Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Auto-Ethnographic Reflections: Lessons From Leading A Stem Initiative For Girls In School While We Ourselves Were In School, Kayli Heather Battel, Kritin Mandala, Sreyoshi Bhaduri, Natalie Anna Foster, Lilianny Virguez, Lissa Erickson, Krishna Pakala

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we use an auto-ethnographic approach to describe first-hand the reflections and learnings from leading an organization to help school children, especially girls, familiarize themselves with STEM and Cyber Security. The primary authors and ethnographers are founders of STEM initiatives for young learners. The primary author is a recent high school graduate who has taken up an engineering field, and two other contributing authors are high-schoolers currently leading these initiatives. With help from the three engineering educators on our authorship team, we use our individual self-narratives to develop a set of recommendations for other young engineering educators across …

Opportunities From Disruption: How Lifelong Learning Helped Create More Connected Classrooms, Krishna Pakala, Sreyoshi Bhaduri

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The coronavirus pandemic has led to instructors worldwide seeking ways to engage students better through virtual platforms. As the world interacts online, more than ever before, this paper reflects on an educator’s experience with the virtual teaching and learning spaces pre and during the ongoing pandemic. Autoethnography is a research methodology that analyzes a phenomenon through the use of self-narratives, which would otherwise remain private or buried. This paper uses an autoethnographic approach to describe first-hand. the experiences and learnings of an educator at a Western US Public University. This paper describes how first as an international student, a first …

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Recurrent Dissociation Of Modular Humeral Prostheses, Daniel B. Luckenbill, Mike F. Iossi, Alyssa M. George Whitney, Danielle Miller, Lynn A. Crosby, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the force and torque required to dissociate a humeral head from the unimplanted modular total shoulder replacement system from different manufacturers and to determine if load and torque to dissociation are reduced in the presence of bodily fluids. Impingement, taper contamination, lack of compressive forces, and interference of taper fixation by the proximal humerus have all been reported as possible causes for dissociation. Experimental values determined in this research were compared with literature estimates of dissociation force of the humeral head under various conditions to gain more understanding of the causes of …

The Low Abundance Of Cpg In The Sars-Cov-2 Genome Is Not An Evolutionarily Signature Of Zap, Ali Afrasiabi, Hamid Alinejad-Rokny, Azad Khosh, Mostafa Rahnama, Nigel Lovell, Zhenming Xu, Diako Ebrahimi

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

The zinc finger antiviral protein (ZAP) is known to restrict viral replication by binding to the CpG rich regions of viral RNA, and subsequently inducing viral RNA degradation. This enzyme has recently been shown to be capable of restricting SARS-CoV-2. These data have led to the hypothesis that the low abundance of CpG in the SARS-CoV-2 genome is due to an evolutionary pressure exerted by the host ZAP. To investigate this hypothesis, we performed a detailed analysis of many coronavirus sequences and ZAP RNA binding preference data. Our analyses showed neither evidence for an evolutionary pressure acting specifically on CpG …

Bladder Tumor In A Young Leukemic Patient Cured By Chemotherapy: A Case Report, Mohamed Tebaa, Mamoutou Dit Mody, Sylla Mahamadou, Mohamed Amine Lakmichi

Health Sciences

Adult bladder tumor is estimated to be the 10th most common tumor worldwide. However, its incidence is much less common in children. It is a disease of the elderly that peaks in the sixth decade of life. Nevertheless, bladder tumors could also affect children, adolescents, and young adults with a prevalence of

Utilizing Nasa-Funded Biotechnology To Improve Resource Management On Earth And In Space, Tyler Wallentine

Research on Capitol Hill

USU senior Tyler is a Peak Summer Research Fellow studying biological engineering. Nitrogen, essential in soil fertilizer for crops, is produced traditionally in a way that uses natural gas and produces CO2. Tyler’s project has been to apply methods developed by NASA for astronauts to conserve and reuse resources to create nitrogen using wastewater and bacteria. Using this method would not only take advantage of waste we already have, but doesn’t produce CO2 and contribute to pollution. Tyler hopes to become a chemical engineer in the space industry and credits his undergraduate research experience. “There’s something about having to obtain …

What Drug Candidates Exist For Treating Covid-19 Variants?, Kolton Hauck

Research on Capitol Hill

USU senior Kolton studies biological engineering and led this project with funding from a student grant. Kolton’s project has been mapping out all possible protein interactions from known SARS-CoV-2 variants and identifying possible drug treatments. Viruses function through these interactions between their proteins and the host cell’s proteins, and this project is especially valuable because the candidates identified are predicted to help treat all known variants, making them more likely to be effective against future mutations.Kolton’s interest in biological research stems from his own experience managing a genetic health disorder. Past medical research greatly benefited him, and he sees his …

Can Cannibinoids Be Used To Prevent Lung Damage From Utah Air Pollution?, Emily Brothersen

