Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Multi-Purpose Heart Valve Therapy Assembly Fixture, Alec John Foster, John Patrick Hofstetter, Emily Lim

Mechanical Engineering

STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsors. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Preparation Of Supramolecular Amphiphilic Cyclodextrin Bilayer Vesicles For Pharmaceutical Applications, Kate E. Frischkorn

Master's Theses

Recent pharmaceutical developments have investigated using supramolecular nanoparticles in order to increase the bioavailability and solubility of drugs delivered in various methods. Modification of the carbohydrate cyclodextrin increases the ability to encapsulate hydrophobic pharmaceutical molecules by forming a carrier with a hydrophobic core and hydrophilic exterior. Guest molecules are commonly added to these inclusion complexes in order to add stability and further increase targeting abilities of the carriers. One such guest molecule is adamantine combined with a poly(ethylene glycol) chain. Vesicles are formed by hydrating a thin film of amphiphilic cyclodextrin and guest molecules in buffer solution that mimics physiological …

Comparative Analysis Of Physiological Measurements And Environmental Metrics On Predicting Heat Stress Related Events, Mckenzie Lee Barlow

Master's Theses

Exposure to high heat and humidity can lead to serious health risks, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) and heat index have historically been used to predict heat stress events, but individualized factors are not included in the measurement. It has been shown that there is a relationship between cardiovascular measurements and heat stress, which could be used to measure heat stress risk on an individual level. Research has been done to find relationships between cardiovascular metrics in a workplace environment, however the study did not include the use of a controlled environment as a …

Validation Of A 1d Algorithm That Measures Pulse Wave Velocity To Estimate Compliance In Blood Vessels, James Leung

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research is to determine if it is possible to validate the new 1D method for measuring pulse wave velocity in the aorta in vivo and estimate compliance. Arterial pressure and blood flow characterize the traveling of blood from the heart to the arterial system and have played a significant role in the evaluation of cardiovascular diseases. Blood vessel distensibility can give some information on the evolution of cardiovascular disease. A patient’s aorta cannot be explanted to measure compliance; therefore we are using a flow phantom model to validate the 1D pulse wave velocity technique to estimate …

Sex Differences In Collateral Remodeling Following Hindlimb Arterial Occlusion, Laura Burckhardt

Master's Theses

Clinical evidence indicates a higher incidence of peripheral arterial occlusive disease and associated likelihood of critical limb ischemia in women, as well as worse prognosis and decreased survival post myocardial infarction. Therefore, understanding the possible differences in underlying vascular compensation mechanisms is crucial. With arterial occlusions, necrosis and tissue injury can be naturally mitigated by the collateral circulation, improving patient prognosis. Previous sex-comparison studies describing differences in vascular remodeling are inconsistent. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the effect of arterial occlusion on collateral remodeling in healthy male and healthy reproductive-stage female mice. At 7 days following …

Computer-Aided Diagnoses (Cad) System: An Artificial Neural Network Approach To Mri Analysis And Diagnosis Of Alzheimer's Disease (Ad), Berizohar Padilla Cerezo

Master's Theses

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic and progressive, irreversible syndrome that deteriorates the cognitive functions. Official death certificates of 2013 reported 84,767 deaths from Alzheimer’s disease, making it the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. The rate of AD is estimated to double by 2050. The neurodegeneration of AD occurs decades before symptoms of dementia are evident. Therefore, having an efficient methodology for the early and proper diagnosis can lead to more effective treatments.

Neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can detect changes in the brain of living subjects. Moreover, medical imaging techniques are the …

Application Of Argon Plasma Technology To Hydrophobic And Hydrophilic Microdroplet Generation In Pdms Microfluidic Devices, Brennan P. Graham

Master's Theses

Abstract Application of Argon Plasma Technology to Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Microdroplet Generation in PDMS Microfluidic Devices Brennan Graham Microfluidics has gained popularity over the last decade due to the ability to replace many large, expensive laboratory processes with small handheld chips with a higher throughput due to the small channel dimensions [1]. Droplet microfluidics is the field of fluid manipulation that takes advantage of two immiscible fluids to create droplets from the geometry of the microchannels. This project includes the design of a microfluidic device that applies the results of an argon plasma surface treatment to polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to successfully …

The Impacts Of Arterial Occlusion, Sex, And Exercise On Arteriogenesis And Functional Vasodilation, Megan Tze-Mei Chu

