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Full-Text Articles in Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering

Mineral Uptake Rates And Yield Coefficients Of The Green Microalgae Scenedesmus Dimorphus, Grace N. Mahfouz Jan 2014

Mineral Uptake Rates And Yield Coefficients Of The Green Microalgae Scenedesmus Dimorphus, Grace N. Mahfouz

ETD Archive

The need for renewable sources of energy has become critical as fossil fuel resources, which include oil, coal, and natural gas, are known to contribute to climate change and will eventually be depleted. Biofuels that originate from the fat of plants, animals, microalgae, and bacteria are an attractive alternative. Microalgae, in particular, are strong candidates for biofuel production since they have a high growth rate and lipid content (up to 50 in some species). The goal of this research was to optimize 3N-BBM+V recipe (Bold Basal Medium with 3-fold Nitrogen and Vitamins) in an effort of reducing the amount of …


Design Of Recombinant Tenebrio Molitor Antifreeze Protein For Purification Using Elastin-Like Polypeptide Tag, Joongseok Oh Jan 2014

Design Of Recombinant Tenebrio Molitor Antifreeze Protein For Purification Using Elastin-Like Polypeptide Tag, Joongseok Oh

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Fusion protein technologies can aid to improve solubility of recombinant protein from microorganisms and help recombinant protein purification. Elastin-like polypeptides (ELP) as a fusion tag can be utilized to facilitate the purification of recombinant proteins because ELP can provide its thermally responsive behavior to ELP tagged proteins. An ELP tag can be used as the purification carrier through inverse transition cycling (ITC), which is a simple and non chromatographic separation process. The purification through ITC can reduce cost and can be quickly performed compared to other purification methods. However, we further considered ELP tag removal because it may possibly hinder …


Computation Of Fifteen Thermodynamic Properties Along Arbitrary Paths From Fundamental Equations Of State Correlations, Prashanth Krishnamoorthy Jan 2014

Computation Of Fifteen Thermodynamic Properties Along Arbitrary Paths From Fundamental Equations Of State Correlations, Prashanth Krishnamoorthy

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In this work, a set of fifteen thermodynamic properties for thirty pure compounds has been estimated using fundamental equations of state (FEOS). A computer program was written which allows to input any two of four fundamental thermodynamic properties entropy, pressure, temperature and density to fix a state point and then use the FEOS to generate any other property at that given state. The program further applies the FEOS to trace thermodynamic processes like isochoric, isobaric, isenthalpic, isothermal and isentropic state changes to find the final state of the compound. The program subsequently displays the initial, final and intermediate state points …


Evolutionary Optimization Of Atrial Fibrillation Diagnostic Algorithms, Aref Smiley Jan 2014

Evolutionary Optimization Of Atrial Fibrillation Diagnostic Algorithms, Aref Smiley

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The goal of this research is to introduce an improved method for detecting atrial fibrillation (AF). The foundation of our algorithm is the irregularity of the RR intervals in the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, and their correlation with AF. Three statistical techniques, including root mean squares of successive differences (RMSSD), turning points ratio (TPR), and Shannon entropy (SE), are used to detect RR interval irregularity. We use the Massachusetts Institution of Technology / Beth Israel Hospital (MIT-BIH) atrial fibrillation databases and their annotations to tune the parameters of the statistical methods by biogeography-based optimization (BBO), which is an evolutionary optimization algorithm. …


A Psa Process For An Oxygen Concentrator, Aaron A. Moran Jan 2014

A Psa Process For An Oxygen Concentrator, Aaron A. Moran

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Oxygen is used in a variety of chemical processes and for medical purposes throughout the world. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) has become a viable alternative to cryogenic distillation for the separation of oxygen from air with the development of advanced adsorbents like zeolites. PSA processes are inherently complex because it is a dynamic process. Efficient operation of a PSA process is necessary in order to utilize the capacity of the adsorbent as much as possible and reduce the power requirements of the process.In this thesis, a novel zeolite adsorbent was utilized in a PSA process for oxygen generation with the …


Human Hair Keratin Protein, Hair Fibers And Hydroxyapatite (Ha) Composite Scaffold For Bone Tissue Regeneration, Samuel Siyum Jan 2014

Human Hair Keratin Protein, Hair Fibers And Hydroxyapatite (Ha) Composite Scaffold For Bone Tissue Regeneration, Samuel Siyum

