Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Spark Plasma Sintering Of Low Modulus Titanium-Niobium-Tantalum-Zirconium (Tntz) Alloy For Biomedical Applications, Nicholas Mavros, Taban Larimian, Javier Esqivel, Rajeev Kumar Gupta, Rodrigo Contieri, Tushar Borkar

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

In metallurgy, titanium has been a staple for biomedical purposes. Its slow toxicity and alloying versatility make it an attractive choice for medical applications. However, studies have shown the difference in elastic modulus between titanium alloys (116 GPa) and human bone (10–40 GPa), which contributes to long term issues with loose hardware fixation. Additionally, long term studies have shown elements such as vanadium and aluminum, which are commonly used in Ti-6Al-4V biomedical alloys, have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer and Parkinson. Alternative metals known to be less toxic are being explored as replacements for alloying elements in titanium …

Electropermeabilization Does Not Correlate With Plasma Membrane Lipid Oxidation, Olga Michel, Andrei G. Pakhomov, Maura Casciola, Jolanta Saczko, Julita Kulbacka, Olga N. Pakhomova

Bioelectrics Publications

The permeabilized condition of the cell membrane after electroporation can last minutes but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Previous studies suggest that lipid peroxidation could be responsible for the lasting leaky state of the membrane. The present study aims to link oxidation within the plasma membrane of live cells to permeabilization by electric pulses. We have introduced a method for the detection of oxidation by ratiometric fluorescence measurements of BODIPY-C11 dye using total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, limiting the signal to the cell membrane. CHO-K1 cells were cultured on glass coverslips coated with an electroconductive indium tin oxide (ITO) …

An Evaluation Of The Host Response To An Interspinous Process Device Based On A Series Of Spine Explants: Device For Intervertebral Assisted Motion (Diam®), Jeffrey M. Toth, Justin D. Bric

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background:

The objective of this study was to evaluate the host response to an interspinous process device [Device for Intervertebral Assisted Motion (DIAM®)] based on a series of nine spine explants with a mean post-operative explant time of 35 months.

Methods:

Explanted periprosthetic tissues were processed for histology and stained with H&E, Wright-Giemsa stain, and Oil Red O. Brightfield and polarized light microscopy were used to evaluate the host response to the device and the resultant particulate debris. The host response was graded per ASTM F981-04. Quantitative histomorphometry was used to characterize particle size, shape, and area per ASTM F1877-05. …

Development Of A Novel System For The Analysis Of The Cardiovascular And Autonomic Nervous Systems, Seyedmohsen Dehghanojamahalleh

Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1 - An introduction to autonomic nervous system (ANS) and cardiovascular system (CVS): The performance of the ANS can be evaluated by quantizing the changes made by the autonomic nervous system. The most common parameters that are being used in autonomic nervous system assessment tests are blood pressure, heart rate, pressure pulse wave velocity, heart rate variability, and pulse waveform. In this dissertation, we designed and developed a system that assesses the activity of these two systems. Therefore, we represented four methods to 1- evaluate the dependence of neuro- and cardiovascular systems on sex, 2- non-invasively estimate the blood …

Optical Spectrsocopy Of Murine Breast Tumor To Distinguish Indolent From Aggressive Disease, Joel Rodriguez Troncoso

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breast cancer accounts for 30% of all cancer. Metastasis is the primary cause of death among breast cancer patients. Additionally, current molecular profiling methods such as Oncotype DX, which are expensive and not widely available at all clinical facilities, only determine the risk of recurrence after treatment. Therefore, there are no current method capable of identifying metastatic patients in advance.As a result, there is an unmet clinical need to develop a cost-effective prognostic to differentiate between indolent and aggressive breast tumors. In this study, we implemented diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) system to evaluate functional changes in tumor xenografts originated from …

Expression Systems For Synthetic Spider Silk Protein Production, Michaela R. Hugie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spider silk is a biodegradable and biocompatible natural material that is stronger than steel and more elastic than nylon. These properties make spider silk a desirable material for many commercial products, ranging from textiles to biomedical materials. Due to spiders’ cannibalistic and territorial nature it is impossible to farm them to produce spider silk at a high enough yield to meet product demands. Therefore, a bioengineered synthetic process is necessary to produce spider silk. Synthetic spider silk has been produced in bacteria, goats, yeast, plants, mammalian cells and silkworms, but none of these processes provided a commercially viable yield or …

