Biomechanics and Biotransport Commons^™

Design Of A Four Channel Pulsatile Perfusion Bioreactor For Ex-Vivo Study Of Vascular Grafts, Thomas M. Fair

All Theses

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States. Atherosclerosis in peripheral arteries is a major contributing factor. Autologous saphenous vein grafts are the most common bypass grafts for treating peripheral artery diseases. A quarter of these grafts fail within a year, and around half have failed within 10 years of the initial surgery. Graft failure is attributed to the development of intimal hyperplasia indicated by the migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, and the deposition of extracellular proteins.

Increases in flow, pressure, the pulse frequency, and the differential of pressure that model an …

Release Kinetics Of Metronidazole From 3d Printed Silicone Scaffolds., Sydney E. Herold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sustained local administration of active agents has been proposed to cure bacterial vaginosis in the female reproductive tract and restore the resident bacterial fauna. Bioprinting has shown promise for the development of systems for local agent delivery. In contrast to oral ingestion, agent release kinetics can be fine-tuned by bioprinting specialized scaffold designs tailored for particular treatments while enhancing dosage effectiveness via localized sustained release. It has been challenging to establish scaffold properties for sustained release as a function of fabrication parameters. Towards this goal, we evaluate 3D printed scaffold formulation and feasibility to sustain release of metronidazole, a representative …

Surface Laser Texturing Of Cocrmo Alloys, Gabriel Dharwadker

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Artificial orthopedic implants such as hip joints suffer from excessive wear due to excess friction between the polyethylene and cobalt-chromium-molybdenum surfaces of the device. This increase in friction causes a fraction of them to give out within ten years. Therefore, to minimize the probability of this happening, recent research has been conducted regarding laser surface texturing of the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy components of artificial joints. These surface textures serve to mimic the native lubrication mechanisms of cartilage in natural joints, which, in a natural joint, lowers the friction. However, the production of these laser surface textures is still a field of …

Insole Fall Prevention Device, Nick M. Hughes, Andrew M. Slaboda

Biomedical Engineering

Falls among the aging population occur every single day, with 1 in every 5 resulting in some injury and 300,000 hospitalized every year with a hip fracture [1]. The most popular and effective way to mitigate these falls is through physical therapist intervention. However, with the increased popularity in telerehab, many patients at risk for falls cannot accurately convey their gait tendencies to their physical therapists from the comfort of their home or while not in direct contact with the PT. A device like an insole, implanted with force sensors, which measures different parts of a patient’s foot, could convey …

A Meshless Approach To Computational Pharmacokinetics, Anthony Matthew Khoury

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The meshless method is an incredibly powerful technique for solving a variety of problems with unparalleled accuracy and efficiency. The pharmacokinetic problem of transdermal drug delivery (TDDD) is one such topic and is of significant complexity. The locally collocated meshless method (LCMM) is developed in solution to this topic. First, the meshless method is formulated to model this transport phenomenon and is then validated against an analytical solution of a pharmacokinetic problem set, to demonstrate this accuracy and efficiency. The analytical solution provides a locus by which convergence behavior are evaluated, demonstrating the super convergence of the locally collocated meshless …

Biomechanical Analysis Of Athletes Sprinting With Varying Degrees Of Resistance, Michaela Ott

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Utilizing resistance methods for sprinters is a common approach to their training. In this study, six athletes from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Women’s Track and Field Team ran a series of sprints using a resistance machine to collect data regarding the change in power output, stride length, level of trunk tilt with respect to the ground, and acceleration throughout a distance of ten meters when different amounts of resistant forces were applied to the athlete. It was hypothesized that as resistance increased, power output would increase, stride length would decrease, the runners would become more horizontal resulting in a larger …

Reducing Loading On The Contralateral Limb Using Human-In-The-Loop Optimization, Siena Senatore

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

In most everyday activities, we head towards a specific goal by updating our choices for a more direct path. However, there are specific clinical tasks where taking the direct path is more challenging. Clinical investigations of optimizing a prosthesis involve the assessment of multiple parameter settings through trial and error rather than goal-directed optimization. We investigate if a human-in-the-loop optimization algorithm can guide manual alterations to a prosthesis-simulating device to reduce the ground reaction force on the contralateral limb. In most participants, the optimal condition reduced the loading rate on the contralateral limb compared to the initial condition tested. These …

Changes In Ankle Muscle Force And Power During Walking In Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease, Hafizur Rahman, Cody Anderson, Iraklis I. Pipinos, Jason M. Johanning, Jianghu Dong, Sara A. Myers

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Background: Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) have significantly reduced lower extremity muscle strength compared with healthy individuals as measured during isolated, single plane joint motion by isometric and isokinetic strength dynamometers. The objective of this study was to understand the contribution of the ankle muscles during walking in patients with PAD and compared to healthy older individuals.

