Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Deep Learning Approach For Chemistry And Processing History Prediction From Materials Microstructure, Amir Abbas Kazemzadeh Farizhandi, Omar Betancourt, Mahmood Mamivand

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Finding the chemical composition and processing history from a microstructure morphology for heterogeneous materials is desired in many applications. While the simulation methods based on physical concepts such as the phase-field method can predict the spatio-temporal evolution of the materials’ microstructure, they are not efficient techniques for predicting processing and chemistry if a specific morphology is desired. In this study, we propose a framework based on a deep learning approach that enables us to predict the chemistry and processing history just by reading the morphological distribution of one element. As a case study, we used a dataset from spinodal decomposition …

Bimodal Particle Distributions With Increased Thermal Conductivity For Solid Particles As Heat Transfer Media And Storage Materials, Chase E. Christen, Jesús Gómez-Hernández, Todd P. Otanicar

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Solid particles are being considered in several high temperature thermal energy storage systems and as heat transfer media in a variety of advanced power generation systems, particularly in concentrated solar power plants. The downside of such an approach is the low overall heat transfer coefficients caused by the inherently low thermal conductivity values of the low-cost solid media when coupled to heat exchanger for the power cycle working fluid. Choosing the right particle size distribution, emittance, and material of the solid media can all make a substantial difference in packed bed thermal conductivity. Current research though exclusively focuses on continuous …

Decellularized Articular Cartilage Microgels As Microcarriers For Expansion Of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Esmaiel Jabbari, Azadeh Sepahvandi

Faculty Publications

Conventional microcarriers used for expansion of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) require detachment and separation of the cells from the carrier prior to use in clinical applications for regeneration of articular cartilage, and the carrier can cause undesirable phenotypic changes in the expanded cells. This work describes a novel approach to expand hMSCs on biomimetic carriers based on adult or fetal decellularized bovine articular cartilage that supports tissue regeneration without the need to detach the expanded cells from the carrier. In this approach, the fetal or adult bovine articular cartilage was minced, decellularized, freeze-dried, ground, and sieved to produce articular …

Auto-Ethnographic Reflections: Lessons From Leading A Stem Initiative For Girls In School While We Ourselves Were In School, Kayli Heather Battel, Kritin Mandala, Sreyoshi Bhaduri, Natalie Anna Foster, Lilianny Virguez, Lissa Erickson, Krishna Pakala

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we use an auto-ethnographic approach to describe first-hand the reflections and learnings from leading an organization to help school children, especially girls, familiarize themselves with STEM and Cyber Security. The primary authors and ethnographers are founders of STEM initiatives for young learners. The primary author is a recent high school graduate who has taken up an engineering field, and two other contributing authors are high-schoolers currently leading these initiatives. With help from the three engineering educators on our authorship team, we use our individual self-narratives to develop a set of recommendations for other young engineering educators across …

Opportunities From Disruption: How Lifelong Learning Helped Create More Connected Classrooms, Krishna Pakala, Sreyoshi Bhaduri

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The coronavirus pandemic has led to instructors worldwide seeking ways to engage students better through virtual platforms. As the world interacts online, more than ever before, this paper reflects on an educator’s experience with the virtual teaching and learning spaces pre and during the ongoing pandemic. Autoethnography is a research methodology that analyzes a phenomenon through the use of self-narratives, which would otherwise remain private or buried. This paper uses an autoethnographic approach to describe first-hand. the experiences and learnings of an educator at a Western US Public University. This paper describes how first as an international student, a first …

Postural Control Differences Between Patients With Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction And Healthy People During Gait, Junsig Wang, L. Daniel Latt, Robert D. Martin, Erin M. Mannen

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Patients with posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD) may exhibit postural instability during walking likely due to a loss of medial longitudinal arch, abnormal foot alignment, and pain. While many studies have investigated gait alterations in PTTD, there is no understanding of dynamic postural control mechanisms in this population during gait, which will help guide rehabilitation and gait training programs for patients with PTTD. The purpose of the study was to assess dynamic postural control mechanisms in patients with stage II PTTD as compared to age and gender matched healthy controls. Methods: Eleven patients with stage II PTTD (4 males …

Vision And Radar Steering Reduces Agricultural Sprayer Operator Stress Without Compromising Steering Performance, Travis A. Burgers, Kelly J. Vanderwerff

