Other Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Effects Of Lower Limb Cycling Training On Different Components Of Force And Fatigue In Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease, Yen-Po Lin, Rou-Shayn Chen, Vincent Chiun-Fan Chen, Chun-Hsien Liu, Hsiao-Lung Chan, Ya-Ju Chang

Engineering Science Faculty Publications

The strength of lower extremity is important for individuals to maintain balance and ambulation functions. The previous studies showed that individuals with Parkinson’s disease suffered from fatigue and strength loss of central origin. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of lower extremities’ cycling training on different components of force and fatigue in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Twenty-four individuals (13 males, 11 females, mean age: 60.58 ± 8.21 years) diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease were randomized into training and control groups. The maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) force, voluntary activation level (VA), and twitch force of knee extensors …

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.

Feverdots, Kameryn Laureano, Heidi Silk, Rita Grigorian

Biomedical Engineering

FeverDots are wearable temperature sensitive stickers that change color from black to pink at 99°F when placed on the temple or forehead. The objective of this project was to develop an efficient manufacturing method for FeverDots, and manufacture a device along with it. To create the FeverDots manufacturing device, the full design process was executed. The team went through a thorough ideation phase before ultimately defining and specifying the scope of the project.

The key customer requirements of this device include that it is lightweight, portable, durable, simple to assemble, easy to use, and able to generate uniform ink and …

Voluntary Control Of Breathing According To The Breathing Pattern During Listening To Music And Non-Contact Measurement Of Heart Rate And Respiration, Dibyajyoti Biswal

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

We investigated if listening to songs changes breathing pattern which changes autonomic responses such as heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) or change in breathing pattern is a byproduct of listening to songs or change in breathing pattern as well as listening to songs causes changes in autonomic responses. Seven subjects (4 males and 3 females) participated in a pilot study where they listened to two types of songs and used a custom developed biofeedback program to control their breathing pattern to match the one recorded during listening to the songs.

Coherencies between EEG, breathing pattern and RR …

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 …

Impact Of Percutaneous Transluminal Intervention On Vascular Hypoxia And The Role Of Micro-Calcifications On Atherosclerotic Plaque Rupture, Andrea Corti

Dissertations and Theses

Atherosclerotic disease is initiated by cholesterol build-up beneath the endothelium, which evolves into a fibroatheroma, a lipid-rich plaque covered by a fibrous cap. Many of these plaques are considered as vulnerable, as they grow to occlude the luminal section of the artery (chronically stenotic) or become mechanically unstable with a higher chance of rupturing (rupture-prone). On one hand, chronically stenotic vulnerable plaques are symptomatic lesions that are often treated with Percutaneous Transluminal Intervention (PTI). Unfortunately, approximately 10% of PTI procedures are followed by severe Neointima Hyperplasia (NH), which causes a new occlusion and failure of the implant. A significant precursor …

Analysis Of Eye Movements To Cartoon Faces In Videos, Kaustubh Sapru

Dissertations and Theses

Saccades are rapid eye movements that move our gaze between successive points of fixation. They are indicative of how we direct our attention and therefore play a role in memory and cognition. For static images, it is established that saccades move faster to faces compared to other objects. We hypothesize that the same is true for videos. To test this hypothesis, saccades to faces in motion pictures have been analyzed. The analysis here entails the recording of saccades to two videos followed by a statistical study of saccades going towards faces or going away from faces. What makes this study …

The Aquatic Particle Number Quandry, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Huanqing Huang, Maureen H. Conte

OES Faculty Publications

Optical surveys of aquatic particles and their particle size spectra have become important tools in studies of light propagation in water, classification of water masses, and the dynamics of trophic interactions affecting particle aggregation and flux. Here, we demonstrate that typical settings used in image analysis vastly underestimate particle numbers due to the particle – gel continuum. Applying a wide range of threshold values to change the sensitivity of our detection system, we show that macrogels cannot be separated from more dense particles, and that a true particle number per volume cannot be ascertained; only relative numbers in relation to …

Theta Burst Brain Stimulation In Painful Diabetic Neuropathy Patients: Investigating Neural Mechanisms, Bhushan Thakkar

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic pain (CP) is a significant contributor to disability and disease burden globally. In 2019, approximately 50.2 million adults (20.4% of the US population) experienced chronic pain, contributing to $560-635 billion in direct medical costs. In addition, the worldwide prevalence of diabetes mellitus has reached epidemic proportions and is set to increase to 629 million by 2045. Almost 50% of patients with diabetes present with diabetic neuropathy (DN), and one in five patients with diabetes presents with painful DN (pDN) which is the most common cause of neuropathic pain (NP) in the US. Symptomatic treatment is the mainstay of management …

Neural Processing Of Semantic Content In Movies, Maximilian Nentwich

Dissertations and Theses

Naturalistic stimuli, such as movies, contain interacting, multimodal and semantic features and allow for free exploration through eye movements. The full extent of neural responses to features such as motion, film cuts and eye movement behavior has not been established. The main hypothesis of this thesis is that complex multimodal and semantic stimuli in naturalistic movies engage a widespread ensemble of locations across the entire brain. To address this question I analyzed simultaneous intracranial and eyetracking data from over 6,000 electrodes across 23 patients with intractable epilepsy. Responses to fast eye movements – saccades – and film cuts are widespread …

Convergence Properties Of Solutions Of A Length-Structured Density-Dependent Model For Fish, Geigh Zollicoffer

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

We numerically study solutions to a length-structured matrix model for fish populations in which the probability that a fish grows into the next length class is a decreasing nonlinear function of the total biomass of the population. We make conjectures about the convergence properties of solutions to this equation, and give numerical simulations which support these conjectures. We also study the distribution of biomass in the different age classes as a function of the total biomass.