Methods: A total of 12 patients diagnosed with Fontaine stage II PAD and 10 healthy older controls were recruited for the study. Each subject walked across a 10-meter pathway with reflective markers placed on specific anatomical locations on lower limbs while the …

Breaks In Longitudinal Elastic Fibers Of Human Femoropopliteal Arteries, Elham Zamani

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Breaks in Longitudinal Elastic Fibers of Human Femoropopliteal Arteries

Elham Zamani1, Majid Jadidi1

1 Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE

Introduction: Elastin is a major protein in the body with half-life >50 years. It is thought that elastic fibers are formed before the postnatal period. In the femoropopliteal artery (FPA), the main artery in the leg, longitudinal elastic fibers are present in External Elastic Lamina (EEL). Our team has studied more than 1000 cadaveric human FPA and has noticed that there are big breaks in their longitudinal elastic fibers in some subjects. Our goal in this work …

Acl Risk Data Comparison And Turnout Analysis Of Female Dancers Trained In Ballet And Female Traditional Jumping Sport Athletes, Samantha A. Campbell

Master's Theses

INTRODUCTION: An increase in participation in females sports has created an increase of female athletes at risk for injuring their Anterior Cruciate Ligament(ACL)[12,21,29,44]. Traditional jumping sports have the highest rate of non contact ACL injuries, due to the use of movements of cutting, pivoting and landing on one foot[5,8,32,33,38]. ACL injuries can also be attributed to neuromuscular deficits such as the ‘Ligament Dominance Theory’, ‘Quadricep Dominance Theory’, ‘Trunk Dominance Theory’ and the ‘Leg Dominance Theory’[24,33]. The neuromuscular deficits are muscle strength, power or activation patterns that can cause an individual to have an increased risk of ACL injury[33]. Female traditional …

Youth Pitching Kinematics: Associations With Body Overweight Parameters, Christina K. Fong

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to investigate associations between injury-related kinematic parameters and overweight measures for youth baseball pitchers. The injury-related kinematic parameters considered were measurements 1) at foot contact: stride length, front foot position, shoulder external rotation, shoulder abduction, and elbow flexion; 2) between FC and ball release: peak knee extension; and 3) at BR: shoulder abduction. Data from three separate collection sites examined pitching mechanics of 18 10- to 11-year-old pitchers, 11 14- to 16-year-old pitchers, and 104 16- to 18-year-old pitchers Linear regression analyses were performed to determine significant correlations between kinematic parameters and body mass …

Bone And Cartilage Compression Simulator, Karoline M. Wucherer, Benjamin A. Parmentier, Thomasina E. Hinkle

Biomedical Engineering

A device was developed that delivers mechanical loads to bone and soft tissue samples under physiological conditions to aid in the research of tissue engineering bone and cartilage. To begin the design process, a Network Diagram and Gantt Chart were produced to create a general timeline for the project to follow. This allowed us to measure our progress and determine what effects (if any) delays could have on our project.

Pickleball Paddle For Minimizing Elbow/Shoulder Joint Forces, Kaley Sapper, Nick Rodgers, Claire Steines

Biomedical Engineering

The goal of this project was to design a pickleball paddle to prevent overuse injuries. This was accomplished through a design that minimizes joint forces experienced by the player during backhand strokes.