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Self-propelled agricultural sprayer operators work an average of 15 h d^-1 in peak season, and steering is the task that causes the operator the most stress because of the large number of stimuli involved. Automatic guidance systems help reduce stress and fatigue for operators by allowing them to focus on tasks other than steering. Physiological signals like skin conductance (electrodermal activity, EDA) change with stress and can be used to identify stressful events. The objective of this study was to determine if using a commercially available vision and radar guidance system (VSN®, Raven Industries) reduces agricultural sprayer operators’ stress …

The Role Of Ball Backspin Alignment And Variability In Basketball Shooting Accuracy, Nathan Slegers, Dave Love

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Interaction between the shooting hand and ball at the moment a basketball is released generates a three dimensional backspin of the ball. This study is the first to investigate how characteristics of the backspin alignment and variability contribute to lateral shooting accuracy. Spin axis (SA) direction and backspin magnitude were measured on 25 shot attempts for 26 collegiate basketball players (male: n = 16, female: n = 10). The mean SA alignment, as viewed from the shooting hand side, was found to be tipped down and towards the target (p < 0.001). Standard deviations (SD) in the SA alignment were strong predictors of lateral accuracy (vertical SD: r = 0.80, p < 0.001, forward-backward SD: r = 0.51, p = 0.01), with variation in the vertical alignment being the best predictor. No significant correlation between mean SA misalignment and lateral accuracy was observed. However, intra-individual relationships between SA misalignment and lateral error revealed that individuals tended to have 0.17 degrees more misalignment for each cm of lateral error (p < 0.001, 95% CI: 0.24–0.09). These indicate that while an individual’s mean alignment may not predict lateral accuracy, improving one’s SA alignment and reducing alignment variability may increase lateral accuracy.

In-Flow Dynamics Of An Area-Difference-Energy Spring-Particle Red Blood Cell Model On Non-Uniform Grids, Brendan Walsh, Fergal Boyle

Articles

In this paper the area-difference-energy spring-particle (ADE-SP) red blood cell (RBC) structural model developed by Chen and Boyle is coupled with a lattice Boltzmann flux solver to simulate RBC dynamics. The novel ADE-SP model accounts for bending resistance due to the membrane area difference of RBCs while the lattice Boltzmann flux solver offers reduced computational runtimes through GPU parallelisation and enabling the employment of non-uniform meshes. This coupled model is used to simulate RBC dynamics and predictions are compared with existing experimental measurements. The simulations successfully predict tumbling, tank-treading, swinging and intermittent behaviour of an RBC in shear flow, and …

Engineering Instruction, Inclusion, And Comics: Reflections From A Student Illustrator And An Instructor, Addison Totman, Sreyoshi Bhaduri, Krishna Pakala, Cherie D. Edwards, Michelle Soledad

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents the opportunity gap for comics in engineering education, through reflections from a team redesigning a mechanical engineering syllabi using illustrations. To increase a sense of belonging among diverse students, the authors of this paper propose a graphic narrative focused on the curriculum of the mechanical engineering department at a large public university in Western United States. We hope that this paper addresses the underutilized and largely missed opportunity to add engagement, better conceptual understanding, and improve inclusion in engineering classrooms through incorporating visual illustrations.

Novel Hybrid Solar Nanophotonic Distillation Membrane With Photovoltaic Module For Co-Production Of Electricity And Water, Alejandro Espejo Sanchez, Nipun Goel, Todd Otanicar

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Solar energy utilization and desalination are both critical needs for large portions of the world facing energy and water challenges. Direct contact membrane distillation is an attractive thermally driven desalination technique that can easily be integrated with solar energy. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate for the first time a hybrid direct contact membrane desalination plus photovoltaic device. The system utilizes partially transparent photovoltaic cells to produce electricity and pass thermal energy to the nanoparticle doped membrane to produce thermal energy at the membrane surface. A custom lab-scale direct contact membrane distillation setup characterizes the membranes fabricated off-sun and on-sun. …

Measuring Engineering Students’ Engagement In Sustainability Design Concepts, Karen Perez, Donald Plumlee

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Within industries, governments, and accreditation organizations, there has been a push to incorporate sustainability concepts into engineering education. Universities like Boise State University (BSU) are starting to place greater emphasis on the inclusion of sustainability concepts in different engineering program curricula. As part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the BSU mechanical engineering program is integrating sustainability concepts specifically by using active learning modules (ALMs) suitable for each level of student education, progressing from freshman to senior. ALMs have shown to be more effective in improving motivation in the classroom compared to traditional learning. To measure …

