2019 WSU Annual CGRS Abstracts

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    The immigrants who built Kansas: One spike at a time
    (Wichita State University, 2019-02-26) Masias, Jenny; Navarro-Serrano, Jose Enrique
    The prevalent link in the position of Latino neighborhoods in cities throughout Kansas is the railroad. Whether it is Newton, Wichita, Topeka, Emporia or even larger cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, the proximity of Latino neighborhoods to the train tracks is no coincidence. The recruitment of Mexican Immigrant labor during the late 19th and 20th century expanded the railway and allowed for the economic growth of Newton, and many similar cities in Kansas. These workers who endured harsh working and living conditions managed, through solidarity, to forge tight-knit communities, all the while weathering the waves of anti-immigrant political sentiment at the county, state, and national level. Newton, Kansas has been a crucial geographical location where the railway traffic not only bridges east to west, north to south but internationally from Canada to Mexico creating a bullseye in the center of the country. Via archival research, I intend to shed light on the richness of Newton's Mexican Immigrant History through existing documents and pictures that remain at the Kansas Historical Society, Harvey County Historical Society, and local church records. History has often been used as an instrument to advance the narrative of those in positions of power molding a one-dimensional historical memory. However, history can also be a tool to correct the silencing of the past. It is only through a complex analysis of this narrative that is it possible to fully understand the value of the contributions Mexican immigrants have made not only to Newton but to the State of Kansas and beyond.
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    Organ motion prediction in MR-guided radiotherapy
    (Wichita State University, 2019-02-26) Mirzapourrezaei, Seyedali; Mazur, Thomas R.; Sharp, Gregory; Salari, Ehsan
    According to the American Cancer Society, it is estimated that around 15,000 cancer cases will be newly diagnosed in the state of Kansas in 2019, from which around 4500 will be lung and abdominal cancers. Radiotherapy is a major treatment modality for cancer with more than half of all cancer patients receiving radiotherapy as part of their treatment. The goal of radiotherapy is to deliver a therapeutic dose of radiation to the clinical target volume while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue to the largest extent possible. However, internal organ motion during radiation delivery may lead to under dosing of the target volume or overdosing of the normal tissue, potentially causing treatment failure or normal-tissue toxicity. Organ motion is of particular concern in the treatment of lung and abdominal cancers, where breathing induces large tumor displacement and organ deformation. A new generation of radiotherapy devices is equipped with on-board MRI scanners to acquire a real-time movie of the patient's anatomy during radiation delivery. The goal of this research is to develop, calibrate, and test motion predictive models that employ real-time MRI images to predict the short-term trajectory of anatomical motion during radiation delivery. These motion predictive models have direct applications in motion-intervention strategies to control and correct for any dose discrepancy that may occur as a result of organ motion during the radiation delivery process.
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    Non-invasive detection of intracranial fluid volume shifts using wearable headband
    (Wichita State University, 2019-02-26) Griffith, Jacob L.; Eckerman, Brandon; Loflin, Benjamin E.; Bhandari, Subash; Becker, Ryan A.; Mohammed, Noor; Cluff, Kim
    Pathological increases in cerebral blood or cerebrospinal fluid volume have been linked to neurological complications and even death in patients who have had hemorrhagic strokes, traumatic brain injury, or have undergone neurosurgical or neurological treatments. The development of non-invasive techniques to measure and monitor shifts in intracranial volume have included the use of ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT). However, these methods require expensive, specialized equipment and personnel that may not be available in many rural communities across rural Kansas. This study's focus was to develop a point-of-care, wearable headband capable of non-invasively detecting shifts in intracranial fluid volume in limited resource settings. The sensor consists of a single baseline component configured into a rectangular planar spiral with a self-resonant frequency response when impinged upon by external radio frequency sweeps. Preliminary human tests, approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Wichita State University, were performed to determine the feasibility of detecting fluid volume shifts. Participants were placed in a 15 degree head down tilt for approximately 30 minutes to induce an increase in intracranial fluid volume. During this induced bio-fluid shift, the sensor was applied to the forehead and data was collected. Validation of the increase in intracranial fluid volume was performed through non-invasive ultrasound measurements of the optic nerve. This study establishes the foundation for future work to optimize the sensor capabilities to monitor shifts in fluid volume and assist with medical scenarios including stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, or traumatic brain injury in limited resource environments.
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    GuideCall: a system for remote video call assistance for blind and visually impaired people
    (Wichita State University, 2019-02-26) Ravindran, Naveen Mukundan; Cheraghi, Seyed Ali; Namboodiri, Vinod
    Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI) individuals often face many challenges when performing many daily tasks or while exploring new places that are not very accessible. Getting assistance from strangers is not always desirable in such situations. With the advancement of technology, BVI individuals can utilize assistive technology like screen readers or accessibility features on smartphones to solve some of these challenges, but there are many tasks that still require some sort of human assistance. Some current approaches to provide remote assistance are either too expensive or do not use helpers with whom a BVI individual can fully trust when receiving assistance. This research project develops an Android application called GuideCall that enables BVI individuals to draw assistance through a video call from their own sighted friends or relatives. With a single click, a BVI user can request assistance whenever needed from trusted helpers. Among the trusted helpers, one person is paired with the BVI individual through a video call. In addition to general assistance, the remote helper can track a BVI user's location surroundings through both outdoor and indoor maps integrated into the application. Preliminary evaluation results show GuideCall to be an inexpensive and effective tool for enhancing the opportunities for BVI people to be independent anywhere by providing the assurance that assistance is one click away.
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    Economic development and job creation by applying optimization methods for scheduling problem in job shops
    (Wichita State University, 2019-02-26) Kianpour, Parsa; Gupta, Deepak P.
    The manufacturing sector earned one of the top spots in 2017 Kansas economy adding over 1,000 jobs. This developing direction is predicted to continue with 0.5% growth in 2019. Within the manufacturing sector, aviation is ranked fourth in Kansas with over 30,000 workers. 44% of Kansans work for small businesses (less than 50 employees) and this percentage is projected to increase since the annual growth of small businesses in Kansas is projected as 6%. Therefore, this research aims to study typical operations in one of these small businesses in the aviation sector. The study evaluates the scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing total earliness/tardiness cost. A new model is proposed that considers the effects of maximum allowable tardiness. In addition, the existing model in the literature is simplified to reduce computational time and enable corporate scheduling staff to use the model efficiently. The model is validated using data collected from a local job shop that manufactures aerospace parts in Wichita, Kansas. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed model since it reduces the total cost and computational time in most of the studied scenarios. As a result, decreased costs and more satisfied customers are expected to bring more business to Wichita and lead to a significant increase in economic development and job creation.