Research on Capitol Hill

USU senior Emily, a Mantua native, is an Honors student and Undergraduate Research Fellow. She studies Biological Engineering and has funded and led this project herself with multiple student grants. Emily has been investigating a way to study cell health that can help future researchers test treatments more quickly and affordably. She has used this method to research the potential of cannabinoids to help protect people from lung damage caused by pollution, an issue topical to Utah with our frequent inversions and growing medical cannabis industry. Emily has been involved in research throughout her time at USU and sees it …

Subomiembed: Self-Supervised Representation Learning Of Multi-Omics Data For Cancer Type Classification, Sayed Hashim, Muhammad Ali, Karthik Nandakumar, Mohammad Yaqub

Computer Vision Faculty Publications

For personalized medicines, very crucial intrinsic information is present in high dimensional omics data which is difficult to capture due to the large number of molecular features and small number of available samples. Different types of omics data show various aspects of samples. Integration and analysis of multi-omics data give us a broad view of tumours, which can improve clinical decision making. Omics data, mainly DNA methylation and gene expression profiles are usually high dimensional data with a lot of molecular features. In recent years, variational autoencoders (VAE) [13] have been extensively used in embedding image and text data into …

Postural Control Differences Between Patients With Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction And Healthy People During Gait, Junsig Wang, L. Daniel Latt, Robert D. Martin, Erin M. Mannen

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Patients with posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD) may exhibit postural instability during walking likely due to a loss of medial longitudinal arch, abnormal foot alignment, and pain. While many studies have investigated gait alterations in PTTD, there is no understanding of dynamic postural control mechanisms in this population during gait, which will help guide rehabilitation and gait training programs for patients with PTTD. The purpose of the study was to assess dynamic postural control mechanisms in patients with stage II PTTD as compared to age and gender matched healthy controls. Methods: Eleven patients with stage II PTTD (4 males …

Integration Of Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy For Multichannel Cell Culture Measurement, Conard Chan

Master's Theses

ELECTROCHEMICAL IMPEDANCE SPECTROSCOPY (EIS) has been widely used to study the electrical properties of biological material due to its non-invasive nature and experimental reliability. However, most of the precision impedance analyzers used in EIS only provide single- or two-channel measurements which are inadequate for larger-scale multiplexed measurements, such as those found in modern microfluidic cell culture experiments. The Biomedical Microsystems Laboratory has developed a 16-channel cell culture platform with integrated electrode arrays for monitoring cell growth and electrical properties (i.e., the so-called “electrical phenotype”). In this paper, a system consisting of a 16-channel solid-state analog multiplexer (MUX)paired with a low-cost, …

Neural Control Of Stopping And Stabilizing The Arm, Shanie A. L. Jayasinghe, Robert A. Scheidt, Robert L. Sainburg

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Stopping is a crucial yet under-studied action for planning and producing meaningful and efficient movements. In this review, we discuss classical human psychophysics studies as well as those using engineered systems that aim to develop models of motor control of the upper limb. We present evidence for a hybrid model of motor control, which has an evolutionary advantage due to division of labor between cerebral hemispheres. Stopping is a fundamental aspect of movement that deserves more attention in research than it currently receives. Such research may provide a basis for understanding arm stabilization deficits that can occur following central nervous …

Development Of Custom Wall-Less Cardiovascular Flow Phantoms With Tissue-Mimicking Gel, Megan Laughlin, Sam E. Stephens, Jamie A. Hestekin, Morten O. Jensen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

Flow phantoms are used in experimental settings to aid in the simulation of blood flow. Custom geometries are available, but current phantom materials present issues with degradability and/or mimicking the mechanical properties of human tissue. In this study, a method of fabricating custom wall-less flow phantoms from a tissue-mimicking gel using 3D printed inserts is developed.

Methods

A 3D blood vessel geometry example of a bifurcated artery model was 3D printed in polyvinyl alcohol, embedded in tissue-mimicking gel, and subsequently dissolved to create a phantom. Uniaxial compression testing was performed to determine the Young’s moduli of the five gel …

Anesthetics Affect Peripheral Venous Pressure Waveforms And The Cross-Talk With Arterial Pressure, Ali Z. Al-Alawi, Kaylee R. Henry, Lauren D. Crimmins, Patrick C. Bonasso, Md Abul Hayat, Melvin S. Dassinger, Jeffrey M. Burford, Hanna K. Jensen, Joseph Sanford, Jingxian Wu, Kevin W. Sexton, Morten O. Jensen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Analysis of peripheral venous pressure (PVP) waveforms is a novel method of monitoring intravascular volume. Two pediatric cohorts were studied to test the effect of anesthetic agents on the PVP waveform and cross-talk between peripheral veins and arteries: (1) dehydration setting in a pyloromyotomy using the infused anesthetic propofol and (2) hemorrhage setting during elective surgery for craniosynostosis with the inhaled anesthetic isoflurane. PVP waveforms were collected from 39 patients that received propofol and 9 that received isoflurane. A multiple analysis of variance test determined if anesthetics influence the PVP waveform. A prediction system was built using k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) …