Work-In-Progress: Mobile Assisted Gains Through Innovative Curriculum For Students In The Thermal-Fluids Science Course, Maeve Bakic, Krishna Pakala, Diana Bairaktarova, Devshikha Bose

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A learner-centered higher education ecosystem is essential to effective educational outcomes and societal advancement. Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and tablet computers enable learning anytime and from any location, blurring the boundaries between formal and informal learning. When paired with effective pedagogy, mobile technologies can positively impact the teaching and learning experience for students in high-demand science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, increasing the flexibility and ease with which they are able to pursue their education while developing their professional identities as engineers. Student retention remains a problem in STEM programs. In engineering, many students do not even …

Nuclear Envelope Mechanobiology: Linking The Nuclear Structure And Function, Matthew Goelzer, Julianna Goelzer, Matthew L. Ferguson, Corey P. Neu, Gunes Uzer

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The nucleus, central to cellular activity, relies on both direct mechanical input as well as its molecular transducers to sense external stimuli and respond by regulating intra-nuclear chromatin organization that determines cell function and fate. In mesenchymal stem cells of musculoskeletal tissues, changes in nuclear structures are emerging as a key modulator of their differentiation and proliferation programs. In this review we will first introduce the structural elements of the nucleoskeleton and discuss the current literature on how nuclear structure and signaling are altered in relation to environmental and tissue level mechanical cues. We will focus on state-of-the-art techniques to …

Integration Of Neural Architecture Within A Finite Element Framework For Improved Neuromusculoskeletal Modeling, Victoria L. Volk, Landon D. Hamilton, Donald R. Hume, Kevin B. Shelburne, Clare K. Fitzpatrick

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) models can aid in studying the impacts of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems on one another. These computational models facilitate studies investigating mechanisms and treatment of musculoskeletal and neurodegenerative conditions. In this study, we present a predictive NMS model that uses an embedded neural architecture within a finite element (FE) framework to simulate muscle activation. A previously developed neuromuscular model of a motor neuron was embedded into a simple FE musculoskeletal model. Input stimulation profiles from literature were simulated in the FE NMS model to verify effective integration of the software platforms. Motor unit recruitment and rate coding …

Metasurface Cloaks To Decouple Closely Spaced Printed Dipole Antenna Arrays Fed By A Microstrip-To-Balanced Transmission-Line Transition, Doojin Lee, Alexander B. Yakovlev

Faculty and Student Publications

In this work, we present a numerical study of 1D and 2D closely spaced antenna arrays of microstrip dipole antennas covered by a metasurface in order to properly cloak and decouple the antenna arrays operating at neighboring frequencies. We show that the two strongly coupled arrays fed by a microstrip-to-balanced transmission-line transition are effectively decoupled in 1D and 2D array scenarios by covering the dipole antenna elements with an elliptically shaped metasurface. The metasurface comprises sub-wavelength periodic metallic strips printed on an elliptically shaped dielectric cover around the dipole antennas and integrated with the substrate. We present a practical design …

Layered Double Hydroxide-Based Nanocomposite Scaffolds In Tissue Engineering Applications, Burcin Izbudak, Berivan Cecen, Ingrid Anaya, Amir K. Miri, Ayca Bal-Ozturk, Erdal Karaoz

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs), when incorporated into biomaterials, provide a tunable composition, controllable particle size, anion exchange capacity, pH-sensitive solubility, high-drug loading efficiency, efficient gene and drug delivery, controlled release and effective intracellular uptake, natural biodegradability in an acidic medium, and negligible toxicity. In this review, we study potential applications of LDH-based nanocomposite scaffolds for tissue engineering. We address how LDHs provide new solutions for nanostructure stability and enhance in vivo studies' success.

Three-Dimensional Phase Field Modeling Of Fracture In Shape Memory Ceramics, Ehsan Moshkelgosha, Mahmood Mamivand

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the vast applications of transformable ceramics, such as zirconia-based ceramics, in different areas from biomedical to aerospace, the fundamental knowledge about their mechanical degradation procedure is limited. The interaction of the phase transformation and crack growth is crucial as the essential underlying mechanism in fracture of these transformable ceramics, also known as shape memory ceramics. This study develops a three-dimensional (3D) multiphysics model that couples the variational formulation of brittle crack growth to the Ginzburg-Landau equations of martensitic transformation. We parameterized the model for the 3D single crystal zirconia, which experienced stress- and thermal-induced tetragonal to monoclinic transformation. The …