Detecting Viral Particles In Vitro Using Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry, Anie-Pier Samson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Covid-19 pandemic is a powerful example of just how damaging the rapid spread of an unknown virus can be. Viruses have the ability to spread rapidly amongst individuals if not treated and controlled. The first key step towards treatment is the timely and specific diagnosis of the virus causing the infection. An innovative method for the rapid detection of viral particles in solution consists of tagging the viral particles paired with using photoacoustic flow cytometry to irradiate the particles and get a signal. The high affinity of Streptavidin for Biotin can be used to bind Streptavidin-coated microspheres to biotinylated …

Classifying Electrocardiogram With Machine Learning Techniques, Hillal Jarrar

Master's Theses

Classifying the electrocardiogram is of clinical importance because classification can be used to diagnose patients with cardiac arrhythmias. Many industries utilize machine learning techniques that consist of feature extraction methods followed by Naive- Bayesian classification in order to detect faults within machinery. Machine learning techniques that analyze vibrational machine data in a mechanical application may be used to analyze electrical data in a physiological application. Three of the most common feature extraction methods used to prepare machine vibration data for Naive-Bayesian classification are the Fourier transform, the Hilbert transform, and the Wavelet Packet transform. Each machine learning technique consists of …

Update Of Multicellular Data Standard To Match Physicell "Compact" Output., Reid A Honeycutt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the field of multicellular biology, it is currently very difficult for researchers to share digital data, due to a lack of standards for said data. Each laboratory will collect data from a particular project, which will describe only the features relevant to their research, and then present that data using written descriptions, charts, graphs, and images. This makes it difficult for the data produced by these studies be leveraged in other research efforts by scientists studying similar phenomena. An open-source, universal standard that attempts to meet this need is the MultiCellular Data Standard (MultiCellDS). MultiCellDS is described as a …

Dimensionality Reduction For Classification Of Object Weight From Electromyography, Elnaz Lashgari, Uri Maoz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Electromyography (EMG) is a simple, non-invasive, and cost-effective technology for measuring muscle activity. However, multi-muscle EMG is also a noisy, complex, and high-dimensional signal. It has nevertheless been widely used in a host of human-machine-interface applications (electrical wheelchairs, virtual computer mice, prosthesis, robotic fingers, etc.) and, in particular, to measure the reach-and-grasp motions of the human hand. Here, we developed an automated pipeline to predict object weight in a reach-grasp-lift task from an open dataset, relying only on EMG data. In doing so, we shifted the focus from manual feature-engineering to automated feature-extraction by using pre-processed EMG signals and thus …

Development And Evaluation Of A Body Weight Support Treadmill For Use With Locomotor Training On Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury Patients., Winston T Rauch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The consequences of spinal cord injury (SCI) are devastating regardless of the age of a patient. When the injury occurs in children five years old or younger, however, the impact is magnified due to the inevitable development of scoliosis (96%) and hip dysplasia (57%) (Schottler et al., 2012). To reduce occurrence of these complications and improve the quality of life for these patients, specialized activity-based therapies such as locomotor training (LT) are being increasingly used to improve overall trunk control and muscle activity in the lower extremities (Harkema et al., 2012; Howland et al., 2014). The aim of this therapy …

Conversion Of Multicellds Digital Snapshots To Isa-Tab Format., Corey P. Chitwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The MultiCellular Data Standard (MultiCellDS) is an interdisciplinary effort to create a data standard for sharing multicellular experimental, simulation, and clinical data. The ultimate goal of the overall project is to allow for data sharing that will lead to better analyses and simulations for multicellular biology and predictive medicine in association with the PhysiCell, a software that allows for simulations of large numbers of cells in 3D tissues. Digital cell lines are files that contain a standardized representation of a biological cell line and include phenotypic parameters as well as microenvironmental conditions for use in simulations. A Digital Cell Line …

Noninvasive Measurement Of Arterial Compliance With A Blood Pressure Cuff Using A Surrogate Arm Bench Top Model For Oscillometric Use, Shane Wilsey

Master's Theses

A surrogate arm model was created that is capable of being used for oscillometry. This model is capable of being used as a bench top model for blood pressure cuff devices. The arm consists of endplates and internal supports that are 3D printed with ABS, a silicone rubber outer sleeve, and interchangeable arteries made from two silicone rubber strips glued together at the edges. The interchangeable arteries have varying compliances that can be used as different inputs for oscillometric testing. A process was established to measure the artery compliances with a curve fit correlation of 0.95. However, testing revealed that …

Modeling Action Potential Propagation During Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Through A Three-Dimensional Computational Model, Julia Elizabeth Kelley

Master's Theses

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common monogenic disorder and the leading cause of sudden arrhythmic death in children and young adults. It is typically asymptomatic and first manifests itself during cardiac arrest, making it a challenge to diagnose in advance. Computational models can explore and reveal underlying molecular mechanisms in cardiac electrophysiology by allowing researchers to alter various parameters such as tissue size or ionic current amplitudes. The goal of this thesis is to develop a computational model in MATLAB and to determine if this model can accurately indicate cases of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This goal is achieved by combining …

Hand Strength And Dexterity Enhancer, Julia Ann Denison, Autumn B. Rexford, Melissa A. Kurani, Christina K. Fong

Biomedical Engineering

Good Grips created the hand strength and dexterity enhancer project to meet the challenge presented by Bill Phelps. He has Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), an inflammatory muscle disease characterized by progressive muscle weakness and atrophy. Bill has limited strength in both hands and lost the ability to bend his fingers, making it difficult to grip anything. He needed a device that would help with everyday tasks such as writing, lifting, and holding various objects.

Our team consists of four engineering students attending Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. We researched, designed, manufactured, and tested a device that would fulfill the problem …