Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

An Enhancement Of Light Reflectance Spectroscopy As A Modality For The Detection Of Positive Surgical Margins In Radical Prostatectomy, Zengxing Pang

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Light Reflectance Spectroscopy (LRS) is an imaging method that has shown increasingly promising evidence in its ability to detect various forms of cancer tissues. Our previous studies have illustrated the LRS modality’s capacity to differentiate normal and cancerous prostate tissues, specifically in its effectiveness in distinguishing cancer tissues classified 4+3 and 4+4 in Gleason Score. Despite having shown sufficient sensitivity and specificity towards prostate cancer detection, the pre-existing imaging system remains impractical for its intended clinical application of detecting positive surgical margins during prostatectomy. Two of the biggest challenges in the current equipment include lack of mobility and slow data …

Feature-Based Discretization Of A Turbine Disk For Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Michael Thomas, Jace Carter, Lloyd Matson, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

There is an economic need to extend the useful life of jet engine rotors. Retirement-for-Cause (RFC) is a lifing method that allows for the continued operation of components passed traditional life limits. Under RFC, an extension of damage tolerance, components are deemed safe for a further service interval using non-destructive inspections (NDI) for crack like defe cts. As components are kept in-service beyond their designed service life it is essential that the probability of failure (POF), or risk, of continued service is known. Under current FAA rotor design certification practices the component POF is analyzed using a probabilistic framework focused …

Inverse Dynamic Analysis Of Acl Reconstructed Knee Joint Biomechanics During Gait And Cycling Using Opensim, Megan V. Pottinger

Master's Theses

ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries of the knee joint alter biomechanics and may cause abnormal loading conditions that place patients at a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA). There are multiple types of ACL reconstruction (ACLR), but all types aim to restore anterior tibial translation and internal tibial rotation following surgery. Analyzing knee joint contact loads provide insight into the loading conditions following ACLR that may contribute to the long-term development of OA. Ten ACLR subjects, who underwent the same reconstruction, performed gait and cycling experiments while kinematic and kinetic data were collected. Inverse dynamic analyses were performed on processed …

Antimicrobial Efficacy And Safety Of A Novel Gas Plasma-Activated Catheter Lock Solution, Sudhir Bhatt, Poonam Mehta, Chen Chen, Dayle A. Daines, Leonard A. Mermel, Hai-Lan Chen, Michael G. Kong

Bioelectrics Publications

Antimicrobial lock solutions are important for prevention of microbial colonization and infection of long-term central venous catheters. We investigated the efficacy and safety of a novel antibiotic-free lock solution formed from gas plasma-activated disinfectant (PAD). Using a luminal biofilm model, viable cells of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans in mature biofilms were reduced by 6 to 8 orders of magnitude with a PAD lock for 60 min. Subsequent 24-h incubation of PAD-treated samples resulted in no detectable regrowth of viable bacteria or fungi. As a comparison, the use of a minocycline-EDTA-ethanol lock solution for 60 …

Evaluation Of A Solar Powered Variable Flow Tail Water Recovery System For Furrow Irrigation, Vaishali Kandpal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Furrow irrigation is a very common irrigation method for growing crops like soybean, cotton and corn in Arkansas. A major portion of this irrigation water is lost as runoff from the field significantly reducing the irrigation application efficiency. There are various methods of improving irrigation efficiency and one of the methods is using tail-water recovery. A tail-water recovery system utilizes tail-water recovery ditches or pits to collect tail-water which can be re-used for irrigation. However, this method is very labor intensive and has been found to be economically non-feasible for some farms in the past research studies. In order to …

Shipboard Design And Fabrication Of Custom 3d-Printed Soft Robotic Manipulators For The Investigation Of Delicate Deep-Sea Organisms, Daniel M. Vogt, Kaitlyn P. Becker, Brennan T. Phillips, Moritz A. Graule, Randi D. Rotjan, Timothy M. Shank, Erik E. Cordes, Robert J. Wood, David F. Gruber

Publications and Research

Soft robotics is an emerging technology that has shown considerable promise in deep-sea marine biological applications. It is particularly useful in facilitating delicate interactions with fragile marine organisms. This study describes the shipboard design, 3D printing and integration of custom soft robotic manipulators for investigating and interacting with deep-sea organisms. Soft robotics manipulators were tested down to 2224m via a Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) and facilitated the study of a diverse suite of soft-bodied and fragile marine life. Instantaneous feedback from the ROV pilots and biologists allowed for rapid re-design, such as adding ªfingernailsº, …

