Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Image-Guided Robotic Dental Implantation With Natural-Root-Formed Implants, Xiaoyan Sun

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Dental implantation is now recognized as the standard of the care for tooth replacement. Although many studies show high short term survival rates greater than 95%, long term studies (> 5 years) have shown success rates as low as 41.9%. Reasons affecting the long term success rates might include surgical factors such as limited accuracy of implant placement, lack of spacing controls, and overheating during the placement.

In this dissertation, a comprehensive solution for improving the outcome of current dental implantation is presented, which includes computer-aided preoperative planning for better visualization of patient-specific information and automated robotic site-preparation for superior …

Nonosecond Pulsed Electric Field Induced Changes In Dielectric Properties Of Biological Cells, Jie Zhuang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Nanosecond pulsed electric field induced biological effects have been a focus of research interests since the new millennium. Promising biomedical applications, e.g. tumor treatment and wound healing, are emerging based on this principle. Although the exact mechanisms behind the nanosecond pulse-cell interactions are not completely understood yet, it is generally believed that charging along the cell membranes (including intracellular membranes) and formation of membrane pores trigger subsequent biological responses, and the number and quality of pores are responsible for the cell fate. The immediate charging response of a biological cell to a nanosecond pulsed electric field exposure relies on the …

Synergistic Effect Of Subnanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields And Temperature On The Viability Of Biological Cells, James Thomas Camp

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Pulsed electric fields have been used to induce a biological response in cells, and at sufficient energy, can cause cell death. By reducing the pulse duration from presently used nanosecond to subnanosecond ranges, the electric field can be delivered to biological tissue non-invasively by the use of an antenna instead of electrodes, such as needles. Studies have previously been completed in which the aim was to determine the energy density (electric field strength, number of pulses) required to induce cell death with 800 ps pulses. Based on this data, it was concluded that for pulse durations of 200 ps, with …