Bioelectrical and Neuroengineering Commons^™

Control Of The Electroporation Efficiency Of Nanosecond Pulses By Swinging The Electric Field Vector Direction, Vitalii Kim, Iurii Semenov, Allen S. Kiester, Mark A. Keppler, Bennett L. Ibey, Joel N. Bixler, Ruben M. L. Colunga Biancatelli, Andrei G. Pakhomov

Bioelectrics Publications

Reversing the pulse polarity, i.e., changing the electric field direction by 180°, inhibits electroporation and electrostimulation by nanosecond electric pulses (nsEPs). This feature, known as “bipolar cancellation,” enables selective remote targeting with nsEPs and reduces the neuromuscular side effects of ablation therapies. We analyzed the biophysical mechanisms and measured how cancellation weakens and is replaced by facilitation when nsEPs are applied from different directions at angles from 0 to 180°. Monolayers of endothelial cells were electroporated by a train of five pulses (600 ns) or five paired pulses (600 + 600 ns) applied at 1 Hz or 833 kHz. Reversing …

The Effect Of Spinal Cord Stimulation And Video Games Training On Body-Machine Interface Control, Jie Fei

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Damage to the spinal cord causes long-lasting loss of motor and sensory function, and currently, there is no ‘cure’ for paralysis. However, even people with severe spinal cord injuries (SCI) have some residual mobility. Studies have shown that transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) combined with functional training targeting residual mobility can further improve the motor function of individuals with SCI. In this study, we present a technical framework that aims to enhance rehabilitation outcomes by targeting residual mobility through a motor training-based approach. Our technical framework centers around a non-invasive body-machine interface (BoMI) that relies on the use of …

Cerebral Blood Flow Measured By Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy For Monitoring Depth Of Anesthesia In Piglets, Mert Deniz Polat, Kurtulus Izzetoglu, Randolph Sinahon, Meltem Izzetoglu, Shadi Malaeb

St. Chris Research Day

No abstract provided.

Preparing Non-Human Primates To Study Hand-Eye Coordination In Frontal Eye Fields (Fef) During Delayed Movement Task, Juliusz Cydzik

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Preparing Non-Human Primates to Study Hand-Eye Coordination in Frontal Eye Fields (FEF) During Delayed Movement Task by Juliusz Cydzik Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering Washington University in St. Louis, 2023 Professor Lawrence Snyder, Chair Hand-eye coordination enables humans and non-human primates to use their hands and eyes to perform various tasks. We are interested in coordination at the systems level, where saccades and reaches are encoded. The parietal reach region (PRR), situated at the posterior end of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and overlapping portions of the medial intraparietal area (MIP) and V6a, is commonly attributed …

A Proof Of Concept For Detection Of Palato-Lingual Contact Without Intraoral Electrodes In A Human Participant, Amitava Biswas

Master's Theses

The author of this thesis conceived and investigated an unexpected electrical signal that may not be noticed during regular electroglottography (EGG) when electrodes are conventionally placed on the anterior surface of the throat. It appears that there is a measurable electrical signal from the EGG equipment when electrodes are placed over the frontal cheek (belly of zygomatic muscle), and the tongue is elevated to contact the hard palate, or the tongue is lowered to break the contact. Therefore, this phenomenon is designated as unconventional electroglottography (UEGG, Dr. Steven Cloud, private communication, July 17, 2022).

Two distinctive patterns of waveforms were …

Metabolomic Differentiation Of Tumor Core And Edge In Glioma., Mary E. Baxter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioma is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. It has been shown that the microenvironments differ significantly between the core and edge regions of glioma tumors. This study obtained metabolomic profiles of glioma core and edge regions using paired glioma core and edge tissue samples from 27 human patients. Data was acquired by performing liquid-liquid metabolite extraction and 2DLC-MS/MS on the tissue samples. In addition, a boosted generalized linear machine learning model was employed to predict the metabolomic profiles associated with O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation.

A panel of 66 metabolites was found to be statistically significant …

On The Chronological Understanding Of The Homogeneous Dielectric Barrier Discharge, Xinpei Lu, Zhi Fang, Dong Dai, Tao Shao, Feng Liu, Cheng Zhang, Dawei Liu, Lanlan Nie, Chunqi Jiang

Bioelectrics Publications

Dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) are widely utilised non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasmas with a diverse range of applications, such as material processing, surface treatment, light sources, pollution control, and medicine. Over the course of several decades, extensive research has been dedicated to the generation of homogeneous DBD (H-DBD), focussing on understanding the transition from H-DBD to filamentary DBD and exploring strategies to create and sustain H-DBD. This paper first discusses the influence of various parameters on DBD, including gas flow, dielectric material, surface conductivity, and mesh electrode. Secondly, a chronological literature review is presented, highlighting the development of H-DBD and the …

Extracellular Vesticles In Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Understanding Protective And Harmful Signaling For The Development Of New Therapeutics, Matthew Bavuso, Noel Miller, Joshua M. Sill, Anca Dobrian, Ruben M. L. Colunga Biancatelli