Evaluation Of Drug-Loaded Gold Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity As A Function Of Tumor Tissue Heterogeneity., Hunter Allan Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inherent heterogeneity of tumor tissue presents a major challenge to nanoparticle-medicated drug delivery. This heterogeneity spans from the molecular to the cellular (cell types) and to the tissue (vasculature, extra-cellular matrix) scales. Here we employ computational modeling to evaluate therapeutic response as a function of vascular-induced tumor tissue heterogeneity. Using data with three-layered gold nanoparticles loaded with cisplatin, nanotherapy is simulated with different levels of tissue heterogeneity, and the treatment response is measured in terms of tumor regression. The results show that tumor vascular density non-trivially influences the nanoparticle uptake and washout, and the associated tissue response. The drug …

Application Of Fractal Dimension For Quantifying Noise Texture In Computed Tomography Images, P. Khobragade, Jiahua Fan, Franco Rupcich, Dominic J. Crotty, Taly Gilat Schmidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

Evaluation of noise texture information in CT images is important for assessing image quality. Noise texture is often quantified by the noise power spectrum (NPS), which requires numerous image realizations to estimate. This study evaluated fractal dimension for quantifying noise texture as a scalar metric that can potentially be estimated using one image realization.

Methods

The American College of Radiology CT accreditation phantom (ACR) was scanned on a clinical scanner (Discovery CT750, GE Healthcare) at 120 kV and 25 and 90 mAs. Images were reconstructed using filtered back projection (FBP/ASIR 0%) with varying reconstruction kernels: Soft, Standard, Detail, Chest, …

Rotary Pump Speed Modulation To Produce Pulsatile Flow And Ventricular Volume Unloading., Connor Joseph Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Continuous-flow (CF) left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have gained widespread clinical acceptance as a treatment option for advanced heart failure (HF); however, they have also been associated with an increased risk of adverse events, including gastrointestinal bleeding, aortic insufficiency, and hemorrhagic stroke. It has been hypothesized that the increase in adverse event incidence may be due in part to diminished vascular pulsatility and high shear stress when CF-LVADs are operated at fixed speeds. Previous studies have shown that pump speed modulation generates greater levels of pulsatility in rotary pumps than when operated at fixed speeds. The objective of this …

Uncoupling Fermentative Synthesis Of Molecular Hydrogen From Biomass Formation In Thermotoga Maritima, Raghuveer Singh, Derrick White, Yaşar Demirel, Robert Kelley, Kenneth Noll, Paul H. Blum

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

When carbohydrates are fermented by the hyperthermophilic anaerobe Thermotoga maritima, molecular hydrogen (H₂) is formed in strict proportion to substrate availability. Excretion of the organic acids acetate and lactate provide an additional sink for removal of excess reductant. However, mechanisms controlling energy management of these metabolic pathways are largely unexplored. To investigate this topic, transient gene inactivation was used to block lactate production as a strategy to produce spontaneous mutant cell lines that overproduced H₂ through mutation of unpredicted genetic targets. Single-crossover homologous chromosomal recombination was used to disrupt lactate dehydrogenase (encoded by ldh) with …

Gold Nanoparticles For Stem Cell Delivery In Myocardial Infarction: Analysis Of Toxicity And Development Of A Cell Culture Platform For Use In An In-Vitro Model Of Mi-Associated Ischemia/Reperfusion, Jeffrey Curran Henson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work, the potential for PEGylated gold nanoparticles for use as a platform for stem cell delivery in treatment of myocardial infarction (MI) is preliminarily investigated. Cardiovascular disease is currently the leading cause of death worldwide, with majority of mortality resulting from coronary artery disease and associated MI. The ensuing ischemic conditions resulting from MI cause substantial heart muscle tissue loss and scarring in the heart. Adverse tissue remodeling creates a significant loss in heart function that can result in the formation of cardiac hypertrophy, ventricular dilation and arrythmias. The long-term prognosis of patients who have suffered MI is …

Biofidelic Piezoresistive Sandwich Composites, Nengda Jiang

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Silicone based biofidelic surrogates are being used in many biomedical applications; e.g. to understand the body injury mechanisms, evaluate protective equipment like helmets and armors. Apart from matching the mechanical behavior of bodily tissues, there is an increasing requirement for these materials to be electrically conductive and piezoresistive to facilitate direct instrumentation. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a possible filler to impart electrical conductivity and piezoresistivity to silicone biofidelic materials. A sandwich structure of silicone and CNT sheet, comprising two dielectric facesheets and a highly conductive core layer has added advantages of raising the dielectric permittivity and suppressing dielectric loss.