Improving Quantification Of Mitral Regurgitation Through Computational Fluid Dynamics And Ex Vivo Testing, Alexandra Flowers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mitral regurgitation (MR) is a prominent cardiac disease affecting more than two million people in the United States alone. In order for patients to receive proper therapy, regurgitant volume must first be quantified. As there are an array of methods to do so, the proximal isovelocity surface area (PISA) method continues to be the most accurate and clinically used method. However, there are some difficulties obtaining the necessary measurements need for this when performing transthoracic echocardiography. This study aims to evaluate and present techniques that may be used to more accurately quantify regurgitation through ex vivo testing and computational fluid …

Structural And Hemodynamic Analysis Of Transcatheter Aortic Valves, Dong Qiu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure has become a well-established procedure for high, intermediate-risk, and low-risk patients. However, there is limited clinical data on the TAV's long-term durability, unlike SAV devices. Computational simulations can be an alternative way to evaluate the TAV devices. This dissertation aims to conduct structural and hemodynamic analyses on the TAV devices under different conditions using computational simulation approaches.

Initially, the impact of the bicuspid aortic valve on the TAV devices was evaluated. The result indicated that the CoreValve-like supra-annular self-expandable device was likely to have increased stress and strain on the leaflet when it …

Pulmonary Valve Replacement, Mina Shafiei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Currently, transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) is a well-established alternative for surgical pulmonary valve replacement (SPVR) to treat pulmonary valve disorders in patients with prior congenital heart surgery. Edwards Sapien 3 valve is a bioprosthesis originally designed for the aortic position but has been used off-label in native right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT). It is currently under clinical trial to get food and drug administration (FDA) approval.

This study is a comparison of the performance of Sapien 3 with surgical bioprosthetics. The in vitro tests result showed Sapien 3 experiences less degree of opening and effective orifice area in pulmonic …

Probing The Effect Of Hyperglycemia On Endothelial Force Generation And Transmission, Jovani J. Gutierrez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis intends to utilize biomechanics to study the endothelial biomechanical response in a static hyperglycemic microenvironment. Hyperglycemia is a diabetic condition with abnormally high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. The effects of hyperglycemia over time lead to vascular complications resulting in patients being more prone to cardiovascular diseases. Current studies have focused on the molecular mechanisms affected by hyperglycemia; however, the mechanical mechanisms by which hyperglycemia causes vascular structural and functional changes are understudied. Therefore, to study the effects of hyperglycemia in the endothelium, Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) were cultured under three glucose conditions: normal glucose …

Electrode Evaluation And Electrocortical Dynamics Of Adapting To Small Perturbations During Treadmill Walking, Jinfeng Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) seeks to understand human brain and body dynamics during movement and locomotor tasks such as walking with perturbations that challenge balance and lead to adaptation of walking behavior. In this dissertation, I evaluated the long-term electromyography (EMG) recording performance of dry epidermal electrodes for measuring electrical muscle activity. I also evaluated the relationships between the signals recorded from the two sides of dual-sided electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes, a recent advancement in EEG electrode design for measuring electrical brain activity. Last, I investigated adaptation of brain and body responses to small and frequent perturbations during treadmill walking while …

Improving The Early Detection Of Cardiovascular Toxicity Secondary To Radiotherapy For Lung Cancer Via Patient-Specific Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Alireza Omidi

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: To assess the cardiopulmonary-induced dose variation on the left ventricle (LV) and evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of cardiac/aortic function following radiotherapy (RT).

Methods: 8 lung cancer patients who were scheduled to receive RT were recruited for this study. Each patient underwent one 4D-CT at baseline. MRI scans including cine GRE, T1/T2, LGE, and 4D-flow were acquired at baseline, 3-months and 6-months post-RT to evaluate the cardiac/aortic function. Finally, image registration was used to assess the cardiopulmonary-induced dose variation on the LV.

Results: Mean RT-dose was minimum during inspiration and systole (at expiration). No significant differences were found in the …

Neuromotor Changes In Participants With A Concussion History Can Be Detected With A Custom Smartphone App, Christopher K. Rhea, Masahiro Yamada, Nikita A. Kuznetsov, Jason T. Jakiela, Chanel T. Lojacono, Scott E. Ross, F. J. Haran, Jason M. Bailie, W. Geoffrey Wright

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Neuromotor dysfunction after a concussion is common, but balance tests used to assess neuromotor dysfunction are typically subjective. Current objective balance tests are either cost- or space-prohibitive, or utilize a static balance protocol, which may mask neuromotor dysfunction due to the simplicity of the task. To address this gap, our team developed an Android-based smartphone app (portable and cost-effective) that uses the sensors in the device (objective) to record movement profiles during a stepping-in-place task (dynamic movement). The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which our custom smartphone app and protocol could discriminate neuromotor behavior between …