Bioelectrics Publications

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a severe respiratory condition characterized by increased lung permeability, hyper-inflammatory state, and fluid leak into the alveolar spaces. ARDS is a heterogeneous disease, with multiple direct and indirect causes that result in a mortality of up to 40%. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, its incidence has increased up to ten-fold. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small liposome-like particles that mediate intercellular communication and play a major role in ARDS pathophysiology. Indeed, they participate in endothelial barrier dysfunction and permeability, neutrophil, and macrophage activation, and also in the development of a hypercoagulable state. A more …

Evaluation Of Cold Atmospheric Plasma For The Decontamination Of Flexible Endoscopes, R. C. Hervé, Michael G. Kong, Sudhir Bhatt, Hai-Lan Chen, E. E. Comoy, J-P. Deslys, T. J. Secker, C. W. Keevil

Bioelectrics Publications

Background: Despite adherence to standard protocols, residues including live microorganisms may remain on the various surfaces of reprocessed flexible endoscopes. Prions are infectious proteins notoriously difficult to eliminate.

Aim: We tested the potential of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) for the decontamination of flexible endoscope various surfaces, measuring total proteins and prion-residual infectivity as an indicator of efficacy.

Methods: New PTFE endoscope channels and metal test surfaces spiked with test soil or prion-infected tissues were treated using different CAP-generating prototypes. Surfaces were then examined for the presence of residues using very sensitive fluorescence epi-microscopy. Prion residual infectivity was determined using the …

Pulsed Electric Field Ablation Of Esophageal Malignancies And Mitigating Damage To Smooth Muscle: An In Vitro Study, Emily Gudvangen, Uma Mangalanathan, Iurii Semenov, Allen S. Kiester, Mark A. Keppler, Bennett L. Ibey, Joel N. Bixler, Andrei G. Pakhomov

Bioelectrics Publications

Cancer ablation therapies aim to be efficient while minimizing damage to healthy tissues. Nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) is a promising ablation modality because of its selectivity against certain cell types and reduced neuromuscular effects. We compared cell killing efficiency by PEF (100 pulses, 200 ns–10 µs duration, 10 Hz) in a panel of human esophageal cells (normal and pre-malignant epithelial and smooth muscle). Normal epithelial cells were less sensitive than the pre-malignant ones to unipolar PEF (15–20% higher LD50, p < 0.05). Smooth muscle cells (SMC) oriented randomly in the electric field were more sensitive, with 30–40% lower LD50 (p < 0.01). Trains of ten, 300-ns pulses at 10 kV/cm caused twofold weaker electroporative uptake of YO-PRO-1 dye in normal epithelial cells than in either pre-malignant cells or in SMC oriented perpendicularly to the field. Aligning SMC with the field reduced the dye uptake fourfold, along with a twofold reduction in Ca²⁺ transients. A 300-ns pulse induced a twofold smaller transmembrane potential in cells aligned with the field, making them …

Computational Modeling Of Temporal Eeg Responses To Cyclic Binary Visual Stimulus Patterns, Connor M. Delaney

Theses and Dissertations

The human visual system serves as the basis for many modern computer vision and machine learning approaches. While detailed biophysical models of certain aspects of the visual system exist, little work has been done to develop an end-to-end model from the visual stimulus to the signals generated at the visual cortex measured via the scalp electroencephalogram (EEG). The creation of such a model would not only provide a better understanding of the visual processing pathways but would also facilitate the design and evaluation of more robust visual stimuli for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). A novel experiment was designed and conducted where …

Advanced Modeling And Innovative Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Coil Designs For The Treatment Of Neurological Disorders, Mohannad Tashli

Theses and Dissertations

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a safe, effective and non-invasive treatment for several mental and psychiatric disorders. TMS is an FDA approved treatment and is commonly applied to patients who do not respond to medications for the treatment of clinical depression, smoking cessation, obsessive-compulsive disorder and migraine. Recently, there has been an increase in the development of electromagnetic neuromodulation techniques targeted at enhancing the effectiveness of TMS devices for the treatment of mental diseases. In TMS stimulation, focality is an important factor which determines the specificity of the pulses induced in different brain tissues. The electromagnetic pulses must be confined …

Characterization And Decoding Of Speech Activity From Intracranial Signals, Pedram Zanganeh Soroush

Theses and Dissertations

Speech is the first and foremost means of human communication. Millions of people worldwide suffer from severe speech disorders due to neurological diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brain stem stroke, and severe paralysis. A speech neuroprosthesis that decodes speech directly from neural signals could dramatically improve life for these individuals. Recent studies have demonstrated that it is possible to decode and synthesize various aspects of acoustic speech directly from intracranial measurements of electrophysiological brain activity. For those who have completely lost the ability to speak, the objective is to synthesize acoustic speech directly from brain activity during imagined …

