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Full-Text Articles in Engineering Science and Materials

Atv Dynamics And Pediatric Rider Safety, James T. Auxier Ii Jan 2020

Atv Dynamics And Pediatric Rider Safety, James T. Auxier Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

It has been observed through numerous academic and governmental agency studies that pediatric all-terrain vehicle ridership carries significant risk of injury and death. While no doubt valuable to safety, the post-hoc approach employed in these studies does little to explain the why and how behind the risk factors. Furthermore, there has been no prolonged, widespread, organized, and concerted effort to reconstruct and catalog the details and causes of the large (20,000+) number of ATV-related injuries that occur each year as has been done for road-based motor vehicle accidents. This dissertation takes the opposite approach from a meta-analysis and instead examines …


Design And Analysis Of A 3d-Printed, Thermoplastic Elastomer (Tpe) Spring Element For Use In Corrective Hand Orthotics, Kevin Thomas Richardson Jan 2018

Design And Analysis Of A 3d-Printed, Thermoplastic Elastomer (Tpe) Spring Element For Use In Corrective Hand Orthotics, Kevin Thomas Richardson

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

This thesis proposes an algorithm that determine the geometry of 3D-printed, custom-designed spring element bands made of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) for use in a wearable orthotic device to aid in the physical therapy of a human hand exhibiting spasticity after stroke. Each finger of the hand is modeled as a mechanical system consisting of a triple-rod pendulum with nonlinear stiffness at each joint and forces applied at the attachment point of each flexor muscle. The system is assumed quasi-static, which leads to a torque balance between the flexor tendons in the hand, joint stiffness and the design force applied to …


Disturbed Cyclical Stretch Of Endothelial Cells Promotes Nuclear Expression Of The Pro-Atherogenic Transcription Factor Nf-Kb, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Konstantinos I. Papadimitriou, Avinash Kondiboyina, Sukhjinder Sidhu, James Chau, Miten B. Patel, Daniel C. Baeriswyl, Emmanuel M. Drakakis, Rob Krams Jan 2017

Disturbed Cyclical Stretch Of Endothelial Cells Promotes Nuclear Expression Of The Pro-Atherogenic Transcription Factor Nf-Kb, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Konstantinos I. Papadimitriou, Avinash Kondiboyina, Sukhjinder Sidhu, James Chau, Miten B. Patel, Daniel C. Baeriswyl, Emmanuel M. Drakakis, Rob Krams

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Exposure of endothelial cells to low and multidirectional blood flow is known to promote a pro-atherogenic phenotype. The mechanics of the vessel wall is another important mechano-stimulus within the endothelial cell environment, but no study has examined whether changes in the magnitude and direction of cell stretch can be pro-atherogenic. Herein, we developed a custom cell stretching device to replicate the in vivo stretch environment of the endothelial cell and examined whether low and multidirectional stretch promote nuclear translocation of NF-kB. A fluid–structure interaction model of the device demonstrated a nearly uniform strain within the region of cell attachment and …


Influence Of Shear Stress Magnitude And Direction On Atherosclerotic Plaque Composition, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Vikram V. Mehta, Sandra M. Bovens, Zahra Mohri, Christian Bo Poulsen, Willy Gsell, Jordi L. Tremoleda, Leila Towhidi, Ranil De Silva, Enrico Petretto, Rob Krams Jan 2016

Influence Of Shear Stress Magnitude And Direction On Atherosclerotic Plaque Composition, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Vikram V. Mehta, Sandra M. Bovens, Zahra Mohri, Christian Bo Poulsen, Willy Gsell, Jordi L. Tremoleda, Leila Towhidi, Ranil De Silva, Enrico Petretto, Rob Krams

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The precise flow characteristics that promote different atherosclerotic plaque types remain unclear. We previously developed a blood flow-modifying cuff for ApoE−/− mice that induces the development of advanced plaques with vulnerable and stable features upstream and downstream of the cuff, respectively. Herein, we sought to test the hypothesis that changes in flow magnitude promote formation of the upstream (vulnerable) plaque, whereas altered flow direction is important for development of the downstream (stable) plaque. We instrumented ApoE−/− mice (n=7) with a cuff around the left carotid artery and imaged them with micro-CT (39.6 μm resolution) eight to nine weeks …


Quantification Of Plaque Stiffness By Brillouin Microscopy In Experimental Thin Cap Fibroatheroma, Giuseppe Antonacci, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Avinash Kondiboyina, Vikram V. Mehta, Ranil De Silva, Carl Paterson, Rob Krams, Peter Torok Jan 2015

Quantification Of Plaque Stiffness By Brillouin Microscopy In Experimental Thin Cap Fibroatheroma, Giuseppe Antonacci, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Avinash Kondiboyina, Vikram V. Mehta, Ranil De Silva, Carl Paterson, Rob Krams, Peter Torok

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Plaques vulnerable to rupture are characterized by a thin and stiff fibrous cap overlaying a soft lipid-rich necrotic core. The ability to measure local plaque stiffness directly to quantify plaque stress and predict rupture potential would be very attractive, but no current technology does so. This study seeks to validate the use of Brillouin microscopy to measure the Brillouin frequency shift, which is related to stiffness, within vulnerable plaques. The left carotid artery of an ApoE-/- mouse was instrumented with a cuff that induced vulnerable plaque development in nine weeks. Adjacent histological sections from the instrumented and control arteries …


Regional Mechanical Properties And Stress Analysis Of The Human Anterior Lens Capsule, Ryan M. Pedrigi, G. David, J. Dziezyc, J. D. Humphrey Jan 2007

Regional Mechanical Properties And Stress Analysis Of The Human Anterior Lens Capsule, Ryan M. Pedrigi, G. David, J. Dziezyc, J. D. Humphrey

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The lens capsule of the eye functions, in part, as a deformable support through which the ciliary body applies tractions that can alter lens curvature and corresponding refractive power during the process of accommodation. Although it has long been recognized that characterization of the mechanical properties of the lens capsule is fundamental to understanding this physiologic process as well as clinical interventions, prior data have been limited by one-dimensional testing of excised specimens despite the existence of multiaxial loading in vivo. In this paper, we employ a novel experimental approach to study in situ the regional, multiaxial mechanical behavior of …