Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Head Impact Effects In Small Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (Srpas) Collisions: Gender Specific Risks And Vulnerable Population Protection, Md Farhan Hoque Sagar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study focuses on supporting the development of safety regulations for vulnerable populations during drone to head impacts. First, the small female head and neck model was compared to cadaveric data. Then, combined with lab’s previous work, gender-based disparities in head impact responses were highlighted, with small females experiencing higher injury risk metrics, despite lower skull von Mises stress. Beyond small females, children of various ages and their head responses during impacts were also analyzed. In addition to the previously developed quadcopter drone model, a new Mavic Pro drone model was developed, and this model was integrated with human head …

Sol-Gel Derived Bioceramic Poly(Diethyl Fumarate – Co – Triethoxyvinylsilane) Composite, Aref Sleiman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Synthetic bone graft materials have become an increasingly popular choice for bone augmentation. Ceramic-based and polymer-based bone graft materials constitute the two main classes of synthetic bone graft materials. This study investigated the synthesis of novel bioactive composites for their potential use as bone graft biomaterials. Poly(diethyl fumarate-co-triethoxyvinylsilane)/bioceramic class II organic/inorganic hybrid biomaterials were synthesized via a sol gel process. These biomaterials were then reacted with an ammonium phosphate solution to prepare their respective composites. For the first time, we successfully synthesized sol-gel derived bioceramic poly(diethyl fumarate-co-triethoxyvinylsilane) composites. In vitro bioactivity evaluation of poly(diethyl fumarate-co-triethoxyvinylsilane)/bioceramic composites in simulated body fluid …

Development Of A Wireless Telemetry Load And Displacement Sensor For Orthopaedic Applications, William Anderson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Due to sensor size and supporting circuitry, in vivo load and deformation measurements are currently restricted to applications within larger orthopaedic implants. The objective of this thesis is to repurpose a commercially available low-power, miniature, wireless, telemetric, tire-pressure sensor (FXTH87) to measure load and deformation for future use in biomechanical applications. The capacitive transducer membrane of the FXTH87 was modified, and a relationship was reported between applied compressive deformation and sensor signal value. The sensor package was embedded within a deformable enclosure to illustrate potential applications of the sensor for monitoring load. Finite element analysis was an effective tool to …

Development Of Water-Soluble Polyesters For Tissue Engineering Applications, Trent Gordon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The development of tunable polymers has become increasingly important for both tissue engineering and drug delivery. This thesis investigates the development of water-soluble polyesters that contain both natural and synthetic components. These polymers offer tunable chemical structures, as well as functional groups for the conjugation of crosslinking moieties or cell signaling molecules. The first series of polymers was synthesized from poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and aspartic acid (Asp) via a titanium catalyzed transesterification method to provide polymers with molar masses of 12 kg/mol. After deprotection, the pendent functional groups of Asp were reacted with methacrylic, maleic, and itaconic anhydride to introduce …

Design Of Cell-Instructive Biomaterial Scaffolds For Intervertebral Disc Regeneration, Nadia Sharma

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Biomaterials-based therapies targeting the nucleus pulposus (NP) have the potential to promote regeneration and restore mechanical function to the intervertebral disc. This study developed composite hydrogels incorporating decellularized NP (DNP) and assessed its effects on viability, retention and differentiation of U-CH1 cells, an NP progenitor-like cell line. A minimal protocol was developed to decellularize bovine NP that reduced nuclear content while preserving key extracellular matrix components predicted to be favourable for bioactivity. The resulting DNP demonstrated cell-instructive effects, supporting U-CH1 viability and retention within the hydrogels, and promoted the differentiation of the progenitor-like cells towards an NP-like phenotype. These studies …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Collagen-Polypyrrole Constructs Using Direct-Ink Write Additive Manufacturing, Rooshan Arshad