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The field of tissue engineering aims at promoting the regeneration of tissues or replacement of failing or malfunctioning tissue by means of combining a scaffold material, adequate cells and bioactive molecules. Different materials have been proposed for use as three-dimensional porous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering procedures. Among them, polymers of natural origin are one of the most attractive options mainly due to their similarities with the extracellular matrix (ECM), chemical versatility as well as typically good biological performance. In this study, two biocompatible composite scaffolds were developed from natural polymer by tissue engineering approach and tested in vitro. The …


Validation Of An Accelerometry Based Method Of Human Gait Analysis, Obinna Nwanna Jan 2014

Validation Of An Accelerometry Based Method Of Human Gait Analysis, Obinna Nwanna

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Gait analysis is the quantification of locomotion. Understanding the science behind the way we move is of interest to a wide variety of fields. Medical professionals might use gait analysis to track the rehabilitation progress of a patient. An engineer may want to design wearable robotics to augment a human operator. Use cases even extend into the sport and entertainment industries. Typically, a gait analysis is performed in a highly specialized laboratory containing cumbersome expensive equipment. The process is tedious and requires specially trained operators. Continued development of small and cheap inertial measurement units (IMUs) over an alternative to current …


Benefits Of Nitric Oxide Cues To Matrix Synthesis By Healthy And Aneurysmal Human Smooth Muscle Cells Within 3d Cocultures, Phillip Simmers Jan 2014

Benefits Of Nitric Oxide Cues To Matrix Synthesis By Healthy And Aneurysmal Human Smooth Muscle Cells Within 3d Cocultures, Phillip Simmers

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Vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and aneurysms are characterized by the over-proliferation and migration of aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM) within the vessel wall, leading to compromise in cell-cell and cell-matrix signaling pathways. Recent tissue engineering approaches to regulate SMC over-proliferation and enhance healthy ECM synthesis showed promise, but resulted in low crosslinking efficiency and matrix deposition yields. In this study, the benefits of exogenous nitric oxide cues, delivered from S-Nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), to cell proliferation and matrix deposition by adult human aortic SMCs (HA-SMCs) within 3D biomimetic cultures have been explored. The first experiment …


Effects Of Environmental Heavy Metals On Neural Stem Cell Survival And Differentiation, Sameera S. Clev Tasneem Jan 2014

Effects Of Environmental Heavy Metals On Neural Stem Cell Survival And Differentiation, Sameera S. Clev Tasneem

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No abstract provided.


Biomechanics Of Prosthetic Knee Systems : Role Of Dampening And Energy Storage Systems, Hande Argunsah Bayram Jan 2013

Biomechanics Of Prosthetic Knee Systems : Role Of Dampening And Energy Storage Systems, Hande Argunsah Bayram

ETD Archive

One significant drawback of the commercial passive and microprocessored prosthetic devices, the inability of delivering positive energy when needed, is due to the absence of the knee flexion during stance phase. Moreover, consequences such as circumduction and disturbed gait pattern take place due to the improper energy flow at the knee and the absence of the positive energy delivery during the swing phase. Current generation powered design has solved these problems by delivering the needed energy with heavy battery demanding motors, which increase the mass of the device significantly. Hence, the gait quality of transfemoral amputees has not improved significantly …


Scalp Eeg And Tms Based Electrophysiological Study Of Brain Function Of Motor Control In Aging, Mehmed Satuk Bayram Jan 2013

Scalp Eeg And Tms Based Electrophysiological Study Of Brain Function Of Motor Control In Aging, Mehmed Satuk Bayram

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Voluntary movements of human body are controlled by the brain through corticomuscular pathways. Although neuromuscular control mechanisms of voluntary movements have been studied extensively, many remain to be learned, especially neuromuscular adaptations related to clinical conditions such as neurological disorders and aging. This research aims at a better understanding of functional connection between the brain and muscle during voluntary motor activities in aging and the extent to which this connection can be changed by training the neuromuscular system. Three research projects were conducted to achieve this aim. The analyses in the first two projects are based on comparisons of non-invasive …


An In Silico Liver: Model Of Gluconeogenesis, Elie R. Chalhoub Jan 2013

An In Silico Liver: Model Of Gluconeogenesis, Elie R. Chalhoub

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An in silico liver was developed in attempt to represent the in vivo state of the fasted liver. It featured two conceptual models. The first one represented carbohydrate metabolism of the human liver, which included the heterogeneous nature of the liver by incorporating spatial variation of key enzyme activities. This model was able to predict the overall fluxes in tissue and the effect of high intensity exercise on the various hepatic fluxes. A second model of hepatic metabolism was developed to represent the complex interplay between gluconeogenesis, lipid metabolism, and alcohol metabolism in the fasted rat liver. Biochemical pathways are …