Single-Cell Impedance Spectroscopy, David Paul Lange

Master's Theses

Impedance spectroscopy (IS) is an important tool for cell detection and characterization in medical and food safety applications. In this thesis, the Cal Poly Biofluidics Lab’s impedance spectroscopy system was re-evaluated and optimized for single-cell impedance spectroscopy. To evaluate the IS system, an impedance spectroscopy bioMEMS chip was fabricated in the Cal Poly Microfabcrication lab, software was developed to run IS experiments, and studies were run to validate the system. To explore IS optimization, Maxwell’s mixture theorem and the Schwartz-Christoffel transform were used to calculate an analytic impedance solution to the co-planar electrode system,a novel volume fraction to account for …

Controlling Strain Energy Density In 3d Cellular Collagen Constructs During Complex Loads, Katherine Hollar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical stimulation applied to damaged soft tissues, such as ligament, can promote tissue remodeling to accelerate healing. To help identify treatments that encourage ligament healing, bioreactors have been designed to subject 3D cellularized constructs to various loading conditions in order to determine the mechanical mechanisms that trigger cell-mediated repair. An innovative approach is to use a bioreactor to apply controlled states of biaxial stress to study the effects of strain energy density and distortion energy on cell activity. Tissue distortion has been linked to changes in the structure and function of ligament, yet the specific impact of distortion energy on …

Effect Of Corrective Surgery On Lower Limb Mechanics In Patients With Crouch Gait, Adelle Milholland

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Crouch gait a progressively degrading gait deviation associated with the neurological disorder cerebral palsy. If left untreated it can lead to anterior knee pain and a loss of ambulation. At present there exists no agreed upon metric for determining the surgical procedures used to treat crouch gait and there is insufficient means to analytically compare the results of different procedures. The aims of this thesis work were to create a pipeline to transform a patient’s gait analysis data into a finite element model, develop a model of sufficient complexity to evaluate a range of outcomes by which to judge the …

Optimized Production And Evaluation Of Cellulose Nanocrystals Derived From Pre-Extracted Kraft Pulp Of Different Wood Species, Gurshagan Kandhola

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Production of nanocellulose from a variety of naturally abundant, locally available and industrially significant wood species provides an opportunity for diversifying the portfolio of traditional pulp and paper industries. The U.S. has a prolific forest products industry with a well-established infrastructure that could be utilized for optimized and customized production of cellulose nanomaterials. However, to achieve that, it is important to a) understand how biorefining strategies for complete fractionation of biomass affect the downstream processing of pulp into nanocellulose, b) maximize the yields of cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibers (CNCs and CNFs) from pretreated raw materials, and c) evaluate if the …

Microwave-Assisted And One-Step Synthesis Of Peg Passivated Fluorescent Carbon Dots From Gelatin As An Efficient Nanocarrier For Methotrexate Delivery, Nasser Arsalani, Parinaz Nezhad-Mokhtari, Esmaiel Jabbari

Faculty Publications

A green and simple process for preparing the polyethylene glycol passivated fluorescent carbon dots (CDs-PEG) have been studied by a microwave pyrolysis method, using gelatin and PEG as starting materials. This method is very effective for development of carbon-based quantum dots from gelatin with high quantum yield (QY). The synthesized CDs-PEG were found to emit blue photoluminescence (PL) with a maximum QY of 34%. At the following research, we investigated the effect of the presence of PEG on PL intensity, and the result showed that CDs-PEG becomes stronger PL properties than pure CDs from gelatin. The synthesized CDs-PEG were characterized …

Deep Brain Stimulation: Prediction Model For Volume Of Tissue Stimulated, Melissa Jones, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