A Detailed Hydrodynamic Study Of The Split-Plate Airlift Reactor By Using Non-Invasive Gamma-Ray Techniques, Laith S. Sabri, Abbas J. Sultan, Hasan Shakir Majdi, Shadha K. Jebur, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study focused on detailed investigations of selected local hydrodynamics in split airlift reactor by using an unconventional measurements facility: computed tomography (CT) and radioactive particle tracking (RPT). The local distribution in a cross-sectional manner with its radial's profiles for gas holdup, liquid velocity flow field, shear stresses, and turbulent kinetic energy were studied under various gas velocity 1, 2 and 3 cm/s with various six axial level z = 12, 20, 40, 60, 90 and 112 cm. The distribution in gas–liquid phases in the whole split reactor column, the riser and downcomer sides, including their behavior at the top …

Tracking The Heavy Metal Contaminants Entrained With The Flow Into A Trickle Bed Hydrotreating Reactor Packed With Different Catalyst Shapes Using Newly Developed Noninvasive Dynamic Radioactive Particle Tracking, Binbin Qi, Omar Farid, Alexandre França Velo, Jihane Mendil, Sebastián Uribe, Yasunobu Kaneko, Kei Sakakura, Yasuhito Kagota, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A newly developed modified Dynamic Radioactive Particle Tracking system (DRPT) was used to investigate the heavy metal contaminants deposition locations in different catalyst beds, sphere, cylinder, trilobe, and quadrilobed in Trickle Bed Reactors. In the present paper, Kernel Density Estimator (KDE) was used to estimate the probability density distributions of heavy metal contaminants depositions in terms of bed radius height. The result shows that the four cases have similar probability density distribution in terms of radius, while the spherical catalyst has the larger distribution range in terms of bed height. The heavy metal deposition is directly related to the pressure …

Geant4 Simulation For Radioactive Particle Tracking (Rpt) Technique, Ahmed A. Alghamdi, Thaar M. Aljuwaya, Abdullah S. Alomari, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the past two decades, the radioactive particle tracking (RPT) measurement technique has been proven to visualize flow fields of most multiphase flow systems of industrial interest. The accuracy of RPT, and hence the data obtained, depend largely on the calibration process, which stands here as a basis for two subsequent processes: tracking and reconstruction. However, limitations in the RPT calibration process can be found in different experimental constrains and in assumptions made in the classical Monte Carlo approach used to simulate number of counts received by the detectors. Therefore, in this work, we applied a GEANT4-based Monte Carlo code …

Flow Regimes In Gas-Solid Fluidized Beds Via Micro-Foil Heat Flux Sensor, Haidar Taofeeq, Sebastián Uribe, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The flow regime transitions in a gas-solid fluidized bed were studied for the first time using a micro-foil heat flux sensor. The time series of heat flux signals was analyzed by statistical and state space methods. The experimental measurements were performed in a lab-scale gas-solid fluidization column. Four different flow regimes, i.e., fixed-bed flow regime, bubbling-flow regime, slugging-flow regime, and turbulent-flow regime, and three intermediate transition velocities, i.e., minimum fluidizing velocity or minimum bubbling velocity, minimum slugging velocity, and minimum turbulent velocity, were successfully identified. The method based on the analysis of heat flux sensor measurements allowed to determine accurately …

Assessment Of Protection Offered By The Nrf2 Pathway Against Hyperoxia-Induced Acute Lung Injury In Nrf2 Knockout Rats, Said H. Audi, Elizabeth R. Jacobs, Taheri Pardis, Swetha Ganesh, Anne V. Clough

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) is a redox-sensitive transcription factor that responds to oxidative stress by activating expressions of key antioxidant and cytoprotective enzymes via the Nrf2-antioxidant response element (ARE) signaling pathway. Our objective was to characterize hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury (HALI) in Nrf2 knock-out (KO) rats to elucidate the role of this pathway in HALI. Adult Nrf2 wildtype (WT), and KO rats were exposed to room air (normoxia) or >95% O₂ (hyperoxia) for 48 h, after which selected injury and functional endpoints were measured in vivo and ex vivo. Results demonstrate that the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway …

Representation Learning For Chemical Activity Predictions, Mohamed S. Ayed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Computational prediction of a phenotypic response upon the chemical perturbation on a biological system plays an important role in drug discovery and many other applications. Chemical fingerprints derived from chemical structures are a widely used feature to build machine learning models. However, the fingerprints ignore the biological context, thus, they suffer from several problems such as the activity cliff and curse of dimensionality. Fundamentally, the chemical modulation of biological activities is a multi-scale process. It is the genome-wide chemical-target interactions that modulate chemical phenotypic responses. Thus, the genome-scale chemical-target interaction profile will more directly correlate with in vitro and in …