A Robotic Neuro-Musculoskeletal Simulator For Spine Research, Robb W. Colbrunn Jan 2013

A Robotic Neuro-Musculoskeletal Simulator For Spine Research, Robb W. Colbrunn

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An influential conceptual framework advanced by Panjabi represents the living spine as a complex neuromusculoskeletal system whose biomechanical functioning is rather finely dependent upon the interactions among and between three principal subsystems: the passive musculoskeletal subsystem (osteoligamentous spine plus passive mechanical contributions of the muscles), the active musculoskeletal subsystem (muscles and tendons), and the neural and feedback subsystem (neural control centers and feedback elements such as mechanoreceptors located in the soft tissues) [1]. The interplay between subsystems readily encourages "thought experiments" of how pathologic changes in one subsystem might influence another--for example, prompting one to speculate how painful arthritic changes …


Method For Determination Of Kinematic Sensor Position And Orientation From Magnetic Resonance Images, Caglar Ozturk Jan 2013

Method For Determination Of Kinematic Sensor Position And Orientation From Magnetic Resonance Images, Caglar Ozturk

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Concussion and mild traumatic brain injury risk remain high for young athletes participating in helmeted and non-helmeted sports. Because of the short and potential long-term effects on young athletes and early onset Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, there is a dire need to correlate a relationship between head impact intensity, frequency, duration and athlete brain health. To address this need, the Cleveland Clinic is developing a custom mouthguard embedded with flexible circuitry and sensors, known as the 'Intelligent Mouthguard'(IMG). To accurately quantify peak values of head impacts or concussions, orientation and position of each sensor relative to CG (Center of Gravity) …


Radial Diffusion Of Florescein Molecules (376 Da) In Canine Bone Tissue, Daniel O'Conor Jan 2013

Radial Diffusion Of Florescein Molecules (376 Da) In Canine Bone Tissue, Daniel O'Conor

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No abstract provided.


Lipid Production By Scenedesmus Dimorphus: Comparison Of Extraction Techniques And Effect Of Sodium Nitrate Concentration, Bahareh Kanani Jan 2013

Lipid Production By Scenedesmus Dimorphus: Comparison Of Extraction Techniques And Effect Of Sodium Nitrate Concentration, Bahareh Kanani

ETD Archive

No abstract provided.


Synthesis And Characterization Of Ph-Responsive Elastin-Like Polypeptides With Different Configurations, Mingjie Tang Jan 2013

Synthesis And Characterization Of Ph-Responsive Elastin-Like Polypeptides With Different Configurations, Mingjie Tang

ETD Archive

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELP) are environmentally responsive polymers that exhibit phase transition behavior in response to various stimuli such as temperature, pH and irradiation. In this work, we focused on pH-responsive ELPs. It has been shown that pH value, configurations of ELPs, ELP concentration, and salt concentration can impact the phase transition behavior of pH-responsive ELPs. Quantitative models have been developed to engineer various linear ELPs, but there has not been any detailed study for engineering ionizable ELP with non-linear configurations. In this study, we designed, synthesized, and characterized pH-responsive ELPs with two different configurations. One is linear ELP, (GVGVPGEGVPGVGVP)12, and …


External Control Interface, Dynamic Modeling And Parameter Estimation Of A Research Treadmill, Omer Sirin Jan 2013

External Control Interface, Dynamic Modeling And Parameter Estimation Of A Research Treadmill, Omer Sirin

ETD Archive

Treadmills providing linear continuous movement are used for robotic testing of prostheses in order to study their operating characteristics. However, traditional exercise treadmills are not able to simulate various conditions such as avoiding an obstacle, climbing, descending, reversing direction, or stopping instantly. The focus of this thesis is to examine control algorithms (position, speed and force) for the drive mechanism of a research treadmill to fulll the gap in the situations described above. The system consists of a power supply, a computer with Matlab, and the treadmill that includes a DC motor, a pulley and belt. Also, an external encoder …


Pure Component Adsorption Of Methane, Ethylene, Propylene And Carbon Dioxide In Silicalite, Qianqian Zhou Jan 2013

Pure Component Adsorption Of Methane, Ethylene, Propylene And Carbon Dioxide In Silicalite, Qianqian Zhou

