Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Skeletal Modeling Parameters And Clinical Factors Related To Injury Risk In Baseball Pitchers, Aaron Trunt

Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT Baseball pitching is a well-studied area of biomechanics partially due to high injury rates in the upper extremity. While current known injury risk factors for pitchers include limited shoulder range of motion (ROM), increased ball velocity, and limited shoulder strength, there has been a lack of scientific evidence linking increased joint kinetics to injury risk. The aims of this research were to (1) explore relationships between known risk factors for injury and joint kinetics, (2) establish more specific biomechanical models of pitchers to calculate joint kinetics with greater precision, and (3) deploy these models prospectively to determine how model …

Building A Biomechanical Model Of A Rat Forelimb, Joshua Nathaniel Eric Mak

Dissertations and Theses

This paper presents a biomechanical model of the rat forelimb to test theories of determining viscoelastic muscle parameters. Several biomechanical models of rat hindlimbs have been developed and have explored the effects of multi-muscle control during locomotion. The forelimb model uses two ball-and-socket joints to model clavicle and scapula movement. A third ball-and-socket joint is used at the shoulder and two hinge joints are used at the elbow and wrist. Scapula motion is further constrained by muscle and spring elements. Each forelimb has 11 degrees of freedom, and 23 Hill-type muscles. The model has been created in Animatlab, which includes …

Development Of Light Actuated Chemical Delivery Platform On A 2-D Array Of Micropore Structure, Hojjat Rostami Azmand, Hojjat Rostami Azmand

Dissertations and Theses

Localized chemical delivery plays an essential role in the fundamental information transfers within biological systems. Thus, the ability to mimic the natural chemical signal modulation would provide significant contributions to understand the functional signaling pathway of biological cells and develop new prosthetic devices for neurological disorders. In this paper, we demonstrate a light-controlled hydrogel platform that can be used for localized chemical delivery in a high spatial resolution. By utilizing the photothermal behavior of graphene-hydrogel composites confined within micron-sized fluidic channels, patterned light illumination creates the parallel and independent actuation of chemical release in a group of fluidic ports. The …

The Influence Of Size And Progression Of Intra-Cerebral Hematoma On The Lateral Ventricles, Muhammad J. Ashraf

Dissertations and Theses

Cerebrovascular diseases like intra cerebral hemorrhage are quite deadly and may disturb functioning of the brain, expanding and resulting in formation of an intra cerebral hematoma(ICH). It is imperative to comprehend how hematoma and its expansion inside the brain endangers human life. One of the influences of an ICH inside brain tissue is on the Lateral Ventricles(LV). When the hemorrhage occurs close enough to the lateral ventricles, filled with cerebrospinal fluid(CSF), it disrupts the balance of fluid in LV. A minor pressure change in LV can negatively influence the production of CSF as well as an increase in intracranial pressure. …

Developing A 3d In Vitro Model By Microfluidics, Hung-Ta Chien

Dissertations and Theses

In vitro tissue models play an important role in providing a platform that mimics the realistic tissue microenvironment for stimulating and characterizing the cellular behavior. In particular, the hydrogel-based 3D in vitro models allow the cells to grow and interact with their surroundings in all directions, thus better mimicking in vivo than their 2D counterparts. The objective of this thesis is to establish a 3D in vitro model that mimics the anatomical and functional complexity of the realistic cancer microenvironment for conveniently studying the transport coupling in porous tissue structures. We pack uniform-sized PEGDA-GelMA microgels in a microfluidic chip to …

Morphology Of Brain Sulci Trabeculae And Its Effect On Brain During Impacts, Sharlin Anwar

Dissertations and Theses

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an intracranial injury caused by direct contact or non-contact head impacts to the brain. TBI is a major problem that accounts for high incidents of hospitalizations each year. Thus, it is important to understand and predict the occurrence of TBI in an impact. It has been shown that the subarachnoid space (SAS) trabeculae play an important role in damping the effect of an impact, thus reducing the injuries. However, the influence of sulci parameters and the sulci trabeculae in TBI due to impact is unexplored. Studies have shown that inclusion of sulci in brain models …

Silk Cryogels For Microfluidics, Christopher David Hinojosa

Dissertations and Theses

Silk fibroin from silkworm cocoons is found in numerous applications ranging from textiles to medical implants. Its recent adoption as a biomaterial is due to the material's strength, biocompatibility, self-assembling behavior, programmable degradability, optical clarity, and its ability to be functionalized with antibodies and proteins. In the field of bioengineering it has been utilized as a tissue scaffolding, drug delivery system, biosensor, and implantable electrode. This work suggests a new application for porous silk in a microscale chromatography column. We demonstrate in situ cryotropic polymerization of highly porous structures in microscale geometries by freezing aqueous silk with a solvent. The …

Determination Of Systemic Blood Pressure Via Autospectral Analysis Of Oscillometric Data, Eugene Elie Warner

Dissertations and Theses

The currently accepted methods for measuring systemic blood pressure are either highly accurate but invasive in nature or clinically convenient but prone to observer-related errors. A new oscillometric method uses sensitive signal conditioning and sensing equipment with a non-invasive arm cuff to record arterial pulsations. The goal of this study is to establish more reliable criteria for the identification of systolic and diastolic pressures from oscillometric data.

Investigation Of Blood Pressure Measurement Using A Hydraulic Occlusive Cuff, Kusha R. Bhattarai

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis presents an improved oscillotonometric system for the measurement of human blood pressure. The study included:

1. The design of a hydraulic occlusive cuff,

2. The investigation of the wave forms taken from the blood pressure measurements, and

3. The design of a mechanism for the simulation of human blood pressure pulse.

In this study, an experimental system consisting of a rigid shell occlusive cuff, a constant volume displacement pump, a transducer, and a chart recorder was designed and used for data collection.