targets which can result in a conformational change as in the figure
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Detection is achieved in the nanomolar range, while higher levels of mercury were shown to interfere with QD fluorescence
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Quantum dots (QD) are robust and stable fluorophores and gold nanoparticles are stable quenchers
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Future targets include lead, zinc, and cadmium, which have been shown to interact with specific DNA aptamers
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Conjugating QDs and gold nanoparticles to aptamers provides the detection signal
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Optical detection platform to be applied to biomarkers
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Translate detection assay to portable handheld device
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Surface energy transfer between QD and gold nanoparticle is the mechanism for optical detection
James C. Lin, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Bioengineering Primary Grant Support: Magnetic Health Science Foundation
Problem Statement and Motivation •
Wide Spread Use of Cell Phone Technology
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Concerns about Health and Safety
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Plectin is A High Molecular Weight Protein
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Plectin Immunoreactivity Follows Brain Injury
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Mutation of Plectin Identified With Signs of Disorder
Neurodegenerative
Immunolabeling of Irradiated Rat Brain Using Monoclonal Antibody, Pletin.
Key Achievements and Future Goals
Technical Approach •
Irradiate Young Adult Rats (300 g) in Plexiglass Holder
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Immunolabeling of Irradiated Rat Brain Showed Increased Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (IFAP)
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Produce Power Deposition Patterns in Rat Brains Comparable to Those in Humans
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GFAP Plays An Important Role in Glial Reactions After Lesions
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Brains Were Removed and Incubated
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Floating Sections Were Used for Immunocytochemistry
Preliminary Results Indicate There is No Difference in Expression Pattern of Plectin Among the Brains Tested at Peak SAR levels of 0, 1.6 and 16 W/kg in the brain.
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Use Monoclonal Antibody - plectin - Labeling
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Additional Experiments to Establish Statistical Validity
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Examination by Light Microscopy
James C. Lin, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Bioengineering Primary Grant Support: Magnetic Health Science Foundation 64MHz
200MHz
300MHz
340MHz
Problem Statement and Motivation
400MHz
To analyze the physiological response of radiofrequency (RF) power deposition during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with headspecific volume coils.
Key Achievements and Future Goals
Technical Approach FDTD methods are used to calculate RF power deposition and temperature elevation in MRI of the human head within volume coils from 64–400 MHz at different power levels both with and without consideration of temperature- induced changes in rates of metabolism, perspiration, radiation, and perfusion.
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At the highest power levels currently allowed in MRI for head volume coils, there is little effect from the physiological response.
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To assess the possibility that at higher power levels or in different types of coils (such as extremity or whole-body coils) the physiological response may have more significant effects.
Ishita Basu,ECE; Daniela Tuninetti,ECE; Daniel Graupe,ECE; Konstantin Slavin,Neurosurgery Primary Grant Support: Dr. Tuninetti’s start-up package.
Problem Statement and Motivation •
MOTIVATION: Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a surgical method of relieving advanced stage Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients of most of their debilitating symptoms (like tremor). DBS involves stimulating the area of the brain that controls movements with a high frequency train of electrical pulses through an implanted electrode.
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PROBLEMS: In today’s DBS systems the stimulation parameters are optimized manually by the physician with visual feedbacks from the patient. Moreover, the stimulation is continuous and constant over time.
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OBJECTIVES: 1) Design an intermittent deep brain stimulation instead of a continuous stimulation. This ensures lower power requirements, a longer battery life, and possiblye reduce damage to healthy neurons in PD patients. 2) Tune the parameters of the DBS (frequency, pulse amplitude, pulse duration) by employing a closed-loop control. This allows to tailor the DBS stimulation to each individual patients thus enhancing DBS efficacy.
Key Achievements and Future Goals
Technical Approach •
A cluster of actively firing neurons is modeled as a group of coupled oscillators that is mathematically described by stochastic differential (Langevin) equations.
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Simulation results shows that on an average a train of high frequency pulses with its frequency and/or amplitude stochastically modulated with Gaussian noise performs better than its deterministic counterpart.
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The signals measured from PD patients, such as the local field potential from the brain and the muscular potential from surface EMG, are modeled parametrically.
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Next, we will test the above hypothesis on a model with parameters extracted from actual measured signals.
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The signal parameters are adaptively estimated for each patient from the measured signals and to optimize the DBS stimulation parameters.
We will trace the evolution of the parameters extracted from the measured signals which will serve as a reference in the control loop.
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We will optimize the DBS stimulation parameters.
Investigators: M. Dutta, ECE, and M. Stroscio, ECE and BioE
Problem Statement and Motivation
Bare QDs
FRET
• Organic-inorganic hybrid structures enable integration of useful organic and inorganic characteristics for novel optoelectronic applications. • The time required for resonant energy transfer in the composite of inorganic quantum dots (QDs) and photosystem I (PS-I) has not been determined previously. Transfer time ~ 6 ps).
Colloidal Quantum Dots and Photosystem-I Composite
Technical Approach • Synthesis of the composite of inorganic CdSe QDs and organic PS-I, hexahistadine-tagged PS-I from Chalamydomonas reinhardtii - green unicellular algea • Experimental measurement of the energy transfer between QDs and PS-I • Investigation of structural, optical and transport properties by means of photoluminescence, time-resolved photoluminescence, absorption, capacitance-voltage and I-V measurements
Key Achievements and Future Goals • Observed energy transfer from CdSe QDs to PS-I by optical and electrical measurements. • Photoluminescence data and absorption data show that the energy of excited carriers of CdSe QDs to PS-I by processes that include fluorescent resonant energy transfer (FRET) between the inorganic and organic components of the system. • I-V measurement data are sensitive to incident light in the composite CdSe QDs/PS-I material.
Investigators: ; M. Dutta, ECE, and M. Stroscio, ECE and BioE
Problem Statement and Motivation • Design, fabrication, characterization of QD-based nanosensors on a variety of platforms • For underlying concepts see group’s paper on “Applications of Colloidal Quantum Dots,” Microelectronics Journal, 40, 644-649 (2009).
Technical Approach • Design of quantum-dot (QD) based nanosensors
Key Achievements and Future Goals • Numerous demonstration of nanosensors based on beacon like structures
• Fabricating quantum-dot (QD) ensembles • Modeling electrical and optical properties including robustness and sensitivity to QD-QD separation
• Numerous nanosensors demonstarted for a variety of QD systems
• QD blinking modeled and observed • Experimental characterization of integrated structures • Multi-analyte detection
• Ultimate goal is realization of multi-analyte detectors on a single platform