Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Comparative Analysis Of Clavicular Tunnel Confìguration For Coracoclavicular Ligament Reconstruction, Mark Omwansa

Masters Theses

A number of coracoclavicular ligament reconstructions are carried out each year and post surgical fractures of the clavicle have been reported. The primary objective of this research is to develop a comparative metrics that compares clavicular tunnel configurations used in coracoclavicular reconstruction techniques. The goal of this comparison is to reduce post surgical failures due to clavicle fractures. The present analysis compared two techniques { a single 3 mm clavicular tunnel and the other double 6 mm tunnels { experimentally, using Four-point bending testing and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). A unique method, slicing, was used to create an FE clavicle …

A Low-Power Approach For Front End Biological Signal Conditioning, Logan Smith Taylor

Masters Theses

In a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) application, the measurement of small analog signals such as local temperature variation often involves detection of very low-level signals in a noisy micro-scale environment. This is true for other biomedical monitoring systems as well. These systems observe various physiological parameters or electrochemical reactions that need to be tracked electrically. For temperature measurement pyroelectric transducers represent an efficient solution in terms of speed, sensitivity, and scale of integration, especially when prompt and accurate temperature monitoring is desired.

The ability to perform laboratory operations on a small scale using miniaturized LOC devices is a promising biosensing technique. The …

Design Of A Passive Exoskeleton Spine, Haohan Zhang

Masters Theses

In this thesis, a passive exoskeleton spine was designed and evaluated by a series of biomechanics simulations. The design objectives were to reduce the human operator’s back muscle efforts and the intervertebral reaction torques during a full range sagittal plane spine flexion/extension. The biomechanics simulations were performed using the OpenSim modeling environment. To manipulate the simulations, a full body musculoskeletal model was created based on the OpenSim gait2354 and “lumbar spine” models. To support flexion and extension of the torso a “push-pull” strategy was proposed by applying external pushing and pulling forces on different locations on the torso. The external …

Were Neandertal Humeri Adapted For Spear Thrusting Or Throwing? A Finite Element Study, Michael Anthony Berthaume

Masters Theses

An ongoing debate concerning Neandertal ecology is whether or not they utilized long range weaponry. The anteroposteriorly expanded cross-section of Neandertal humeri have led some to argue they thrusted their weapons, while the rounder cross-section of Late Upper Paleolithic modern human humeri suggests they threw their weapons. We test the hypothesis that Neandertal humeri were built to resist strains engendered by thrusting rather than throwing using finite element models of one Neandertal, one Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) human and three recent human humeri, representing a range of cross-sectional shapes and sizes. Electromyography and kinematic data and articulated skeletons were used …

Metabolic Modeling Of Secondary Metabolism In Plant Systems, Lisa M. Leone

Masters Theses

In the first part of this research, we constructed a Genome scale Metabolic Model (GEM) of Taxus cuspidata, a medicinal plant used to produce paclitaxel (Taxol®). The construction of the T. cuspidata GEM was predicated on recent acquisition of a transcriptome of T. cuspidata metabolism under methyl jasmonate (MJ) elicited conditions (when paclitaxel is produced) and unelicited conditions (when paclitaxel is not produced). Construction of the draft model, in which transcriptomic data from elicited and unelicited conditions were included, utilized tools including the ModelSEED developed by Argonne National Laboratory. Although a model was successfully created and gapfilled by ModelSEED …

Joint Reaction Force And Contributions Of Surrounding Muscles To Knee Joint Load During Stair Ascent In Total Knee Replacement Patients And Healthy Individuals, Robert Jacob Rasnick

Masters Theses

Total knee replacement (TKR) is commonly used to correct end stage knee osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee joint. Unfortunately, difficulty with stair climbing has been seen to exist, prolonging the challenges of TKR patents. Complete understanding of loading at the knee is of great interest in order to aid patient populations, implant manufacturers, rehabilitation, and future research. The outcome of a TKR is intended to reestablish normal motion and loading of the knee. Musculoskeletal modeling provides a means to accurately approximate joint loading and the corresponding muscle contributions during a movement.

The purpose of the present study was to examine …

Inorganic Biodegradable Devices For Temporary Implants, Kassan Unda

Masters Theses

"Implantable electronic devices have great potential to benefit many health care technologies. They comprise of two different categories. The first is permanent prosthetic devices like cardiac pacemakers or nerve stimulants. The other category includes temporary devices for interventional medical monitoring and control scenarios, which lose functionality and become unnecessary after their intended operational lifetime. This can cause serious electromagnetic and biomechanical safety concerns if not removed from the body by an additional surgical operation.

This thesis focuses on exploring the feasibility of implantable inorganic bioresorbable thin film resistive devices utilizing bioactive glass as the core structural material. This device will …

Cervical Cancer Histology Image Feature Extraction And Classification, Peng Guo

Masters Theses

"Cervical cancer, the second most common cancer affecting women worldwide and the most common in developing countries can be cured if detected early and treated. Expert pathologists routinely visually examine histology slides for cervix tissue abnormality assessment. In previous research, an automated, localized, fusion-based approach was investigated for classifying squamous epithelium into Normal, CIN1, CIN2, and CIN3 grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) based on image analysis of 62 digitized histology images obtained through the National Library of Medicine. In this research, CIN grade assessments from two pathologists are analyzed and are used to facilitate atypical cell concentration feature development …