Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Simvastatin Improves Spinal Fusion In Rats, Bora Bostan, Taner Güneş, Murat Aşçi, Cengiz Şen, Mehmet Halidun Keleştemur, Mehmet Erdem, Reşit Doǧan Köseoǧlu, Ünal Erkorkmaz

Faculty Publications - Mechanical Engineering

Objective: Statins stimulate bone formation by inducing the expression of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP-2). The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of orally administered simvastatin on spinal fusion in rats. Methods: Twenty rats were randomized into a spinal fusion group (SF) (n=10) or a spinal fusion and oral simvastatin administered group (SFS) (n=10). A spinal fusion was performed between L4-L6 representing two levels. Simvastatin (120 mg/kg/day) was administered orally in the SFS group. The rats were killed at the end of the 12 week study period. Results: Manual palpation revealed two moderate fusions in the SF group. …

Effect Of Extracellular Matrix (Ecm) Protein Micropatterns On The Behavior Of Human Neuroblastoma Cells, Ishwari Poudel

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent advances in patterning techniques and emerging surface microtechnologies have allowed cell micropatterning to control spatial location of the cells on a surface as well as cell shape, attachment area, and number of contacting neighbor cells. These parameters play important roles in cell cellular behaviors. Cell micropatterning has thus become one of the most important strategies for biomedical applications, such as, tissue engineering, diagnostic immunoassays, lab-on-chip devices, bio-sensing, etc., and cell biology studies as well. For neuronal cells, there have been attempts to distribute neuronal cells on specific patterns to control cell-to-cell interaction. However, there have been very limited understanding …

Access|Closure Balloon Catheter Redesign Project, Keenan Bamburg, Yvette Castillo, Elizabeth Eskildsen

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Challenger J Hockey Prosthesis Final Design Report, Ryan Bakker, Spencer Noe, Christopher Perkins

Mechanical Engineering

The content of this report is withheld as confidential. QL+ is the owner of the intellectual property created throughout the duration of this project. Dr. Tom Mase (mechanical engineering) maintains a full copy of the report and intends to disseminate it upon completion of the necessary intellectual property protection measures.

Golf Prosthesis Final Design Report, Joseph Barcus, Lauren Wilson, Ryan Satcher

Mechanical Engineering

A prosthetic attachment designed to allow an upper extremity bilateral amputee to golf.

23 - از بين بردن بافتهاي سرطاني به وسيله امواج فراصوت کانوني با شدت بالا, Roya Samanipour, Mehdi Maerefat, Manizheh Mokhtari-Dizaji, Alireza Zolfaghari

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

Comparative Study On Posture And Its Influences On Horizontal Ground Reaction Forces Generated By Muscles: Implications For Crouch Gait, Hoa Xuan Hoang

Masters Theses

Crouch gait decreases walking efficiency due to the increased knee and hip flexion during the stance phase of gait. Crouch gait is generally considered to be disadvantageous for patients with cerebral palsy; however, a crouched posture may afford biomechanical advantages that lead some patients to adopt a crouch gait.

To investigate one possible advantage of crouch gait, a musculoskeletal model created in OpenSim was placed in 15 different postures from upright to severe crouch during initial, middle, and final stance of the gait cycle. A series of optimizations were performed for each posture to maximize ground reaction forces for the …

Ros-Drill Automation: Visual Feedback Control And Rotational Motion Tracking, Jhon F. Diaz

Master's Theses

ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) has attracted research interest from both biological and engineering groups. The technology is constantly evolving to perform this procedure with precision and speed. One such development is the contribution of this thesis. We focus on a relatively recent procedure called Ros-Drill^© (rotationally oscillating drill), of which the early versions have already been effectively utilized for the mice. In the first part, we present a procedure to automate a critical part of the operation: initiation of the rotational oscillation, Visual feedback is used to track the pipette tip. Predetermined species-specific penetration depth is successfully utilized …

Dynamics, Electromyography And Vibroarthrography As Non-Invasive Diagnostic Tools: Investigation Of The Patellofemoral Joint, Filip Leszko

Doctoral Dissertations

The knee joint plays an essential role in the human musculoskeletal system. It has evolved to withstand extreme loading conditions, while providing almost frictionless joint movement. However, its performance may be disrupted by disease, anatomical deformities, soft tissue imbalance or injury. Knee disorders are often puzzling, and accurate diagnosis may be challenging. Current evaluation approach is usually limited to a detailed interview with the patient, careful physical examination and radiographic imaging. The X-ray screening may reveal bone degeneration, but does not carry sufficient information of the soft tissue conditions. More advanced imaging tools such as MRI or CT are available, …

Variability Of Strain And Strain Rate In The Human Tibial Diaphysis During Walking, Tyler Franklin Rooks

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

With the prevalence of stress fractures in the military and athletes of all levels, research into the pathology of this injury has taken flight in recent years. One area of research has focused on the role bone strain, which is known to be a factor in bone remodeling, has on stress fracture development. It has been difficult to perform studies in this area of research due to the invasiveness of in vivo measurements of the bone strain. Recently, a methodology for approximating the bone strain using a computational model was proposed by Al Nazer et al. (Al Nazer et al., …

Rock-N-Bowler Ii, Josh Grip, Travis Rodrigues, Richard Rozporka

Mechanical Engineering

The report of the creation of an adaptive bowling device designed for people in powered wheelchairs. The basic design is a ramp that attaches to the wheelchair and has the ability to add spin to the ball to allow the user to hook the ball.