An attempt has been made to understand deep brain stimulation in humans via marketable devices that are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The electrode characteristics were presented to influence the volume of tissue stimulated. Experimental data were digitized and VTS data were presented a function of electrode diameter, aspect ratio, applied current, pulse duration, voltage and frequency. Amongst other trends voltage and VTS were found to exhibit a three-stage relation, where Stage II characteristics were represented by a linear equation. It is in this stage, the VTS was found to be stable and where the most effective …

Fluid Shift And Fluid Resuscitation In Burn Patients With The Use Of Bio-Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy To Monitor Fluid Levels, Temitope D. Obielodan

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this research is to explore the current methods of fluid resuscitation and other possible methods of measuring the body fluid levels of burn patients in order to fully understand the fluid increase patterns in the torso area. This will be done primarily by focusing on the concept of bio-electrical impedance spectroscopy to measure the fluid levels only in the human torso area. Three similar tests were carried out by measuring the resistance values after ingesting 500ml of water. This was repeated until a total of 1500ml of water was ingested. It was found that the resistance in …

Predictive Simulation Of Human Movement And Applications To Assistive Device Design And Control, Vinh Nguyen

Doctoral Dissertations

Predictive simulation based on dynamic optimization using musculoskeletal models is a powerful approach for studying biomechanics of human gait. Predictive simulation can be used for a variety of applications from designing assistive devices to testing theories of motor controls. However, one of the challenges in formulating the predictive dynamic optimization problem is that the cost function, which represents the underlying goal of the walking task (e.g., minimal energy consumption) is generally unknown and is assumed a priori. While different studies used different cost functions, the qualities of the gaits with those cost functions were often not provided. Therefore, this dissertation …

How Unstructured Data From The Data Warehouse Can Be Used With Machine Learning And Visualization To Develop Novel Medical Technologies, Alfred A. Cecchetti

Faculty Research Day

Machine Learning (ML) can accurately classify and accurately predict disease as well as other medical events.

Device Programming, especially smartphone applications, can provide new ways to acquire, transport, store, process, and secure personalized patient data to deliver meaningful results.

Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (Bret) - Based Nanostructured Biosensor For Detection Of Glucose, Eugene Hwang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) is a distance dependent, non-radiative energy transfer, which uses a bioluminescent protein to excite an acceptor through resonance energy transfer. In this thesis, BRET technology is incorporated into a sensor comprised of a recombinant protein and quantum dots. The recombinant protein, which includes the bioluminescent protein, Renilla luciferase (Rluc), is used as the donor molecule and cadmium tellurium quantum dots as the acceptor molecules. Separating the donor-acceptor pair is a recombinant protein, glucose binding protein, which changes conformation upon binding glucose and brings the pair closer together, thus allowing BRET to occur. Optimization of the …

Information Extraction From Primary Care Visits To Support Patient-Provider Interactions, Daniel Baruch Gutstein

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

The extent of electronic health record systems usage in clinical settings has affected the dynamic between clinicians and patients and has thus been connected to physician morale and the quality of care patients receive. Recent research has also uncovered a correlation between physician burnout and negative physician attitudes electronic health record systems. In order to begin exploring the nature of the relationship between electronic health record usage, physician burnout, and patient care, it is necessary to first analyze patient-provider interactions within the context of verbal features such as turn-taking and non-verbal features such as eye-contact. While previous works have sought …

Rescue Of Hearing And Protection Of Auditory Structures From Noise-Induced Hearing Loss, Reza Amanipour

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hearing loss due to exposure to high level sound is a major health problem that causes permanent hearing impairment and has a significant impact on job productivity and quality of life. A large population suffers from noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), a disorder for which there is currently no FDA-approved prevention, treatment or cure. The goal of my dissertation work is to provide insights into the effects of noise trauma on hearing abilities of normal hearing subjects, and determine how a new therapeutic compound (mGlu7 modulator) can protect and/or prevent loss of, or damage to sensory cells and brain neurons, including …

