Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Design Of Customized Rehabilitation Devices And Bench Testing System, Xueyu Gao

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

Off-the-shelf rehabilitation devices are currently prescribed to assist patients with stroke. Current fabrication processes of custom-made rehabilitation devices are time consuming and laborious. The process could be only performed by skilled therapists. In addition, quantitative assessment of mechanical properties is crucial in the design of customized rehabilitation devices. By the design and the real time implementation of a 3D printed hand exoskeleton and a biomimetic testbed for Ankle-Foot Orthoses (AFOs), the improved digitalized methodologies of design and bench testing systems for customized rehabilitation devices were presented in this study.

A customized 3D printed hand exoskeleton (the EXCELSIOR) was developed and ...

Design, Development And Implementation Of Smart Cycling Kits For Rehabilitation Applications And End-Users, Qingchao Kong

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

There are three topics included: 1. VRACK study and improvement, 2.Smart Bike; 3. iVRACK design.

Topic 1: VRACK study and improvement

Ankle impairment and lower limb asymmetries in strength and coordination are common symptoms for individuals with selected musculoskeletal and neurological impairments. The virtual reality augmented cycling kit (VRACK) was designed as a compact mechatronics system and a compatible module that can be mounted on most bicycles to convert them to virtual reality (VR) cycles for lower limb and mobility rehabilitation. Novel hardware components with sensors instrument monitor physiological and biomechanical parameters of participants by measuring interaction forces and ...

The Effect Of Cholesterol On The Osteoblast Responsiveness To Hydrodynamic Pressure Stimulation, Kristen Lough

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor for osteoporosis but the underlying mechanism is unknown. Previous evidence suggests that osteoporosis results from an impaired regulation of osteoblasts by fluid pressure fluctuations in the bone matrix. Recently, our laboratory showed that enhanced cholesterol in the cell membrane, due to hypercholesterolemia, alters leukocyte mechanosensitivity. We predict a similar link between osteoblasts and hypercholesterolemia leading to osteoporosis. Specifically, we hypothesize that extracellular cholesterol modifies the osteoblast sensitivity to pressure. MC3T3-E1 cells were exposed to hydrodynamic pressures regimes (mean=40mmHg, amplitude=0-20mmHg, frequency=1Hz) for 1-12 hours. To assess the impact of membrane cholesterol enrichment, cells ...

Nanopulse Generators: Their Design And Application To Cancer Therapy Studies, Daniel P. Wernig

Senior Honors Theses

Effective nanopulse generators have become critical in recent decades concerning the study of subcellular affects in response to nanosecond pulsed electric fields. It has been observed that nanosecond duration electric pulses can target intracellular organelles, ultimately leading to cell apoptosis, suggesting the possibility of a new, minimally invasive, low risk cancer therapy methodology. The standard topology for developing a medical nanopulser is the Blumlein “transmission line” approach. This approach relies on the nearly infinitesimal, yet finite amount of time required for an electromagnetic field to propagate down a short transmission line. Prior to design, requirements and constraints must be defined ...

Digestion Of Municipal Wastewater Biosolids Using An Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Bioreactor (Anfbr), Zhenqi Wang

University of Western Ontario - Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research investigated the efficacy of the anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AnFBR) technology in treating municipal wastewater sludges. Primary sludge (PS) and thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) were studied in two lab-scale AnFBRs using High-density polyethylene (HDPE) as carrier media. PS was investigated at various organic loading rates (OLRs) ranging from 9 to 18 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/m³-d corresponding to hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 2 to 4 days, with maximum COD and volatile suspended solid (VSS) removal efficiency of 70% and 72%, respectively. For TWAS, VSS destruction efficiency varied from 53% at an HRT of ...