Master's Theses

The most frequent clinical presentation of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) is intermittent claudication, which may be caused by impaired vasodilation. Patients demonstrate both local and systemic impairments in vasodilation, but as the collateral circulation is the primary site of resistance to the ischemic zone, impaired collateral vasodilation would have the greatest potential to induce claudication. Collateral function following arterial occlusion is not well defined, but immature collaterals may demonstrate impaired vasodilation in animal models, although this is potentially improved with exercise training. Furthermore, as females exhibit poorer physical function with ischemia and less improvement with therapeutic exercise, there appears …

A 3-D Multiplex Paper-Microfluidic Platform, Mitchell Patrick Young

Master's Theses

3-D paper-based microfluidic devices (micoPADs) are small and portable devices made out of paper that offer a promising platform for diagnostic applications outside of a laboratory. These devices are easy to use, low cost, require no power source, and capable of detecting multiple targets simultaneously. The work in this thesis demonstrated the ability of a 3-D paper-microfluidic platform to simultaneously detect 5 targets. Rubber cord stock was used in conjunction with an acrylic housing unit to apply pressure along the edge of the channel. The indirect pressure application was successful in promoting vertical fluid flow between layers. Average channel development …

Functional Vasodilation And Vascular Reactivity In Arteriolar Collaterals In The Spinotrapezius Of Males And Females, Britta C. Nelson

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) occurs when there is narrowing or blockage of the peripheral arteries that carry blood to the extremities, most commonly the legs. The most common symptom of PAOD is intermittent claudication, or ischemic pain during exercise. Women with PAOD experience a greater extremity functional impairment than men. Since impaired vasodilation might cause the ischemic pain from PAOD, we should evaluate vasodilation post ligation in males and females in collateral vessels, which connect two arterial segments to maintain blood flow to an otherwise hypoxic area. First, we need to examine collateral vasodilation in unoperated male and female …

Fluid Flow Characterization And In Silico Validation In A Rapid Prototyped Aortic Arch Model, Alexandra Mariel Knauer

Master's Theses

Transcatheter aortic heart valve replacement (TAVR) is a procedure to replace a failing aortic valve and is becoming the new standard of care for patients that are not candidates for open-heart surgery [2]. However, this minimally invasive technique has shown to cause ischemic brain lesions, or “silent infarcts”, in 90% of TAVR patients, which can increase the patient’s risk for stroke by two to four times in future years [3]. Claret Medical Inc., a medical device company, has developed a cerebral protection system that filters and captures embolic debris released during endovascular procedures, such as TAVR. This thesis utilized CT …

Portable Sensory Room For The West Orange County Consortium For Special Education, Lindsey Chase, Emma Eskildsen, Alex Fox, Claire Francis, Nate Hoffman, Kaylee Keck, Sarah Sullivan

Biomedical Engineering

This report discusses the development of a Portable Sensory Room to be used at Newland Elementary School in Huntington Beach. Newland Elementary has an exceptional Special Needs program that teaches the children with the most severe cases of autism in its school district. People with autism typically also have sensory processing disorders, which can be extremely disruptive for a child’s development and can make it difficult for a child to be able to concentrate long enough to gain necessary life skills. The idea behind a Sensory Rooms is to create a place to calm the students and to expose them …

Prosthetic Leg Kit For Deployment In Developing Countries, Brian Murphy, Dominique Porcincula, Derek Morgan, Kendall Ruggles, Christian Aguayo

Biomedical Engineering

The World Health Organization estimates that over 30 million people require some sort of prosthetic technology. However, traditional prosthetic fitting practices take a lot of time and cost a lot of money, making them inaccessible to millions of people around the world. StandUP Worldwide is an interdisciplinary project team devoted to creating low-cost prosthetic technologies for use around the world, especially in resource poor areas. They are currently developing a low cost, below-the-knee prosthetic kit that can be easily deployed in a resource-poor area. The following presents their solution for a below-the-knee prosthetic socket, foot, and leg.

The Effect Of Neurostimulation On Ischemic Pain And Methods Of Assessing Pain, Kaylee Keck

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) impacts approximately eight million people in the United States [1]. Disease progression leads to chronic ischemic pain, hindering quality of life. Pharmaceuticals are a typical treatment for pain associated with PAD; but as few as 30% of patients have a significant reduction of pain (≥50%) [2].

Neurostimulation is commonly used as a treatment for various diseases and injuries, including Parkinson’s disease and sports-related back and knee injuries [2]. The objective of the study was to explore neurostimulation and its effect on pain and paresthesia for a model of acute peripheral ischemia in young college students.