A Single Cell Pair Mechanical Interrogation Platform To Study Cell-Cell Adhesion Mechanics, Amir Monemianesfahani

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cell-cell adhesion complexes are macromolecular adhesive organelles that integrate cells into tissues. Perturbations of the cell-cell adhesion structure or relatedmechanotransduction pathways lead to pathological conditions such as skin and heart diseases, arthritis, and cancer. Mechanical stretching has been used to stimulate the mechanotransduction process originating from the cell-cell adhesion and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) complexes. The current techniques, however, have limitations on their ability to measure the cell-cell adhesion force directly and quantitatively. These methods use a monolayer of cells, which makes it impossible to quantify the forces within a single cell-cell adhesion complex. Other methods using single cells or cell …

Effect Of Temperature On Abrasion Erosion In Particle Based Concentrating Solar Powerplants, Nipun Goel, Tessa Mei-Lin Fong, John P. Shingledecker, Andrew Russell, Michael W. Keller, Siamack A. Shirazi, Todd Otanicar

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of solid particles as a heat transfer medium is being explored for concentrated solar power plants (CSP) to increase their efficiency by achieving operating temperature >700 °C. During operation, these hot particles are expected to move along the various components within the collector system, resulting in material degradation from a combination of high-temperature oxidation and erosion. In the present study, the performance of candidate materials was evaluated through a series of abrasion erosion experiments at room temperature as well as at 800 °C. Wear in metallic and refractory type materials was investigated using CarboBead® HSP 40/70 particles inside …

Evaluating Stem Course Re-Design Strategies In Light Of Covid-19, Ulises Juan Trujillo Garcia, Krishna Pakala, Samantha Schauer, Diana Bairaktarova, Bhaskar Chittoori

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on unprecedented challenges to the teaching and learning communities that required faculty to make purposeful changes in their teaching approaches. Many faculty members had to shift rapidly from in-person to online mode of instruction. This study documents perceptions of STEM faculty who made the change to online teaching. It reports on what strategies faculty used to transition to remote/online teaching and how this change impacted student learning. The study results indicated that almost two-thirds of the faculty changed how they evaluated their students. Results also showed that the sudden change to remote learning negatively impacted student …

Centralized And Decentralized Optimal Control Of Variable Speed Heat Pumps, Ryan S. Montrose, John F. Gardner, Aykut C. Satici

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Utility service providers are often challenged with the synchronization of thermostatically controlled loads. Load synchronization, as a result of naturally occurring and demand-response events, has the potential to damage power distribution equipment. Because thermostatically controlled loads constitute most of the power consumed by the grid at any given time, the proper control of such devices can lead to significant energy savings and improved grid stability. The contribution of this paper is the development of an optimal control algorithm for commonly used variable speed heat pumps. By means of selective peer-to-peer communication, our control architecture allows for the regulation of home …

Lamin A/C Is Dispensable To Mechanical Repression Of Adipogenesis, Matthew Goelzer, Gunes Uzer

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) maintain the musculoskeletal system by differentiating into multiple lineages, including osteoblasts and adipocytes. Mechanical signals, including strain and low-intensity vibration (LIV), are important regulators of MSC differentiation via control exerted through the cell structure. Lamin A/C is a protein vital to the nuclear architecture that supports chromatin organization and differentiation and contributes to the mechanical integrity of the nucleus. We investigated whether lamin A/C and mechanoresponsiveness are functionally coupled during adipogenesis in MSCs. siRNA depletion of lamin A/C increased the nuclear area, height, and volume and decreased the circularity and stiffness. Lamin A/C depletion significantly decreased …

Survival And Proliferation Under Severely Hypoxic Microenvironments Using Cell-Laden Oxygenating Hydrogels, Shabir Hassan, Berivan Cecen, Ramon Peña-Garcia, Fernanda R. Marciano, Amir K. Miri, Ali Fattahi, Christina Karavasili, Shikha Sebastian, Hamza Zaidi, Anderson O. Lobo

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Different strategies have been employed to provide adequate nutrients for engineered living tissues. These have mainly revolved around providing oxygen to alleviate the effects of chronic hypoxia or anoxia that result in necrosis or weak neovascularization, leading to failure of artificial tissue implants and hence poor clinical outcome. While different biomaterials have been used as oxygen generators for in vitro as well as in vivo applications, certain problems have hampered their wide application. Among these are the generation and the rate at which oxygen is produced together with the production of the reaction intermediates in the form of reactive oxygen …

Development Of An Intraperitoneal Catheter Placement Device For Use On The Battlefield, Riley Reynolds

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objective of this project was to simplify peritoneal cavity access so an Airforce field medic can safely infuse oxygen microbubbles (OMBs) into the intraperitoneal space for the emergency treatment of hypoxia due to lung damage. To solve this problem, we created an intraperitoneal catheter placement device for use on the battlefield. The three common methods and some of the most common devices for peritoneal cavity access were reviewed. Injury frequencies for each of the three methods were analyzed. The results showed that each of the access techniques gives a similar rate of iatrogenic injury.

