Biomechanics and Biotransport Commons^™

A Dynamical Systems Approach To Characterizing Brain–Body Interactions During Movement: Challenges, Interpretations, And Recommendations, Derek C. Monroe, Nathaniel T. Berry, Peter C. Fino, Christopher K. Rhea

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Brain–body interactions (BBIs) have been the focus of intense scrutiny since the inception of the scientific method, playing a foundational role in the earliest debates over the philosophy of science. Contemporary investigations of BBIs to elucidate the neural principles of motor control have benefited from advances in neuroimaging, device engineering, and signal processing. However, these studies generally suffer from two major limitations. First, they rely on interpretations of ‘brain’ activity that are behavioral in nature, rather than neuroanatomical or biophysical. Second, they employ methodological approaches that are inconsistent with a dynamical systems approach to neuromotor control. These limitations represent a …

Bespoke Bicycle Enclosure, Thomas Link, Kyle Mcafee, Marc Monier, Hunter Walden

Mechanical Engineering

Brian Higgins is an American veteran with retinitis pigmentosa who relies on cycling for transportation. The motivation for this project is to design and manufacture a refined prototype bicycle attachment to support him while biking in the rain and cold. The attachment will serve to enclose him for optimal protection from inclement weather, while maintaining sufficient mobility for daily cycling. Mr. Higgins’ bicycle is equipped with an attached sensor system which assists his visual impairment by using an ultrasonic sensor. Therefore, the attachment cannot adversely affect the function of the sensor system. The project timeline is set at approximately 7 …

Patient Movement Monitoring Based On Imu And Deep Learning, Mohsen Sharifi Renani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of disability among the aging population in the United States and is frequently treated by replacing deteriorated joints with metal and plastic components. Developing better quantitative measures of movement quality to track patients longitudinally in their own homes would enable personalized treatment plans and hasten the advancement of promising new interventions. Wearable sensors and machine learning used to quantify patient movement could revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders. The purpose of this dissertation was to overcome technical challenges associated with the use of wearable sensors, specifically Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), as a …

Novel Microfluidic Devices To Model The Interactions Between Lymphatics And Breast Cancer, Jade Weber

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The lymphatic system is responsible for immune circulation and fluid balance in the body. It accomplishes this by draining interstitial fluid from local tissue and transferring it to lymph nodes and back into blood circulation. However, this process is implicated in many pathologies, one of the most dangerous being breast cancer metastasis to the lymph nodes. The largest factor in breast cancer patient mortality is metastasis. Lymphangiogenesis, the growth of new lymphatic vessels, has been thought to play a dynamic role in aiding breast cancer metastasis. Breast cancer tumor cells have been shown to remodel the functionality of local lymph …

Methodology For Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Cardiac Tissue Analysis, Leah G. Gutzwiller, Colleen Crouch

Haslam Scholars Projects

No abstract provided.

Blood Flow Regulates Atherosclerosis Progression And Regression, Morgan A. Schake

Mechanical (and Materials) Engineering -- Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Atherosclerosis is the most prevalent pathology of cardiovascular disease with no known cure. Despite the many systemic risk factors for atherosclerosis, plaques do not form randomly in the vasculature. Instead, they form around bifurcations and the inner curvature of highly curving arterial segments that contain so-called disturbed blood flow that is low in magnitude and multidirectional over the cardiac cycle. Conversely, straight, non-bifurcated arterial segments that contain moderate-to-high and unidirectional (i.e., normal) blood flow are protected from plaque development. Thus, blood flow is a key regulator of atherosclerosis that may be able to be leveraged to develop new therapeutics. Towards …

Effect Of Amputation On Muscle Structure Properties In A Rabbit Model, Roy Caleb Stubbs

Masters Theses

After amputation, muscles in the residual limb are detached from their insertion points and no longer span the missing joints. Our objective was to quantify the effect of amputation-induced disuse on residual muscle structure, an indirect indicator of muscle force-generating capacity. One hind paw was surgically removed at the ankle joint of ten rabbits. At two weeks (n=5) and 4 weeks (n=5) post-amputation and for select muscles (gastrocnemius, soleus, tibialis cranialis, extensor digitorum, and flexor digitorum superficialis), we measured and computed several muscle structure properties. Additionally, we qualitatively assessed the muscle fiber appearance of histological samples at each timepoint. At …

Development Of A Fish Robot Equipped With Novel 3d-Printed Soft Bending Actuators, Steven Steele, Jorge Diaz Rodriguez, Sharun Sripathy, Turaj Ashuri, Saleh Gharaie, Yusun Chang, Amir Ali Amiri Moghadam