Pain …

Assessing Functional Vasodilation In The Gracilis Collateral Arteriole, Megan T. Chu

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) involves arterial occlusion due to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. It is suggested that intermittent claudication, the most frequent clinical presentation of PAOD, is caused by impaired vasodilation. Current treatments for PAOD are not directed at improving vascular reactivity and are often insufficient. Stimulating arteriogenesis in collateral arterioles has therapeutic potential for PAOD, but because arterioles are the primary site of blood flow resistance, it is important that these treatments do not impair collateral vasodilation. Before this can be evaluated, the effects of arteriogenesis on collateral function must be studied in untreated collaterals. There is …

Measuring Blood Flow In The Skeletal Muscle Microcirculation Using Laser Speckle Flowmetry, Kenneth Howard Gouin Iii

Biomedical Engineering

The presence of a native collateral circulation, which serves as a natural bypass for blood flow around an occlusion, improves prognosis for patients with ischemic diseases, such as peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). However, not all patients have a native collateral circulation, and animal models suggest a genetic basis for this variability. In mice, such as the BALB/c, that lack native arteriolar collaterals, neocollateral formation from capillaries that connect two arterial trees can occur after arterial occlusion, resulting in reperfusion of the ischemic watershed. Immature arterialized collateral capillaries (ACCs) at 7 days post arterial occlusion do not vasodilate in response …

Sapien3 Comb Stitch Improvement For Edwards Lifesciences, William Harley, Thomas Pluschkell, John Mctigue, Garrett Reed

Mechanical Engineering

The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Design And Fabrication Techniques Of Devices For Embedded Power Active Contact Lens, Errol Heradio Leon

Master's Theses

This thesis designed and fabricated various devices that were interfaced to an IC for an active contact lens that notifies the user of an event by detection of an external wireless signal. The contact lens consisted of an embedded antenna providing communication with a 2.4GHz system, as well as inductive charging at an operating frequency of 13.56 MHz. The lens utilized a CBC005 5µAh thin film battery by Cymbet and a manufactured graphene super capacitor as a power source. The custom integrated circuit (IC) was designed using the On Semiconductor CMOS C5 0.6 µm process to manage …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Cranial Molding For Treatment Of Positional Plagiocephaly Using Finite Element Analysis, Maziyar Keshtgar

Master's Theses

Since the advent of recommendations for placing infants in the supine position during sleep to reduce the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome, clinicians have noted an increase in the frequency of cranial asymmetry due to deformation of suture sections of the infants’ skulls as a result of constant concentrated stress in one area at the back of their head. This specific form of cranial deformation is known as positional plagiocephaly and its rate of occurrence has increased from 0.3% in 8.2% within the past 30 years.

Current treatments and methodologies for preventing and correcting positional plagiocephaly such as stretching …

Smooth Muscle Cell Organization In The Stem Region Of The Gracilis Collateral Circulation In Balb/C Mice, Laura Lenae Burckhardt

Biomedical Engineering

Of the approximately 8 million Americans who suffer from ischemic peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD), many present with intermittent claudication, or pain associated with exercise. Impaired vasodilation of resistance vessels is a potential explanation for this symptom. Occluded arteries can lead to increased flow through collateral vessels, which function as natural bypasses around the obstruction. This increase in blood flow and resulting shear stress can cause outward remodeling, or arteriogenesis, which improves the efficacy of collaterals. However, following femoral artery ligation in a mouse model of chronic ischemia, vasodilation in the stem region of collateral vessels is impaired at day …

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

Master's Theses

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 …

Nerve Fiber Diameter Measurements Using Hematoxylin And Eosin Staining And Brightfield Microscopy To Assess The Novel Method Of Characterizing Peripheral Nerve Fiber Distributions By Group Delay, Jorge Arturo Vazquez

Master's Theses

Peripheral neuropathies are a set of common diseases that affect the peripheral nervous system, causing damage to vital connections between various parts of the body and the brain and spinal cord. Different clinical conditions are known to selectively impact various size nerve fibers, which often makes it difficult to diagnose which peripheral neuropathy a patient might have. The nerve conduction velocity diagnostic test provides clinically useful information in the diagnosis of some peripheral neuropathies. This method is advantageous because it tends to be minimally invasive yet it provides valuable diagnostic information. However, this test does not determine characteristics of peripheral …

Design, Characterization And Application Of A Multiple Input Stethoscope Apparatus, Spencer Geng Wong