The battlefield conditions where the …

Hemodynamic Response To Device Titration In The Shunted Single Ventricle Circulation - A Patient Cohort Modeling Study, Chet Villa, Farha Zafar, Angela Lorts, Ethan Kung

Publications

Clinical outcomes of ventricular assist device (VAD) support for shunted single ventricle patients trail the larger population due in part to the challenges in optimizing VAD support and balancing systemic and pulmonary circulations. We sought to understand the response to VAD titration in the shunted circulation using a lumped-parameter network modeling six patient-specific clinical cases. Hemodynamic data from six patients (mean body surface area = 0.30 m²) with a systemic-to-pulmonary shunt was used to construct simulated cases of heart failure and hemodynamic response to increasing VAD flow from 5 to 10 L/min/m². With increasing VAD flow, …

Kinematic And Kinetic Changes After Total Hip Arthroplasty During Sit-To-Stand Transfers: Systematic Review, Junsig Wang, Safeer F. Siddicky, Michael P. Dohm, C. Lowry Barnes, Erin M. Mannen

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a common and effective surgical procedure that allows patients with hip osteoarthritis to restore functional ability and relieve pain. Sit-to-stand transfers are common demanding tasks during activities of daily living and are performed more than 50 times per day. The purpose of this systematic review is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of biomechanical changes during sit-to-stand transfers after THA.

Methods: Relevant articles were selected through MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science. Articles were included if they met the following inclusion criteria: 1) participants underwent total hip arthroplasty without restriction on the arthroplasty design, …

Wearable Knee Assistive Devices For Kneeling Tasks In Construction, Siyu Chen, Duncan Stevenson, Shuangyue Yu, Monika Mioskowska, Jingang Yi, Hao Su, Mitja Trkov

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Construction workers regularly perform tasks that require kneeling, crawling, and squatting. Working in awkward kneeling postures for prolonged time periods can lead to knee pain, injuries, and osteoarthritis. In this paper, we present lightweight, wearable sensing and knee assistive devices for construction workers during kneeling and squatting tasks. Analysis of kneeling on level and slopped surfaces (0, 10, 20 degs) is performed for single- and double-leg kneeling tasks. Measurements from the integrated inertial measurement units are used for real-time gait detection and lower-limb pose estimation. Detected gait events and pose estimation are used to control the assistive knee-joint torque provided …

Data-Driven Design Of Energy-Shaping Controllers For Swing-Up Control Of Underactuated Robots, Wankun Sirichotiyakul, Aykut C. Satici

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose a novel data-driven procedure to train a neural network for the swing-up control of underactuated robotic systems. Our approach is inspired by several recent developments ranging from nonlinear control theory to machine learning. We embed a neural network indirectly into the equations of motion of the robotic manipulator as its control input. Using familiar results from passivity-based and energy-shaping control literature, this control function is determined by the appropriate gradients of a neural network, acting as an energy-like (Lyapunov) function. We encode the task of swinging-up robotic systems through the use of transverse coordinates and goal sets; which …

Low-Intensity Vibration Restores Nuclear Yap Levels And Acute Yap Nuclear Shuttling In Mesenchymal Stem Cells Subjected To Simulated Microgravity, Matthew Thompson, Kali Woods, Joshua Newberg, Julia Thom Oxford, Gunes Uzer

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reducing the musculoskeletal deterioration that astronauts experience in microgravity requires countermeasures that can improve the effectiveness of otherwise rigorous and time-expensive exercise regimens in space. The ability of low-intensity vibrations (LIV) to activate force-responsive signaling pathways in cells suggests LIV as a potential countermeasure to improve cell responsiveness to subsequent mechanical challenge. Mechanoresponse of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), which maintain bone-making osteoblasts, is in part controlled by the “mechanotransducer” protein YAP (Yes-associated protein), which is shuttled into the nucleus in response to cyto-mechanical forces. Here, using YAP nuclear shuttling as a measurement outcome, we tested the effect of 72 h …