Symposium of Student Scholars

This paper reports on design and fabrication of a novel soft fish robot. Application of soft actuators for the fish tail will generates continuum bending motion which resembles the natural motion of the fish. However, most soft actuator mechanisms are complex and have low efficiency. Thus, to address this issue we have developed a 3D printed soft bending actuator which can be actuated with an electromotor. The basic design idea of the soft bending actuator is explained, and iteration of the design showed to create the desired motion for the soft tail. The soft actuator has been successfully integrated with …

Estimating Rotator Cuff Injury Risk During Rear-End Vehicle Collisions Using Opensim, Brandon Fugger

Health and Kinesiology Theses

Automobile collisions in the United States lead to a staggering number of fatalities and injuries every year. Rear-end collisions account for over a quarter of all injury-producing collisions and often involve shoulder injuries. There is little, if any, research utilizing modern computational human body models to analyze rotator cuff injury risk during rear-end impacts. The goal of this research is to simulate rear-end impact crash forces using OpenSim and analyze the injury mechanism and risk to the rotator cuff muscles. OpenSim is an open-source software used for biomechanical modeling and simulation that enables the analysis of muscle behaviors that are …

Time Evolution Is A Source Of Bias In The Wolf Algorithm For Largest Lyapunov Exponents, Kolby Brink, Tyler Wiles, Nicholas Stergiou, Aaron Likens

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Human movement is inherently variable by nature. One of the most common analytical tools for assessing movement variability is the largest Lyapunov exponent (LyE) which quantifies the rate of trajectory divergence or convergence in an n-dimensional state space. One popular method for assessing LyE is the Wolf algorithm. Many studies have investigated how Wolf’s calculation of the LyE changes due to sampling frequency, filtering, data normalization, and stride normalization. However, a surprisingly understudied parameter needed for LyE computation is evolution time. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the LyE changes as a function of evolution time …

Using Statistics, Computational Modelling And Artificial Intelligence Methods To Study And Strengthen The Link Between Kinematic Impacts And Mtbis, Andrew Luke Mcconnell Patterson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) are frequently occurring, yet poorly understood, injuries in sports (e.g., ice hockey) and other physical recreation activities where head impacts occur. Helmets are essential pieces of equipment used to protect participants’ heads from mTBIs. Evaluating the performance of helmets to prevent mTBIs using simulations on anatomically accurate computational head finite element models is critically important for advancing the development of safer helmets. Advancing the level of detail in, and access to, such models, and their continued validation through state-of-the-art brain imaging methods and traditional head injury assessment procedures, is also essential to improve safety. The …

Long-Range Aceo Phenomena In Microfluidic Channel, Diganta Dutta, Keifer Smith, Xavier Palmer

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Microfluidic devices are increasingly utilized in numerous industries, including that of medicine, for their abilities to pump and mix fluid at a microscale. Within these devices, microchannels paired with microelectrodes enable the mixing and transportation of ionized fluid. The ionization process charges the microchannel and manipulates the fluid with an electric field. Although complex in operation at the microscale, microchannels within microfluidic devices are easy to produce and economical. This paper uses simulations to convey helpful insights into the analysis of electrokinetic microfluidic device phenomena. The simulations in this paper use the Navier–Stokes and Poisson Nernst–Planck equations solved using COMSOL …

Making Sense Of Big (Kinematic) Data: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Movement Parameters In A Diverse Population, Naomi Wilma Nunis

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to determine how kinematic, big data can be evaluated using computational, comprehensive analysis of movement parameters in a diverse population.

METHODS

Retrospective data was collected, cleaned, and reviewed for further analysis of biomechanical movement in an active population using 3D collinear resistance loads. The active sample of the population involved in the study ranged from age 7 to 82 years old and respectively identified as active in 13 different sports. Moreover, a series of exercises were conducted by each participant across multiple sessions. Exercises were measured and recorded based on 6 distinct biometric …

Development Of A Crosslinked Osteochondral Xenograft And A Collagen Stabilizing Intra-Articular Injection To Remediate Cartilage Focal Lesions To Prevent Osteoarthritis, Mark Lewis Mosher

Theses and Dissertations

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common causes of disability in adults in America. It is a progressive and degenerative disease where the articular cartilage is broken down and lost from the surfaces of bones causing chronic pain and swelling in the joints, and currently has no cure. The most commonly osteoarthritis starts from a focal lesion on the cartilage surface, which will expand on the surface and downwards through the thickness of the tissue. The current gold standard for correcting cartilage focal lesions is the osteochondral autograft/allograft transplantation (OAT), which replaces the defect with a fresh osteochondral graft. The …