Offset Electrodes For Enhanced Neural Recording In Microchannels, Iian Black

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microchannel electrodes have emerged in recent years as promising interfaces for recording signals in peripheral nerves. Unlike many technologies, microchannels maintain stable long-term connections and can record activity in individual or small groups of axons. Unfortunately, a traditional symmetrical mid-channel electrode configuration, designed to reduce noise artifacts, prevents microchannels from being used to distinguish between signals traveling in opposite directions. This is a profound limitation given that most nerves contain a mix of efferent and afferent axons and microchannels were initially conceived and later used as the basic building block in arrays designed to record bi-directional neural traffic in regenerated …

Synergistic Activation Of Inspiratory Muscles By An Adaptive Closed-Loop Controller, Rabeya Zinnat Adury

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During diaphragmatic pacing reverse recruitment of muscle fibers causes muscle fatigue. Current diaphragmatic pacing paradigms also do not permit sigh-like behavior. In spontaneously breathing anesthetized rats, studies were carried out to determine if synergized pacing of external intercostal muscles and the diaphragm would increase the efficiency of diaphragm stimulation and thus a) achieve the desired ventilatory breath volume profile with reduced diaphragm muscle fatigue, and/or b) be able to elicit sigh-like behavior by periodically increasing stimulation. Under combined inspiratory muscle stimulation, a fatigue index calculated for the diaphragm muscle (n=6 rats) was significantly lower (p<0.05) than in the …

Microarray Embedding/Sectioning For Parallel Analysis Of 3d Cell Spheroids., Jonathan Gabriel, David Brennan, Jennifer H Elisseeff, Vincent Beachley

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Three-dimensional cell spheroid models can be used to predict the effect of drugs and therapeutics and to model tissue development and regeneration. The utility of these models is enhanced by high throughput 3D spheroid culture technologies allowing researchers to efficiently culture numerous spheroids under varied experimental conditions. Detailed analysis of high throughput spheroid culture is much less efficient and generally limited to narrow outputs, such as metabolic viability. We describe a microarray approach that makes traditional histological embedding/sectioning/staining feasible for large 3D cell spheroid sample sets. Detailed methodology to apply this technology is provided. Analysis of the technique validates the …

High-Throughput Fabrication Of Drug-Loaded Core-Shell Tablets With Adjustable Release Profiles From Surface-Erodible And Photocrosslinkable Polyanhydrides, Armin Geraili Nejadfomeshi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Controlled-release tablets enhance the effectiveness of therapies for various clinical conditions. Photocrosslinkable polyanhydrides that undergo surface erosion were recently introduced as suitable materials for manufacturing tablets with tunable release profiles. However, their erosion behavior has not been comprehensively studied. In this thesis, the erosion kinetics of photocrosslinkable polyanhydrides was studied by exploring the impact of different parameters (the polymer composition and geometry, as well as the temperature, pH, and shaking rate of the solution during the in vitro experiments) on their mass loss profiles, followed by a release kinetic model fitting. The results indicate that the temperature was the only …

Review Of Naturally Occurring Ammonia In Groundwater And Its Effect On Using Chloramines For Drinking Water Disinfection In Louisiana, Athena Lindsay

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Factors Affecting Cardiovascular Physiology In Cardiothoracic Surgery: Implications For Lumped-Parameter Modeling, Joshua Kaufmann, Ethan Kung

Publications

Cardiothoracic surgeries are complex procedures during which the patient cardiovascular physiology is constantly changing due to various factors. Physiological changes begin with the induction of anesthesia, whose effects remain active into the postoperative period. Depending on the surgery, patients may require the use of cardiopulmonary bypass and cardioplegia, both of which affect postoperative physiology such as cardiac index and vascular resistance. Complications may arise due to adverse reactions to the surgery, causing hemodynamic instability. In response, fluid resuscitation and/or vasoactive agents with varying effects may be used in the intraoperative or postoperative periods to improve patient hemodynamics. These factors have …

Estimating Cognitive Workload In An Interactive Virtual Reality Environment Using Eeg, Christoph Tremmel, Christain Herff, Tetsuya Sato, Krzysztof Rechowicz, Yusuke Yamani, Dean J. Krusienski