Poroelastic Finite Element Analysis Of A Heterogeneous Articular Cartilage Explant Under Dynamic Compression In Abaqus, Kelsey Kiyo Kam

Master's Theses

A poroelastic finite element model of a heterogeneous articular cartilage disc was

created to examine the tissue response to low amplitude (± 2% strain), low

frequency (0.1 Hz) dynamic unconfined compression (UCC). A strong correlation

has been made between the relative fluid velocity and stimulation of

glycosaminoglycan synthesis. A contour plot of the model shows the relative fluid

velocity during compression exceeds a trigger value of 0.25 μm/s at the radial

periphery. Dynamic UCC biochemical results have also reported a higher

glycosaminoglycan content in this region versus that of day 0 specimens. Fluid

velocity was also found not to be …

22 - بررسي تأثير اينرسي حرارتي جداره هاي ساختمانهاي مسكوني بر آسايش حرارتي و تابش نامتقارن با استفاده از معيار فنگر, Mehdi Maerefat, Alireza Zolfaghari, Farzin Davoudi, Salim Moslehi

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

21 - بررسي تأثير اينرسي حرارتي جداره هاي فضاهاي مسكوني بر عملكرد سيستمهاي هيدرونيك گرمايش-سرمايش تشعشعي سقفي, Mehdi Maerefat, Alireza Zolfaghari, Salim Moslehi, Farzin Davoudi

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

20 - تحليل و ارزيابي ميزان تأثير پديده كوران بر تغيير محدوده مجاز آسايش حرارتي با استفاده از شاخص جامع نارضايتي حرارتي, Alireza Zolfaghari, Mehdi Maerefat

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Rigid Body Forward Solution Physiological Model Of The Lower Leg To Predict Non Implanted And Implanted Knee Kinematics And Kinetics, John Kyle Patrick Mueller

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes the development and results of a physiological rigid body forward solution mathematical model that can be used to predict normal knee and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) kinematics and kinetics. The simulated activities include active extension and weight-bearing deep knee bend. The model includes both the patellofemoral and tibiofemoral joints. Geometry of the normal or implanted knee is represented by multivariate polynomials and modeled by constraining the velocity of lateral and medial tibiofemoral and patellofemoral contact points in a direction normal to the geometry surface.

Center of mass, ligament and muscle attachment points and normal knee geometry were …

Gas Embolic Factors In Cardiovascular Health, Eric L. Cutler

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

Gas emboli are a clinical issue often encountered in the space exploration, marine construction, and medical fields. Individuals involved with these disciplines will often have asympomatic gas emboli circulating throughout their bodies on a regular basis. A study into the impact of chronic asymptomatic gas emboli on the risk of atherosclerosis in humans is thus presented. This research utilized a custom built cardiovascular flow simulator and accompanying data acquisition system to experimentally determine the influence of gas emboli under varied circumstances on the mean wall shear stress of a tube in-vitro. A directly inverse relationship between gas embolus presence in …

19 - بررسي تأثير اينرسي حرارتي جداره هاي ساختمان بر مصرف انرژي و آسايش حرارتي در اقليمهاي مختلف ايران, Mehdi Maerefat, Alireza Zolfaghari, Farzin Davoudi, Salim Moslehi

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

Predicting Articular Cartilage Constituent Material Properties Following In Vitro Growth Using A Proteoglycan-Collagen Mixture Model, Michael Stender

Master's Theses

A polyconvex continuum-level proteoglycan Cauchy stress function was developed based on the continuum electromechanical Poisson-Boltzmann unit cell model for proteoglycan interactions. The resulting proteoglycan model was combined with a novel collagen fibril model and a ground substance matrix material to create a polyconvex constitutive finite element model of articular cartilage. The true collagen fibril modulus , and the ground substance matrix shear modulus , were varied to obtain the best fit to experimental tension, confined compression, and unconfined compression data for native explants and explants cultured in insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). Results indicate …

Crop Updates 2011 - Weeds, Grant Thompson, Abul Hashem, Catherine Borger, Peter Newman, Mike Ashworth, Glen Riethmuller, David Minkey, Harmohinder Dhammu, David Nicholson, Michael Walsh, Ray Harrington, Nicholas Woods

Crop Updates

This session covers twelve papers from different authors:

1. Herbicides for selective spot spraying application on winter weeds in chemical fallow, Grant Thompson, Landmark/Crop Circle Consulting, Geraldton