ETD Archive

Adsorption isotherms are measured for pure methane, ethylene, propylene and carbon dioxide in silicalite. Isotherm data are collected using a volumetric method at three different temperatures of 10C, 35C and 65C at pressure up to 100psi. The Virial equation and Langmuir equation have been applied to represent excess amount adsorbed in each pure component system. The binary adsorption equilibrium for various mixtures are predicted from the pure component adsorption data, using the Ideal Adsorption Solution Theory (IAST)


State Estimation Based On Nested Particle Filters, Swathi Srinivasan Jan 2013

State Estimation Based On Nested Particle Filters, Swathi Srinivasan

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In reality many processes are nonlinear and in order to have a knowledge about the true process conditions, it is important to make decisions based on the state of the system. Process measurements such as pressure, temperature, and pH, are available at time instances and this information is necessary in order to obtain the state of the system. Filtering is a state estimation technique by which the estimate is obtained at a time instant, given the process measurements at their respective time instances. Several lters have been developed so far for the estimation of the states of the system. Kalman …


Scaffold Composition And Architecture Critically Regulate Extracellular Matrix Synthesis By Cardiomyocytes, Arsela Gishto Jan 2013

Scaffold Composition And Architecture Critically Regulate Extracellular Matrix Synthesis By Cardiomyocytes, Arsela Gishto

ETD Archive

Heart failure accounts for over 5 million cases in the U.S. A major onset of this is myocardial infarction, which causes the myocardium to loose cardiomyocytes and transform into a scar tissue. Given that the adult infarcted cardiac tissue has a limited ability to regenerate, alternative methods to restore the damaged area need to be developed. The goal of these approaches is to design an optimal scaffold that can retain and deliver cardiomyocytes at the site of damaged myocardium. This tissue engineering approach would allow cardiac reconstruction by replacing the lost cardiomyocytes, delivering the required biomolecules, as well as remodeling …


Bench-Top Validation Of "Intelligent" Mouth Guard, Alper Aksu Jan 2013

Bench-Top Validation Of "Intelligent" Mouth Guard, Alper Aksu

ETD Archive

Concussion is the signature athletics injury of the 21st Century. Scientists are hard at work monitoring effects of hard impacts on the human brain. However, existing tools and devices are inadequate to screen the effects. Hence, a new approach is required to accurately quantify peak values of head impacts or concussions and relate these values to clinical brain health outcomes. A new head impact dosimeter, the "Intelligent Mouth Guard" (IMG) has been developed and can be conveniently located inside the mouth. In this study, the IMG printed circuit board (PCB) including four (4) high-quality shock resistant sensors has been developed …


Moving Horizon Estimation With Dynamic Programming, Mohan Kumar Ramalingam Jan 2013

Moving Horizon Estimation With Dynamic Programming, Mohan Kumar Ramalingam

ETD Archive

Moving Horizon Estimation(MHE) is a optimization based strategy to state estimation. It involves computation of arrival cost, a penalty term, based on the MHE cost function. Minimization of this arrival cost is done through various methods. All these methods use nonlinear programming optimization technique which gives the estimate. The main idea of MHE revolves around minimizing the estimation cost function. The cost function is dependent on prediction error computation from data and arrival cost summarization. The major issue that hampers the MHE is choosing the arrival cost for ensuring stability of the overall estimation and computational time. In order to …


A Microfluidic Platform To Quantify Spatio-Temporal Diffusion Of Chemo-Gradients Within 3d Scaffolds: Applications In Axonal Biology, Michael A. Sawonik Jan 2013

A Microfluidic Platform To Quantify Spatio-Temporal Diffusion Of Chemo-Gradients Within 3d Scaffolds: Applications In Axonal Biology, Michael A. Sawonik

ETD Archive

Axonal outgrowth and guidance play an important role in wiring the developing and regenerating nervous system. The critical role of biomolecular gradients in facilitating this axonal sensitivity and directionality along specific trajectories needs to be elucidated for designing effective therapeutic treatments under injury or disease conditions. However, previous in vitro approaches based on micropipette assay or gel-turning assay proved to be unsuitable or inefficient for precise generation and quantification of diffusive gradients. In this study, we utilized a microfluidic device to generate and quantify physiologically-relevant biomolecular gradients in a simple and reliable manner. Using a combination of computational and experimental …


Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of A Gravity Settler For Algae Dewatering, Scott A. Hug Jan 2013

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of A Gravity Settler For Algae Dewatering, Scott A. Hug