Long-Acting Antituberculous Therapeutic Nanoparticles Target Macrophage Endosomes, Benson J. Edagwa, Dongwei Guo, Pavan Puligujja, Han Chen, Joellyn Mcmillan, Xinming Liu, Howard Gendelman, Prabagaran Narayanasamy

Papers from the Nebraska Center for Biotechnology

Eradication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection requires daily administration of combinations of rifampin (RIF), isoniazid [isonicotinylhydrazine (INH)], pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, among other drug therapies. To facilitate and optimize MTB therapeutic selections, a mononuclear phagocyte (MP; monocyte, macrophage, and dendritic cell)-targeted drug delivery strategy was developed. Long-acting nanoformulations of RIF and an INH derivative, pentenyl- INH (INHP), were prepared, and their physicochemical properties were evaluated. This included the evaluation of MP particle uptake and retention, cell viability, and antimicrobial efficacy. Drug levels reached 6 μg/106 cells in human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) for nanoparticle treatments compared with 0.1 μg ...

A Highly Adaptive And Cost Effective Second Generation Incubator (Sgi) Towards Educational, Research And Clinical Processes, Yassir H. Al-Sayagh

Biological Systems Engineering--Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Today´s rising demand for more reliable and affordable alternatives to organ transplant has led to a growing market for in vitro tissue culture systems. The main objective of tissue engineering as a whole is to employ human tissue equivalents for commercial use. The state-of-the-art processes for producing these so called tissue models are still very expensive, difficult to produce and time-consuming.

To engineer tissues, in vitro, a three-dimensional support structure commonly termed scaffold is needed. Stem cells are then added to the scaffold. In order for tissue to materialize, the scaffold and the cells must be incubated (cultured) at ...

Performance Comparison Of Windowing Techniques For Ecg Signal Enhancement, Innovative Research Publications Irp India, K.Sravan Kumar, Babak Yazdanpanah, Dr.G.S.N Raju

Innovative Research Publications IRP India

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is generally corrupted by various artifacts like baseline wander, power line interference (50/60 Hz) and electromyography noise and these must be removed before diagnosis. The task propounded in this article is removal of low frequency interference i.e. baseline wandering and high frequency noise i.e. electromyography in ECG signal and digital filters are implemented to delete it. The digital filters accomplished are FIR with various windowing methods as of Rectangular, Hann, Blackman, Hamming, and Kaiser. The results received are at order of 300,450,600.The signal taken of the MIT-BIH database which contains the ...

The Effect Of Artery Bifurcation Angles On Fluid Flow And Wall Shear Stress In The Middle Cerebral Artery, Zachary Ramey Jones

Master's Theses and Project Reports

Saccular aneurysms are the abnormal plastic deformation of veins and arteries that can lead to lethal thrombus genesis or internal hemorrhaging. Medication and surgery greatly reduce the mortality rates, but treatment is limited by predicting who will develop aneurysms. A common location for saccular aneurysm genesis is at the main middle cerebral artery (MCA) bifurcation. The main MCA bifurcation is comprised of the M1 MCA segment, parent artery, and two M2 segments, daughter arteries. Studies have found that the lateral angle (LA) ratio of the MCA bifurcation is correlated with aneurysm formation. The LA ratio is defined as the angle ...

A Low-Power Approach For Front End Biological Signal Conditioning, Logan Smith Taylor

Masters Theses

In a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) application, the measurement of small analog signals such as local temperature variation often involves detection of very low-level signals in a noisy micro-scale environment. This is true for other biomedical monitoring systems as well. These systems observe various physiological parameters or electrochemical reactions that need to be tracked electrically. For temperature measurement pyroelectric transducers represent an efficient solution in terms of speed, sensitivity, and scale of integration, especially when prompt and accurate temperature monitoring is desired.

The ability to perform laboratory operations on a small scale using miniaturized LOC devices is a promising biosensing technique. The ...

