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Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons

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2013

Theses/Dissertations

Biomedical Engineering

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering

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

ETD Archive

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 …


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

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

ETD Archive

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 …


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 …