Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Gene Synthesis, Cloning, Expression, Purification And Biophysical Characterization Of The C2 Domain Of Human Tensin, Kiran Sukumar Gajula

Doctoral Dissertations

Tensin is a large "docking" protein found in the adhesive junctions of animal cells and recruited early in the development of cell-substrate contacts. There it binds to the cytoplasmic domain of integrin β1 and caps the barbed ends of filamentous actin. This forms a rational basis for its implication in a direct role in the mechanics of membrane-cytoskeleton interactions. Tensin provides a physical link between the actin cytoskeleton, integrins, and other proteins at the cell-substrate contacts. Its overall biochemical properties are a function of its domain composition and architecture, i.e., the domains that are present and their relative positions in …

Development And Analysis Of An Internet Browsing Utilizing The Overscan Technique For Persons With Physical Disabilities, Patrick Paul Clerkin

Doctoral Dissertations

Persons with a severe disability often use scanning as an indirect selection technique for operating augmentative and alternative communication aids and computer access. For information that can be organized in advance, including lists of communication elements such as words and phrases, users often employ rate enhancing scanning methods like the row-column scanning technique. However, row-column scanning requires selection elements to be grouped into defined rows and columns, and therefore does not work well with Internet browsing due to the non-grouped layout of HTML pages.

This work attempts to develop an improved scanning technique for Internet browsing by designing interfaces to …

Computer Simulation And Human Experiment On The Laplacian Electrocardiogram (Ecg), Ting Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

The electrocardiogram (ECG) provides useful global temporal assessment of cardiac activity, but has limited spatial capabilities. Laplacian electrocardiogram (LECG) and body surface Laplacian mapping (BSLM), improvements over ECG provides high spatiotemporal distributed information about cardiac electrical activation.

This project was divided into two parts: computer simulation and human experiment. In the computer simulation, a comparison of the performance of the tripolar and bipolar as well as spline LECG and BSLMs for localizing and imaging the cardiac electrical activation has been investigated. A simple planar surface model and a simplified eccentric heart-torso sphere-cylinder homogeneous volume conductor model were developed. Multiple dipoles …

Code-Level Modeling Of The Hodgkin -Huxley Neuron Model Using An Open Source Version Of Spice, Anthony Stuart Carver

Doctoral Dissertations

There have been numerous studies presented in the literature demonstrating proof of principle neural-electronic circuitry. Some of these studies involve simulations of neural detection using synthetic electronic circuitry, while others involve simulations of neural excitation using external electronics. A common feature of these studies is the simplicity of the overall circuit topology. Some of these studies implement the circuit equations in conventional numerical ordinary differential equation solvers. This process involves the algebraic manipulation of the circuit equations which is a tedious process for all but the simplest circuit topologies. As the overall complexity of the network topology increases, the numerical …

Growth And Behavior Of Chondrocytes On Nano Engineered Surfaces And Construction Of Micropatterned Co-Culture Platforms Using Layer-By-Layer Platforms Using Layer -By -Layer Assembly Lift-Off Method, Jameel Shaik

Doctoral Dissertations

Several approaches such as self-assembled monolayers and layer-by-layer assembled multilayer films are being used as tools to study the interactions of cells with biomaterials in vitro. In this study, the layer-by-layer assembly approach was used to create monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, five, ten and twenty-bilayer beds of eleven different biomaterials. The various biomaterials used were poly(styrene-sulfonate), fibronectin, poly-L-lysine, poly-D-lysine, laminin, bovine serum albumin, chondroitin sulfate, poly(ethyleneimine), polyethylene glycol amine, collagen and poly(dimethyldiallyl-ammonium chloride) with unmodified tissue-culture polystyrene as standard control. Three different cell lines—primary bovine articular chondrocytes, and two secondary cell lines, human chondrosarcoma cells and canine chondrocytes were used in …

Biomedical Applications Of Polypeptide Multilayer Nanofilms And Microcapsules, Jai Simha S. Rudra

Doctoral Dissertations

The past few years have witnessed considerable growth in synthetic polymer chemistry and physics, biomaterials science, and nano-scale engineering. Research on polypeptide multilayer films, coatings, and microcapsules is located at the intersection of these areas and are promising materials for applications in medicine, biotechnology, environmental science. Most envisioned applications of polypeptide multilayers have a biomedical bent. This dissertation on polypeptide multilayer film applications covers key points of polypeptides as materials, means of polymer production, film preparation, film characterization methods, and key points of current research in basic science. Both commercial and designed peptides have been used to fabricate films for …

Understanding Standing, Christopher Storey

Doctoral Dissertations

Research objectives. Psychophysical acceleration threshold is a tool for detecting deficits in dynamic postural control. Our lab has shown differences in the acceleration threshold among young adults, elderly adults, and elderly adults with diabetes. Electromyography, Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments, and hearing tests investigate the underlying physiological mechanisms for the detriments in postural control. Due to peri-sway perturbations, the motion of a person's sway affects the signal to noise ratio for perturbed stance. Since increases in sway range accompany postural instabilities, sway entrainment will allow us to investigate changes in acceleration threshold at different points in sway. The center of pressure, observed …

Chitosan Paste From Crawfish Shells As A Synthetic Bone Graft Material: Preparation, Characterization And Animal Study, Jerome G. Saltarrelli Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Bone loss associated with musculoskeletal trauma or metabolic diseases often requires bone grafts. Autograft or allograft bones are limited in supply. Therefore, development of synthetic bone graft materials is an active area of research. For several years the biomaterials group at LSUHSC-Shreveport has been investigating the use of chitosan purified from crawfish shells using a process patented by my research advisor, Dr. Debi Mukherjee.

Chitin is a polysaccharide that exists in fungi, exoskeleton of insects and outer shell of crustaceans. It is biocompatible, osteoconductive, antimicrobial, biodegradable, non-toxic, haemostatic, fungicidal, and the second most abundant natural polysaccharide on earth. Removal of …

Drug Loading And Release From Polypeptide Multilayer Nanofilms, Yang Zhong

Doctoral Dissertations

Polypeptides, linear macromolecules, are formed from amino acid residues by linkage of peptide bonds. Proteins are polypeptides too, with more complex conformations contributing to specific functionalities. Disulfide bonds are very important to maintain the structure and functions of proteins, which will form between two cysteine (Cys) residues under oxidizing circumstance.

Cys containing polypeptides are designed and synthesized by F-moc (9-Fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl) chemistry. The number and position of Cys residues can be controlled by amino acid sequences design and following peptide synthesis, which is important to gain insights on the nature of polyelectrolyte multilayer film assembly and stability.

Both commercial and designed …