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Current efforts in the tissue engineering field are being directed towards the creation of platforms which will facilitate in instructing cells towards biologically relevant outcomes such as stem cell differentiation and disease pathophysiology. Traditional fabrication methods serve as a limiting factor for the production of such platforms as they lack feature and geometric complexity. Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers advantage over said methods by affording designers creative freedom and great control over printed constructs. Such constructs can then be used to create appropriate models for study- ing a plethora of tissues and structures. An AM methodology for Direct-Ink Write (DIW) printing …

Hard, Soft And Off-The-Shelf Foot Orthoses And Their Effect On The Angle Of The Medial Longitudinal Arch: A Biplane Fluoroscopy Study, Megan E.R. Balsdon, Colin E. Dombroski, Kristen Bushey, Thomas Jenkyn

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Publications

Background: Foot orthoses have proven to be effective for conservative management of various pathologies. Pathologies of the lower limb can be caused by abnormal biomechanics such as abnormal foot structure and alignment, leading to inadequate support. Objectives: To compare biomechanical effects of different foot orthoses on the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) during dynamic gait using skeletal kinematics. Study Design: Prospective, cross-sectional study design. Methods: The MLA angle was measured for 12 participants among three groups: pes planus, pes cavus and normal arch. Five conditions were compared: three orthotic devices (hard custom foot orthosis (CFO), soft CFO, and off-the-shelf Barefoot Science©), …

Electrospun Collagen Fibers For Tissue Regeneration Applications, Ying Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tissue engineering aims to regenerate damaged and deceased tissue by combining cells with scaffold made from an appropriate biomaterial and providing a conducive environment to guide cell growth and the formation or regeneration of new tissue or organ. While collagen, an important material of the extracellular matrix (ECM), is a natural choice as a scaffold biomaterial, the conducive environment can only be created by having the ability to control the geometry, organization, structural and mechanical properties of the scaffold. Moreover, degradability and degradation rate control of the scaffold has to be taken into consideration too. In this work, we aim …

Covalently Crosslinked Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Biomaterials For Bone Tissue Engineering Applications, Dibakar Mondal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Scaffolds are key components for bone tissue engineering and regeneration. They guide new bone formation by mimicking bone extracellular matrix for cell recruitment and proliferation. Ideally, scaffolds for bone tissue engineering need to be osteoconductive, osteoinductive, porous, degradable and mechanically competent. As a single material can not provide all these requirements, composites of several biomaterials are viable solutions to combine various properties. However, conventional composites fail to fulfil these requirements due to their distinct phases at the microscopic level. Organic/inorganic (O/I) class II hybrid biomaterials, where the organic and inorganic phases are chemically crosslinked on a molecular scale, hence the …

Fabrication And Modification Of Titania Nanotube Arrays For Harvesting Solar Energy And Drug Delivery Applications, Ahmed El Ruby Abdel Rahman Mohamed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The fast diminishing of fossil fuels in the near future, as well as the global warming caused by increasing greenhouse gases have motivated the urgent quest to develop advanced materials as cost-effective photoanodes for solar light harvesting and many other photocatalytic applications. Recently, titania nanotube arrays (TNTAs) fabricated by anodization process has attracted great interest due to their excellent properties such as: high surface area, vertically oriented, highly organized, one-dimensional, nanotubular structure, photoactivity, chemical stability and biocompatibility. This unique combination of excellent properties makes TNTAs an excellent photoanode for solar light harvesting. However, the relatively wide band gap energy of …

Humidity Effect On The Structure Of Electrospun Core-Shell Pcl-Peg Fibers For Tissue Regeneration Applications, Adam P. Golin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

With the aim of creating a biodegradable scaffold for tympanic membrane (TM) tissue regeneration, core-shell nanofibers composed of a poly(caprolactone) shell and a poly(ethylene glycol) core were created using a coaxial electrospinning technique. In order to create fibers with an optimal core-shell morphology, the effect of relative humidity (RH) on the core-shell nanofibers was systematically studied, with a FITC-BSA complex encapsulated in the core to act as a model protein. The core-shell nanofibers were electrospun at relative humidity values of 20, 25, 30, and 40% RH within a glove box outfitted for humidity control. The core-shell morphology of the fibers …