Design Of Next-Generation Neural Interfaces For Decoding The Brain, Yi Qiang

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The primary goal of neural interface technology is to establish a connection between the nervous system and the external world by recording and modulating neural signals. Over the past few decades, microelectrode array (MEA) technology has played an essential role in the acquisition of electrophysiological signals, with impressive progress being made towards developing high-density, large-throughput, and ultra-flexible MEAs. However, despite these advancements, there remain long-standing limitations in current neural interfaces. For example, electrophysiology is limited in its ability to distinguish cell types and has limited spatial resolution due to its electrical recording nature. Furthermore, conventional neural MEAs are limited to …

An Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Drug Development Collaboration Stimulated By The Virginia Drug Discovery Consortium, John S. Lazo, Ruben M.L. Colunga-Biancatelli, Pavel A. Solopov, John D. Catravas

Bioelectrics Publications

The genesis of most older medicinal agents has generally been empirical. During the past one and a half centuries, at least in the Western countries, discovering and developing drugs has been primarily the domain of pharmaceutical companies largely built upon concepts emerging from organic chemistry. Public sector funding for the discovery of new therapeutics has more recently stimulated local, national, and international groups to band together and focus on new human disease targets and novel treatment approaches. This Perspective describes one contemporary example of a newly formed collaboration that was simulated by a regional drug discovery consortium. University of Virginia, …

Editorial: Pulsed Electric Field Based Technologies For Oncology Applications, Siqi Guo, Gregor Sersa, Richard Heller

Bioelectrics Publications

No abstract provided.

Reduced Metal Nanocatalysts For Selective Electrochemical Hydrogenation Of Biomass-Derived 5-(Hydroxymethyl)Furfural To 2, 5-Bis(Hydroxymethyl)Furan In Ambient Conditions, Baleeswaraiah Muchharla, Moumita Dikshit, Ujjwal Pokharel, Ravindranath Garimella, Adetayo Adedeji, Kapil Kumar, Wei Cao, Hani Elsayed-Ali, Kishor Kumar Sadasivuni, Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi, Sandeep Kumar, Bijandra Kumar

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Selective electrochemical hydrogenation (ECH) of biomass-derived unsaturated organic molecules has enormous potential for sustainable chemical production. However, an efficient catalyst is essential to perform an ECH reaction consisting of superior product selectivity and a higher conversion rate. Here, we examined the ECH performance of reduced metal nanostructures i.e., reduced Ag (rAg) and reduced copper (rCu) prepared via electrochemical or thermal oxidation and electrochemical reduction process, respectively. Surface morphological analysis suggests formation of nanocoral and entangled nanowire structure formation for rAg and rCu catalysts. rCu exhibits slight enhancement in ECH reaction performance in comparison to the pristine Cu. However, the rAg …

Advancing Prosthetic Design Using Neural And Mechanical Dynamics, Kacie E. Hanna

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Limb loss poses a significant challenge to mobility and the performance of daily activities. Currently, nearly half of the amputees using powered prosthetics abandon their device due to inadequate limb coordination and movement control abilities. In the healthy system, passive and neural dynamics facilitate the synchronized activation of muscles necessary for coordinated movement. However, in the amputee, the system is disrupted. The goal of this research is to use neural and mechanical dynamics to inform the design of prosthetic devices in order to restore intuitive control and coordinated limb movement.

The first aim of this research is to investigate neural …

Identification Of Proteins Involved In Cell Membrane Permeabilization By Nanosecond Electric Pulses (Nsep), Giedre Silkuniene, Uma Mangalanathan, Alessandra Rossi, Peter A. Mollica, Andrei G. Pakhomov, Olga N. Pakhomova

Bioelectrics Publications

The study was aimed at identifying endogenous proteins which assist or impede the permeabilized state in the cell membrane disrupted by nsEP (20 or 40 pulses, 300 ns width, 7 kV/cm). We employed a LentiArray CRISPR library to generate knockouts (KOs) of 316 genes encoding for membrane proteins in U937 human monocytes stably expressing Cas9 nuclease. The extent of membrane permeabilization by nsEP was measured by the uptake of Yo-Pro-1 (YP) dye and compared to sham-exposed KOs and control cells transduced with a non-targeting (scrambled) gRNA. Only two KOs, for SCNN1A and CLCA1 genes, showed a statistically significant reduction in …

Ultra-Low Intensity Post-Pulse Affects Cellular Responses Caused By Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields, Kamal Asadipour, Carol Zhou, Vincent Yi, Stephen J. Beebe, Shu Xiao

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

High-intensity nanosecond pulse electric fields (nsPEF) can preferentially induce various effects, most notably regulated cell death and tumor elimination. These effects have almost exclusively been shown to be associated with nsPEF waveforms defined by pulse duration, rise time, amplitude (electric field), and pulse number. Other factors, such as low-intensity post-pulse waveform, have been completely overlooked. In this study, we show that post-pulse waveforms can alter the cell responses produced by the primary pulse waveform and can even elicit unique cellular responses, despite the primary pulse waveform being nearly identical. We employed two commonly used pulse generator designs, namely the Blumlein …