Biomaterials Commons^™

Low Molecular Weight Glucosamine/L-Lactide Copolymers As Potential Carriers For The Development Of A Sustained Rifampicin Release System: Mycobacterium Smegmatis As A Tuberculosis Model, Jorge Ragusa

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Theses and Student Research

Tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease, ranks as the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease, and remains a major global health problem. In 2013, 9 million new cases were diagnosed and 1.5 million people died worldwide from tuberculosis. This dissertation aims at developing a new, ultrafine particle-based efficient antibiotic delivery system for the treatment of tuberculosis. The carrier material to make the rifampicin (RIF)-loaded particles is a low molecular weight star-shaped polymer produced from glucosamine (molecular core building unit) and L-lactide (GluN-LLA). Stable particles with a very high 50% drug loading capacity were made via electrohydrodynamic atomization. Prolonged …

A Collagen‐Glycosaminoglycan‐Fibrin Scaffold For Heart Valve Tissue Engineering Applications, Claire Brougham, Stefan Jockenhoevel, Thomas Flanagan, Fergal O'Brien

Conference Papers

The field of heart valve biology and tissue engineering a heart valve continue to expand. The presentatio ns at this meeting reflect the advances made in both areas due to the multi-disciplinary approach taken by many laboratories.

Investigation Of Membrane Mechanics Using Spring Networks: Application To Red-Blood-Cell Modelling, Mingzhu Chen, Fergal Boyle

Articles

In recent years a number of red-blood-cell (RBC) models have been proposed using spring networks to represent the RBC membrane. Some results predicted by these models agree well with experimental measurements. How- ever, the suitability of these membrane models has been questioned. The RBC membrane, like a continuum mem- brane, is mechanically isotropic throughout its surface, but the mechanical properties of a spring network vary on the network surface and change with deformation. In this work spring-network mechanics are investigated in large deformation for the first time via an assessment of the effect of network parameters, i.e. network mesh, spring …

Modeling The Costs Of Cellulosic Biofuel, Maxwell Berube

Honors College

This thesis seeks to establish the private and external costs of the production of cellulosic biofuel from woody biomass. A model is presented which explores the economic feasibility of a firm producing this biofuel using a particular process. Specifically, it examines the input costs including the external costs of transportation, the external cost of pollutants produced by the firm, and potential cost reductions that may be applied as a result of learning from accumulated experience. In order to evaluate the feasibility of the plant, a spreadsheet model is built and a Monte Carlo simulation is run in order to evaluate …

Application Of Limited Mixing In The Hele-Shaw Geometry In Fabrication Of Janus Hydrogels, Md Mahmudur Rahman

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

It is widely accepted that cells behave differently responding to the stiffness of their extracellular matrix (ECM). Such observations were made by culturing cells on hydrogel substrates of tunable stiffness. However, it was recently proposed that cells may sense how strongly they are tethered to ECM, not the local stiffness of ECM. To investigate both hypotheses, we developed a method to fabricate Janus polyacrylamide (PAAM) gels. We squeeze two drops of different concentrations in the Hele-Shaw geometry to generate radial Stokes flow. When the drops coalesce, limited mixing occurs at the interface due to the narrow confinement, and diffusion normal …

Utilizing Fast Spin Echo Mri To Reduce Image Artifacts And Improve Implant/Tissue Interface Detection In Refractory Parkinson’S Patients With Deep Brain Stimulators, Subhendra N. Sarkar, Pooja R. Sarkar, Efstathios Papavassiliou, Rafael Rojas

Publications and Research

Introduction. In medically refractory Parkinson’s disease (PD) deep-brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective therapeutic tool. Postimplantation MRI is important in assessing tissue damage and DBS lead placement accuracy. We wanted to identify which MRI sequence can detectDBS leads with smallest artifactual signal void, allowing better tissue/electrode edge conspicuity.

Methods. Using an IRB approved protocol 8 advanced PDpatientswere imagedwithinMRconditional safety guidelines at lowRF power (SAR ≤ 0.1 W/kg) in coronal plane at 1.5T by various sequences.The image slices were subjectively evaluated for diagnostic quality and the lead contact diameters were compared to identify a sequence least affected by metallic leads.

Results …

Synergistic Toughening Of Hard, Nacre-Mimetic Mosi2 Coatings By Self-Assembled Hierarchical Structure, Jiang Xu, Xiaoli Zhao, Paul Munroe, Zonghan Xie

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Like many other intermetallic materials, MoSi2 coatings are typically hard, but prone to catastrophic failure due to their low toughness at ambient temperature. In this paper, a self-assembled hierarchical structure that closely resembles that of nacre (i.e., mother of pearl) was developed in a MoSi2 -based coating through a simple, yet cost-effective, depostion technique. The newly formed coating is tough and can withstand multiple indentations at high loads. Key design features responsible for this remarkable outcome were identified. They include a functionally graded multilayer featuring elastic modulus oscillation, varying sublayer thickness and a columnar structure that are able to attenuate …