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

With the recent surge of affordable, high-performance virtual reality (VR) headsets, there is unlimited potential for applications ranging from education, to training, to entertainment, to fitness and beyond. As these interfaces continue to evolve, passive user-state monitoring can play a key role in expanding the immersive VR experience, and tracking activity for user well-being. By recording physiological signals such as the electroencephalogram (EEG) during use of a VR device, the user's interactions in the virtual environment could be adapted in real-time based on the user's cognitive state. Current VR headsets provide a logical, convenient, and unobtrusive framework for mounting EEG …

Pharmacokinetics Of 99mTc-Hmpao In Isolated Perfused Rat Lungs, Anne V. Clough, Katherine Barry, Benjamin Michael Rizzo, Elizabeth R. Jacobs, Said H. Audi

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Lung uptake of technetium-labeled hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime (HMPAO) increases in rat models of human acute lung injury, consistent with increases in lung tissue glutathione (GSH). Since ^99mTc-HMPAO uptake is the net result of multiple cellular and vascular processes, the objective was to develop an approach to investigate the pharmacokinetics of ^99mTc-HMPAO uptake in isolated perfused rat lungs. Lungs of anesthetized rats were excised and connected to a ventilation-perfusion system. ^99mTc-HMPAO (56 MBq) was injected into the pulmonary arterial cannula, a time sequence of images was acquired, and lung time-activity curves were constructed. Imaging was repeated with a range …

Role Of The Cortex In Visuomotor Control Of Arm Stability, Dylan B. Snyder, Scott A. Beardsley, Brian D. Schmit

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Whereas numerous motor control theories describe the control of arm trajectory during reach, the control of stabilization in a constant arm position (i.e., visuomotor control of arm posture) is less clear. Three potential mechanisms have been proposed for visuomotor control of arm posture: 1) increased impedance of the arm through co-contraction of antagonistic muscles, 2) corrective muscle activity via spinal/supraspinal reflex circuits, and/or 3) intermittent voluntary corrections to errors in position. We examined the cortical mechanisms of visuomotor control of arm posture and tested the hypothesis that cortical error networks contribute to arm stabilization. We collected electroencephalography …

Label-Free Microrna Optical Biosensors, Meimei Lai, Gymama Slaughter

Bioelectrics Publications

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in regulating gene expression. Many studies show that miRNAs have been linked to almost all kinds of disease. In addition, miRNAs are well preserved in a variety of specimens, thereby making them ideal biomarkers for biosensing applications when compared to traditional protein biomarkers. Conventional biosensors for miRNA require fluorescent labeling, which is complicated, time-consuming, laborious, costly, and exhibits low sensitivity. The detection of miRNA remains a big challenge due to their intrinsic properties such as small sizes, low abundance, and high sequence similarity. A label-free biosensor can simplify the assay and enable the direct detection …

Enhancing Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Deposition For The Study Of Extracellular Analytes, Joseph A. Stapleton

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Extracellular signaling is a dynamic process responsible for coordinating large scale biological processes. As such, understanding extracellular signaling is important to our determination of normal function and pathophysiological development. High resolution spatial and temporal information are critical to completely understanding these processes. Unfortunately, current methods of detection are lacking in either spatial or temporal resolution of extracellular products, limiting researchers’ ability to understand complex biological processes. A new group of sensors based on fluorescent single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) have shown the potential to provide both high quality spatial and temporal resolution for the sensing of analytes. However, while SWNT …

A Review Of Materials For Managing Bone Loss In Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty, Romina Shafaghi, Omar Rodriguez, Emil H. Schemitsch, Paul Zalzal, Stephen D. Waldman, Marcello Papini, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In 2014–2015, 61,421 total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) were performed in Canada; an increase of about 20% over 2000–2001. Revision total knee arthroplasties (rTKAs) accounted for 6.8% of TKAs performed between 2014 and 2015, and this is estimated to grow another 12% by 2025. rTKAs are typically more complicated than primary TKAs due to the significant loss of femoral and tibial bone stock. The escalating demand and limitations associated with total knee arthroplasty and their revision drives the development of novel treatments. A variety of materials have been utilized to facilitate regeneration of healthy bone around the site of a knee …