2. Management of emerging weeds within the Western Australian wheatbelt, Abul Hashem and Catherine Borger Department of Agriculture and Food

3. Integrated Weed Management (IWM) – it’s all about early sowing of a big crop, Peter Newman, Department of Agriculture and Food

4. Increased water rates improve the performance of trifluralin in minimum tillage systems, Catherine Borger1, Mike Ashworth2, Glen Riethmuller1, David Minkey2, Abul …

18 - بررسي عددي پارامترهاي مؤثر بر نرخ چگالش بخار آب بر روي پانلهاي سرمايشي تابشي, Amirreza Hosseini, Mehdi Maerefat, Alireza Zolfaghari

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

17 - تعيين نرخ بهينه ي تهويه جهت دستيابي به کيفيت مناسب هوا در فضاهاي داراي وسايل احتراقی, Chamran Nowrouzi, Mehdi Maerefat, Alireza Zolfaghari, Yaser Mahmoudi

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

16 - مدلسازي و تحليل انتقال حرارت و جرم در لباس بعنوان محيط متخلخل, Emad Pasdar, Mehdi Maerefat, Alireza Zolfaghari

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

Characterising 3d Soft Tissue Features On Joint Surfaces, Colm O'Kane

Conference Papers

A crucial aspect of orthopaedic implant design is the prediction of surgical outcomes when the shape of a bone is necessarily altered by the addition of the implant. Matching native kinematics as closely as possible is generally considered a core aim of joint replacement surgery. The overall hypothesis behind this research is that soft tissue geometry, including cartilage thickness distribution and ligament attachment sites, influences kinematics in the knee joint. In order to enable investigation of possible links between geometry and kinematics, the ability to characterise the shape variation of the soft tissue relative to the underlying bony geometry must …

8 - مدلسازي و تحليل پاسخ حرارتي بدن تحت تأثير صرف غذاي سرد يا گرم, Alireza Zolfaghari, Mehdi Maerefat, Amir Omidvar

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

9 - ارزيابي عملکرد سيستمهاي گرمايش از کف با توجه به سبک زندگي رايج در کشورهاي شرقي, Alireza Zolfaghari, Mehdi Maerefat, Amir Omidvar

Dr Alireza Zolfaghari

No abstract provided.

Low-Cost Prosthetic Leg For The Vida Nueva Prosthesis Clinic, Sarah M. Baker, Justin G. Lekos, Jen Van Donk, Kevin Yamauchi

Mechanical Engineering

The Piernas de Vida team partnered with the Vida Nueva Clinic of Prostheses and Orthoses in Choluteca, Honduras to design, plan, and implement a prosthetic foot that could be manufactured entirely by the technicians at the clinic in order to reduce their costs and ultimately allow them to serve more patients each year. Currently, the clinic uses a prefabricated prosthetic lower limb provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which can be adapted to both transDfemoral and transDtibial patients. The team has successfully developed a foot, currently called the Layer Foot, which can be used by the …

Label-Free Biochemical Recognition Using Mems Resonators For Microarray Technology, Babak Tousifar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Highly sensitive biosensors capable of detecting and characterizing smallest quantities of cellular and molecular targets are needed in pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics industries. In this work, the importance of biological target recognition specifically proteins through microarray technologies has been discussed and the most successful tools and techniques have been studied. Moreover, a thermally actuated Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) resonator has been demonstrated and fabricated in this work as an accurate, reliable and low cost biotechnology tool. As a proof of concept, amine to epoxide coupling of octadecylamine to functionalized silicon dioxide surface have been shown through resonator frequency monitoring. The …

Estimation Of The Centre Of Mass From Motion Capture And Force Plate Recordings: A Study On The Elderly, Sebastien Cotton, Michele Vanoncini, Philippe Fraisse, Nacim Ramdani, Emel Demircan, Andrew P. Murray, Thierry Keller

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The estimation of the centre of mass position in humans is usually based on biomechanical models developed from anthropometric tables. This method can potentially introduce errors in studies involving elderly people, since the ageing process is typically associated with a modification of the distribution of the body mass. In this paper, an alternative technique is proposed, and evaluated with an experimental study on 9 elderly volunteers. The technique is based on a virtual chain, identified from experimental data and locating the subject's centre of mass. Its configuration defines the location of the centre of mass, and is a function of …

Implicit Methods For Efficient Musculoskeletal Simulation And Optimal Control, Antonie J. Van Den Bogert, Dimitra Blana, Dieter Heinrich

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The ordinary differential equations for musculoskeletal dynamics are often numerically stiff and highly nonlinear. Consequently, simulations require small time steps, and optimal control problems are slow to solve and have poor convergence. In this paper, we present an implicit formulation of musculoskeletal dynamics, which leads to new numerical methods for simulation and optimal control, with the expectation that we can mitigate some of these problems. A first order Rosenbrock method was developed for solving forward dynamic problems using the implicit formulation. It was used to perform real-time dynamic simulation of a complex shoulder arm system with extreme dynamic stiffness. Simulations …