Low Molecular Weight Glucosamine/L-Lactide Copolymers As Potential Carriers For The Development Of A Sustained Rifampicin Release System: Mycobacterium Smegmatis As A Tuberculosis Model, Jorge Ragusa

Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Theses, Dissertations, & Student Research

Tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease, ranks as the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease, and remains a major global health problem. In 2013, 9 million new cases were diagnosed and 1.5 million people died worldwide from tuberculosis. This dissertation aims at developing a new, ultrafine particle-based efficient antibiotic delivery system for the treatment of tuberculosis. The carrier material to make the rifampicin (RIF)-loaded particles is a low molecular weight star-shaped polymer produced from glucosamine (molecular core building unit) and L-lactide (GluN-LLA). Stable particles with a very high 50% drug loading capacity were made via electrohydrodynamic ...

Unlocking The Secrets Of Multi-Flagellated Propulsion, Stefan Oma Nwandu-Vincent

Doctoral Dissertations

In this work, unique high-speed imaging platforms and an array of theoretical analysis methods are used to thoroughly investigate eukaryotic multi-flagellated propulsion using Tritrichomonas foetus as a test case. Through experimental observations through our imaging system with superior resolution and capture rate exceeding that of previous studies, it was discovered for the first time that the T. foetus employs a strategy similar to that of the “run and tumble” strategies found in bacteria and Chlamydomonas; it has two distinct flagellar beating patterns that result in two different body swimming motions, linear and turning swimming.

These two flagella patterns were ...

Single Cell Biophysics: Applications In Cardiomyocyte Mechanobiology And Stem Cell Mechanotransduction, Benjamin Edward Reese

Doctoral Dissertations

While a great deal of work has been done to analyze cardiac dynamics and mechanics at the organ and tissue levels, there remains much less data regarding these metrics at the single cell level. Additionally, as fields such as regenerative medicine and tissue engineering are beginning to demonstrate greater therapeutic potential, the study and influence of stem cell mechanics on differentiation has become a major area of interest. For these reasons, along with the continued advancement of molecular techniques and assays, there is a growing need to develop functional assays that can integrate and bridge the findings from multiple length ...

Estimating Effective Connectivity From Fmri Data Using Factor-Based Subspace Autoregressive Models, Chee-Ming Ting Phd, Abd-Krim Seghouane Phd, Sh-Hussain Salleh Phd, Alias M. Noor Phd

Chee-Ming Ting PhD

We consider the problem of identifying large-scale effective connectivity of brain networks from fMRI data. Standard vector autoregressive (VAR) models fail to estimate reliably networks with large number of nodes. We propose a new method based on factor modeling for reliable and efficient high-dimensional VAR analysis of large networks. We develop a subspace VAR (SVAR) model from a factor model (FM), where observations are driven by a lower-dimensional subspace of common latent factors with an AR dynamics. We consider two variants of principal components (PC) methods that provide consistent estimates for the FM hence the implied SVAR model, even of ...

Effect Of Plasticizer On Oxygen Permeability Of Cast Polylactic Acid (Pla) Films Determined Using Dynamic Accumulation Method, Kurniawan Yuniarto, Bruce A. Welt, Aris Purwanto, Hadi Karia Purwadaria, Ayman Abdellatief, Titi C. Sunarti, Setyo Purwanto

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Polylactic acid (PLA) is becoming an increasingly important biopolymer for packaging applications. PLA brittleness limits its applicability. This study evaluated PLA properties with increasing amounts of added polyethylene glycol (PEG) plasticizer. Oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of cast films was determined using the newly available Dynamic Accumulation (DA) method. Arrhenius temperature sensitivity of OTR and polymer Permeability was also determined. Permeability of neat PLA is 4.848 ml mm (STP)/m² s kPa; hence, 4.84 ml mm (STP)/m² s kPa, 4.07 ml mm (STP)/m² s kPa and 5.42 ml mm (STP)/m^{2 ...}

Hepatic Carboxylesterase 1 Is Induced By Glucose And Regulates Postprandial Glucose Levels, Jiesi Xu, Liya Yin, Yang Xu, Yuanyuan Li, Munaf Zalzala, Gang Cheng, Yanqiao Zhang

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Metabolic syndrome, characterized by obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and hypertension, increases the risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke. Carboxylesterase 1 (CES1) is an enzyme that hydrolyzes triglycerides and cholesterol esters, and is important for lipid metabolism. Our previous data show that over-expression of mouse hepatic CES1 lowers plasma glucose levels and improves insulin sensitivity in diabetic ob/ob mice. In the present study, we determined the physiological role of hepatic CES1 in glucose homeostasis. Hepatic CES1 expression was reduced by fasting but increased in diabetic mice. Treatment of mice with glucose induced hepatic CES1 expression. Consistent with the in vivo ...