Tibial Compression During Activities Of Daily Living In Young And Older Adults, Elijah Miles Walker

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Stress fracture, particularly in the tibia, is a growing concern among older adults (greater than 65 years). Older adults may have inherent stress fracture risk from ageing-related changes to their musculoskeletal system. Specifically, older adults reduced ankle neuromuscular function may impair their ability to attenuate repetitive compressive forces experienced during daily locomotor tasks and increase the likelihood of suffering bone damage from decreased bone tissue elasticity. Yet, it is currently unknown if older adults exhibit greater tibial compression than their younger counterparts during locomotor tasks. Purpose: This study sought to quantify tibial compression for older and younger adults when …

In Vitro Bioreactor For Mechanical Control And Characterization Of Tissue Constructs, Samuel Coeyman

All Dissertations

Heart failure (HF) currently affects over 6 million Americans, 50% of whom die within 5 years of their initial diagnosis. A major contributor to the onset of HF is cardiac fibrosis in the myocardium, which arises when fibroblasts (FBs) are activated in response to heightened mechanical stress from overload conditions like hypertension. Activated FBs remodel the extracellular matrix (ECM) and secrete ECM proteins including collagen. FB remodeling has been studied in the past by applying forces and/or deformations to three-dimensional, cell-seeded gels and tissue constructs in vitro. Unfortunately, previous stretching platforms have traditionally not enabled mechanical property assessment to be …

Morton-Ordered Gpu Lattice Boltzmann Cfd Simulations With Application To Blood Flow, Gerald Gallagher, Fergal J. Boyle

Conference Papers

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is routinely used for numerically predicting cardiovascular-system medical device fluid flows. Most CFD simulations ignore the suspended cellular phases of blood due to computational constraints, which negatively affects simulation accuracy. A graphics processing unit (GPU) lattice Boltzmann-immersed boundary (LB-IB) CFD software package capable of accurately modelling blood flow is in development by the authors, focusing on the behaviour of plasma and stomatocyte, discocyte and echinocyte red blood cells during flow. Optimised memory ordering and layout schemes yield significant efficiency improvements for LB GPU simulations. In this work, comparisons of row-major-ordered Structure of Arrays (SoA) and Collected …

Interactive Software-Based Modeling For Gait Analysis Of Musculoskeletal Structures, Nada Masood Mirza, Adnan Ali, Mohamad Khairi Ishak

Makara Journal of Technology

Software for interactive musculoskeletal modeling applies diverse scientific and technological concepts to stimulate the movement of musculoskeletal figures. Several tools are available for biomechanical analysis in studying motion and capturing the musculoskeletal representation data to facilitate further evaluation for muscle activation. Musculoskeletal software, such as the OpenSim model, animates, and measures in 3D the structural movement of bones, muscles, joints, ligaments, and such structures in the human body. Users apply graphical interfaces to manipulate the movement science for fast and accurate analysis. OpenSim simulation software features a user-friendly interface to allow the proper clinical application in biomechanics and rehabilitation research. …

Morphology Of The Acromion And Scapular Spine With Special Interest In The Strength & Failure Prediction After Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement, Andrei M. Matusa, Cole Fleet, George S. Athwal, James A. Johnson

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Scapular spine fractures following a reverse arthroplasty are a significant clinical concern. This ongoing study looks at the morphology of the acromion and scapular spine with an interest in the strength and failure prediction of the bone. Digital 3D models of the scapular spine were created from cadaver CTs, then bone density and distribution data was obtained. It was found that the cortical bone was most dense just medial of the lateral angle. The cross-sectional area here was also the largest and decreased medially. This has important implications for implant fixation hardware as cortical bone --compared to cancellous bone-- is …

A Two-Layer Continuous-Capillary Oxygen Transport Model: Development And Application To Blood Flow Regulation In Resting Skeletal Muscle., Keith C. Afas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In skeletal muscle (SM), the microcirculation distributes blood flow to capillary networks to meet local oxygen (O₂) demand. Experiments using intra-vital video microscopy (IVVM) have quantified blood flow and O₂ supply in capillary networks, and using an O₂ exchange chamber have measured local changes in blood flow believed due to O₂-dependent regulation. However, IVVM is unable to simultaneously measure capillary O₂ supply and SM O₂ content, implying the need for theoretical models to understand how flow regulation and SM oxygenation interact. In this thesis, a novel blood-tissue O₂ transport model using …