ETD Archive

Algae are the future of lipid sources for biodiesel production. Algae can produce more biodiesel than soybean and canola oil and can be grown in more diverse locations. Algae concentrations are naturally around 0.1 by weight. Enough water must be removed for the algae level to reach 5 , the minimum concentration in which lipids can be used in the transesterification process for biofuel production is 5 . Current dewatering methods involve the use of settling tanks and centrifugation. The costs of centrifugation limit the commercial viability of algae based biodiesel. A novel inclined gravity settler design at Cleveland State …


Modification Of Behavior Of Elastin-Like Polypeptides By Changing Molecular Architecture, Ali Ghoorchian Jan 2012

Modification Of Behavior Of Elastin-Like Polypeptides By Changing Molecular Architecture, Ali Ghoorchian

ETD Archive

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELP) are environmentally responsive polymers that exhibit phase separation in response to external stimuli such as temperature, pH, light, and ionic strength. It has been shown that the sequence of the pentapeptide, its length, and the solution concentration are very important in the transition of the molecules from soluble to insoluble, but there has not been any detailed study of the effect of molecular architecture on the behavior of ELPs.In this study we designed, synthesized and characterized ELPs with different architectures and chemical identities to probe the effect of molecular design on the microscopic and macroscopic behavior of …


In Vitro Biomechanical Testing And Computational: Modeling In Spine, Mageswaran Prasath Jan 2012

In Vitro Biomechanical Testing And Computational: Modeling In Spine, Mageswaran Prasath

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Two separate in vitro biomechanical studies were conducted on human cadaveric spines (Lumbar) to evaluate the stability following the implantation of two different spinal fixation devices interspinous fixation device (ISD) and Hybrid dynamic stabilizers. ISD was evaluated as a stand-alone and in combination with unilateral pedicle rod system. The results were compared against the gold standard, spinal fusion (bilateral pedicle rod system). The second study involving the hybrid dynamic system, evaluated the effect on adjacent levels using a hybrid testing protocol. A robotic spine testing system was used to conduct the biomechanical tests. This system has the ability to apply …


Myocardial T1 Mapping Techniques For Quantification Of Myocardial Fibrosis, Xiaopeng Zhou Jan 2012

Myocardial T1 Mapping Techniques For Quantification Of Myocardial Fibrosis, Xiaopeng Zhou

ETD Archive

Identifying and quantifying diffuse myocardial fibrosis is important to provide insights into the relationship between myocardial fibrosis, diastolic and systolic dysfunction, as well as clinical outcomes. T1 mapping is a promising technique for noninvasively identifying diffuse myocardial fibrosis in heart failure. A quantitative T1 map provides sensitivity to the full range of T1 values and is advantageous over the traditional T1-weighted imaging by reducing the reliance on visual interpretation of the signal intensity in the myocardium. However, in-vivo myocardial T1 quantification is challenging because of cardiac and respiratory motion. During the past few years, a variety of T1 mapping techniques, …


Effect Of Glucose Supplementation On Nighttime Biomass Loss And Productivity Of Microalgae Chlorella, Dhruvesh Shah Jan 2012

Effect Of Glucose Supplementation On Nighttime Biomass Loss And Productivity Of Microalgae Chlorella, Dhruvesh Shah

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Microalgae have been proven to be a promising source for the production of biofuel. It has higher oil yield than any other food crop. Oil yield from microalgae is 7 to 13 times higher than the best food crop. There are several issues to be addressed for economic production of biofuel from microalgae. One such issue is cultivation of microalgae. Algae can be cultivated photoautotrophically or heterotrophically. Algae grown photoautotrophically lose up to 35 of the biomass during nighttime. Heterotrophic cultivation of microalgae has been proven to be resulting in faster microalgae production compared to photoautotrophic growth, but requires use …


Effects Of Magnesium Sulfate, Digestate And Other Inorganic Nutrients On The Phototrophic Growth Of The Green Microalga Scenedesmus Dimorphus, Jacob R. Schwenk Jan 2012

Effects Of Magnesium Sulfate, Digestate And Other Inorganic Nutrients On The Phototrophic Growth Of The Green Microalga Scenedesmus Dimorphus, Jacob R. Schwenk

ETD Archive

The individual components of the growth media, notably magnesium, have a profound impact on the growth and lipid production of the green microalgae, Scenedesmus dimorphus. The goal of this work was to investigate these effects and explain the causes via multiple experiments. It is important to understand the aspects of algal growth because they have a significant impact on the commercial viability of microalgal lipids as a potential feedstock for biofuel production. Digestate, derived from bovine waste and a potential cost effective nutrient replacement for conventional media types, was found to maximize growth and lipid concentration in S. dimorphus at …