Electrospinning Of Core-Shell Collagen Nanofibers, Ying Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In tissue engineering, the scaffold plays a critical role in guiding and supporting cells to function and grow optimally. The electrospun nanofibrous scaffold can serve as a near ideal substrate for tissue engineering because it has high surface area and the three-dimensional interconnected porous network can enhance cell attachment and proliferation. Core-shell nanofibrous scaffolds produced with coaxial electrospinning allow bioactive molecule encapsulation to improve cell adhesion, mediate and promote the proper signaling among the cells for their functioning and growth. In the current study, core-shell collagen nanofibers were fabricated via coaxial electrospinning with horizontal and vertical configurations. Core-shell nanofibers with …

Sol-Gel Derived Biodegradable And Bioactive Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Biomaterials For Bone Tissue Engineering, Bedilu A. Allo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Treatments of bone injuries and defects have been largely centered on replacing the lost bone with tissues of allogeneic or xenogeneic sources as well as synthetic bone substitutes, which in all lead to limited degree of structural and functional recovery. As a result, tissue engineering has emerged as a viable technology to regenerate the structures and therefore recover the functions of bone tissue rather than replacement alone. Hence, the current strategies of bone tissue engineering and regeneration rely on bioactive scaffolds to mimic the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) as templates onto which cells attach, multiply, migrate and function.

In this …

Calcium Phosphate-Based Resorbable Biomaterials For Bone Regeneration, Daniel O. Costa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bone defects are a prevalent problem in orthopedics and dentistry. Calcium phosphate-based coatings and nanocomposites offer unique solutions towards producing scaffolds with suitable physical, mechanical and biological properties for bone regeneration.

We developed a novel method to synthesize hydroxyapatite (HA) particles with high aspect ratio using sol-gel chemistry and hydrothermal treatment. We obtained tunable pure-phase carbonated-HA in the form of micro/nanorods and nanowires (diameters 25-800 nm). To mimic the structure of bone, HA nanowires were homogenously mixed within poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) to produce nanocomposites with improved mechanical properties as determined by uniaxial tensile testing.

Surface chemistry and topography of biomaterials play …

Development Of A Novel Handheld Device For Active Compensation Of Physiological Tremor, Abhijit Saxena

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In microsurgery, the human hand imposes certain limitations in accurately positioning the tip of a device such as scalpel. Any errors in the motion of the hand make microsurgical procedures difficult and involuntary motions such as hand tremors can make some procedures significantly difficult to perform. This is particularly true in the case of vitreoretinal microsurgery. The most familiar source of involuntary motion is physiological tremor. Real-time compensation of tremor is, therefore, necessary to assist surgeons to precisely position and manipulate the tool-tip to accurately perform a microsurgery. In this thesis, a novel handheld device (AID) is described for compensation …

A Comparison Of Two Headless Compression Screws For Operative Treatment Of Scaphoid Fractures, Ruby Grewal, Joseph Assini, David Sauder, Louis Ferreira, Jim Johnson, Kenneth Faber

Surgery Publications

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the interfragmentary compression force across a simulated scaphoid fracture by two commonly used compression screw systems; the Acutrak 2 Standard and the 3.0 mm Synthes headless compression screw.

METHODS: Sixteen (8 pairs; 6 female, 2 male) cadaver scaphoids were randomly assigned to receive either the Acutrak 2 or Synthes screw with the contralateral scaphoid designated to receive the opposite. Guide wires were inserted under fluoroscopic control. Following transverse osteotomy, the distal and proximal fragments were placed on either side of a custom load cell, to measure interfragmentary compression. Screws were placed …