Master's Theses

For this project, the design, implementation, characterization, calibration and possible applications of a multiple transducer stethoscope apparatus were investigated. The multi-transducer sensor array design consists of five standard stethoscope diaphragms mounted to a rigid frame for a-priori knowledge of their relative spatial locations in the x-y plane, with compliant z-direction positioning to ensure good contact and pressure against the subject’s skin for reliable acoustic coupling. When this apparatus is properly placed on the body, it can digitally capture the same important body sounds investigated with standard acoustic stethoscopes; especially heart sounds. Acoustic signal inputs from each diaphragm are converted to …

Team Omnimouse, Derek J. Halman, Josh B. Porter, Steven A. Silver, Ian S. Stemper

Computer Engineering

INFORMATION, DATA, FIGURES AND DRAWINGS EMBODIED IN THIS DOCUMENT ARE STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL AND ARE SUPPLIED ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED TO THIRD PARTIES WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE PLUS.

Developent Of A Phospholipid Encapsulation Process For Quantum Dots To Be Used In Biologic Applications, Logan Grimes

Master's Theses

The American Cancer Society predicts that 1,665,540 people will be diagnosed with cancer, and 585,720 people will die from cancer in 2014. One of the most common types of cancer in the United States is skin cancer. Melanoma alone is predicted to account for 10,000 of the cancer related deaths in 2014. As a highly mobile and aggressive form of cancer, melanoma is difficult to fight once it has metastasized through the body. Early detection in such varieties of cancer is critical in improving survival rates in afflicted patients. Present methods of detection rely on visual examination of suspicious regions …

Material Differences In Equine Cortical And Trabecular Bone, Ryan B. Allen

Master's Theses

A greater understanding of bone materials would be beneficial in creating more accurate computer models and in the making of biomedical products involving bone. This study set out to determine whether cortical and trabecular bone are two separate materials, or whether they are the same material with a variance in porosity. To answer this question, samples were taken from different sections of the equine metacarpus, underwent densitometry analysis and were statistically analyzed. The majority of results suggest that the material is the same between varying densities of bone and thus the same between cortical and trabecular bone. These particular results …

Mechanical Properties Of Bone Due To Sost Expression: Nanoindentation Assessment Of Murine Femurs, Amir Rafie

Master's Theses

In the human genome, the SOST gene codes for a protein sclerostin. Sclerostin is an osteocyte-expressed negative regulator of bone formation. When the SOST gene is not coded, bone formation is reduced in individuals during skeletal maturation. This study utilizes nanoindentation methods to test for the mechanical properties of bones that both express and do not express the SOST gene. 100 transgenic murine femurs were obtained from Lawrence Livermore Labs in the form of 6 and 8 month SOST transgenic mice, 6 and 12 month SOST knockout mice, and wild type control littermates for each of the 4 age groups. …

An Analysis Of Eliminating Electroosmotic Flow In A Microfluidic Pdms Chip, Cecile D. Redington

Master's Theses

The goal of this project is to eliminate electroosmotic flow (EOF) in a microfluidic chip. EOF is a naturally occurring phenomenon at the fluid-surface interface in microfluidic chips when an electric field is applied across the fluid. When isoelectric focusing (IEF) is carried out to separate proteins based on their surface charge, the analytes must remain in the separation chamber, and not migrate to adjacent features in the microfluidic chip, which happens with EOF.

For this project, a microfluidic chip was designed and commissioned to be photolithographically transferred onto a Si wafer. A PDMS component was then casted on the …

Vascular Reactivity Of Immature Arterialized Capillaries, Sara Hellstrom

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) is a globally prevalent cardiovascular disease in which atherosclerotic plaques narrow arterial lumen diameters and restrict blood flow to down stream tissues. The impact of these occlusions can be mitigated by collateral vessels that connect parallel arterial branches and act as natural bypasses to maintain perfusion. Some patients with PAOD may not have robust collateral networks to accommodate ischemic tissues in the event of an occlusion and, therefore, may be more susceptible to hypoxia and tissue necrosis. In animal models that lack collateral arterioles, capillaries can arterialize and form functional collaterals; however, in the early …

A Lateral Flow Smart Phone Image Analysis Diagnostic, Christina Holly Tyrrell

Master's Theses

A low cost compact diagnostic has many implications in today’s society. Smart phone technology has exponentially grown and with it the imaging capabilities associated with smart phones. The goals of this research are i) to determine the feasibility of combining in the field smart phone images with color dependent assay results, ii) to develop a MatLab® image analysis code to analyze these results, and iii) compare limits of detection between the un-aided eye and MatLab® image analysis software.

Orange G dye is used to create a stock solution and subsequent titers for analysis. Autocad is used to design an assay …