Characterization Of A Reverse-Phase Perfluorocarbon Emulsion For The Pulmonary Delivery Of Tobramycin., Ryan A. Orizondo, Charlene Irvin Babcock, Mario L. Fabiilli, Leonid Pavlovsky, J. Brian Fowlkes, John G. Younger, Keith E. Cook

Department of Biomedical Engineering

BACKGROUND: Aerosolized delivery of antibiotics is hindered by poor penetration within distal and plugged airways. Antibacterial perfluorocarbon ventilation (APV) is a proposed solution in which the lungs are partially or totally filled with perfluorocarbon (PFC) containing emulsified antibiotics. The purpose of this study was to evaluate emulsion stability and rheological, antibacterial, and pharmacokinetic characteristics.

METHODS: This study examined emulsion aqueous droplet diameter and number density over 24 hr and emulsion and neat PFC viscosity and surface tension. Additionally, Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm growth was measured after 2-hr exposure to emulsion with variable aqueous volume percentages (0.25, 1, and 2.5 ...

Lower-Extremity Joint Kinematics And Muscle Activations During Semi-Reclined Cycling At Different Workloads In Healthy Individuals, Kamyar Momeni, Pouran D. Faghri, Martinus Evans

Open Access Author Fund

Background

A better understanding of lower-extremity muscles’ activation patterns and joint kinematics during different workloads could help rehabilitation professionals with prescribing more effective exercise regimen for elderly and those with compromised muscles. We examined the relative contribution, as well as activation and co-activation patterns, of lower-extremity muscles during semi-reclined cycling at different workloads during a constant cadence.

Methods

Fifteen healthy novice cyclists participated at three 90-second cycling trials with randomly assigned workloads of 0, 50, and 100 W, at a constant cadence of 60 rpm. During all trials, electromyograms were recorded from four lower-extremity muscles: rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris ...

The Effect Of Fixation Plate Length On Spinal Instability Following Anterior Cervical Plate Fixation For The Repair Of In Vitro Flexion-Distraction Injuries, Abdulaziz J. Al-Kuwari

University of Western Ontario - Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract:

The Effect of Fixation Plate Length on Spinal Instability Following Anterior Cervical Plate Fixation for the Repair of in Vitro Flexion-Distraction Injuries

Introduction: Anterior cervical decompression and fusion with a plate (ACDFP) is a commonly performed treatment following a traumatic injury to the subaxial cervical spine. The purpose of the presented work was to determine the biomechanical effect of plate length on cervical spine kinematic stability following ACDFP stabilization for a simulated traumatic injury.

Methods: Eleven fresh-frozen cadaveric C5-C6 and C6-C7 motion segments were examined in this study. To assess kinematics, flexibility testing was performed on each specimen using ...

Characterization Of A Contact-Stylus Surface Digitization Method Using Collaborative Robots: Accuracy Evaluation In The Context Of Shoulder Replacement Or Resurfacing, Sara Saud Zimmo

University of Western Ontario - Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) is the third most common joint replacement. While robot-assisted hip and knee replacement technologies have enjoyed extensive development, this has been limited in the upper limb. This work focused on quantifying the localization accuracy of a robotic system, and evaluating its efficacy in the context of TSA.

A collaborative robot was fitted with a stylus tip to perform manual surface digitizations using the robot’s encoder output. In the first experiment, two precision-machined master cubes, representing the working volume around a glenoid structure, were used for system validation. Next, cadaveric glenoids were digitized and compared to ...