In …

Studying The Applicability Of Biostimulated Calcite Precipitation In Stabilizing Expansive Soils, Md Touhidul Islam

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Of the four types of soils, clays are often associated with issues related to low bearing capacity, high compressibility, swelling and shrinking nature. For example, expansive soils swell and shrink with moisture ingress and digress and are prevalent in several parts of the world causing billions of dollars in damages annually to various civil infrastructures. Several ground improvement techniques such as chemical stabilization, deep soil mixing, moisture barriers, and others were employed to counteract these soils. However, these methods are impractical in certain situations and unsustainable in others due to their economic and environmental impacts. Microbiological treatment of soils could …

Time Evolution Of Ecog Network Connectivity In Patients With Refractory Epilepsy, Michael J. Selesko

Masters Theses

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that causes recurrent, unprovoked seizures. Focal, refractory epilepsy is characterized by seizures that start in a specific area in the brain and do not respond to antiepileptic medication. This study was conducted to characterize the connectivity of the focal brain region where seizures originate, known as the epileptogenic zone. Connectivity was measured from electrocorticogram (ECoG) recordings, during seizure events, using information theoretic measures mutual information (MI) and (TE). MI is the amount of information shared between two discrete random variables. TE is the directed information transfer between two discrete random variables. MI provides information …

Identification Of The Seizure Onset Zone By Auto-Regressive Model Residual Modulation Applied To Intracranial Eeg And Its Correlation To Channels With High Preponderances Of Detected Hfos, Allison L. Rogutich

Masters Theses

The objective of this thesis was to examine the ability of the Autoregressive Model Residual Modulation (ARRm) method to identify the Seizure Onset Zone (SOZ) in intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) of patients with refractory epilepsy. Patients who have not become seizure free after multiple trials of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) may seek treatment through epilepsy surgery. Cortical electrodes are implanted directly on the cerebral cortex, then iEEG is collected. A specialized neurologist reviews the iEEG, then in consultation with the neurosurgeon, the SOZ is determined and areas of the brain may be chosen for resection. The success rate of epilepsy surgery varies, …

Piezoresponse, Mechanical, And Electrical Characteristics Of Synthetic Spider Silk Nanofibers, Nader Shehata, Ishac Kandas, Ibrahim Hassounah, Patrik Sobolčiak, Igor Krupa, Miroslav Mrlik, Anton Popelka, Jesse Steadman, Randolph V. Lewis

Biology Faculty Publications

This work presents electrospun nanofibers from synthetic spider silk protein, and their application as both a mechanical vibration and humidity sensor. Spider silk solution was synthesized from minor ampullate silk protein (MaSp) and then electrospun into nanofibers with a mean diameter of less than 100 nm. Then, mechanical vibrations were detected through piezoelectric characteristics analysis using a piezo force microscope and a dynamic mechanical analyzer with a voltage probe. The piezoelectric coefficient (d₃₃) was determined to be 3.62 pC/N. During humidity sensing, both mechanical and electric resistance properties of spider silk nanofibers were evaluated at varying high-level …

Determining The Effect Of Locally Delivered Bioactive Modulators On Macrophage Activation At The Implantation Site Of Different Biomaterials In Rats, Kamel Alkhatib

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Altering the foreign body reaction by targeting macrophages has been of interest in the biomaterials field to improve the integration of longevity of implanted biomedical devices. The objective of this dissertation was to study the effect of locally delivered bioactive modulators on macrophage activation at the implantation site of different biomaterials in rats. Iloprost, a prostacyclin analog, was tested for its ability to direct macrophages to their pro-wound healing phenotype after the implantation of microdialysis probe in the subcutaneous space of male Sprague Dawley rats. This study showed that iloprost can shift macrophage activation states in vivo to the pro-wound …

Development And Optimization Of A Produced Water, Biofilm Based Microalgae Cultivation System For Biocrude Conversion With Hydrothermal Liquefaction, Benjamin L. Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extraction of oil and gas in Utah’s Uintah Basin results in large quantities of wastewater, or produced water, with nutrients and residual organic chemical that represent a significant resource for producing energy-related and value-added products. Produced water was obtained as a biomass producing nutrient source from industries operating in Utah’s Uintah Basin. Within the Uintah Basin (defined as Uintah and Duchesne Counties within Utah) approximately 93 million barrels of water were produced in 2013 while only 11% of the water was disposed of through evaporation, with the national average at 2%. The rest is reinjected into the subsurface.

The goal …

Novel Methods To Produce Large Recombinant Spider Silk Proteins Via Polymerization, Nathan L. Hebert

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spider silk has long been a subject of scientific research due to its remarkable mechanical properties. Until recently, there has been no way to effectively obtain spider silk except by harvesting it from individual spiders. With advances in technology, the genes that code for the individual spider silk proteins have been isolated and genetically engineered into other hosts to produce recombinant spider silk proteins (rSSp) of varying sizes, Larger rSSp have correspondingly greater mechanical properties in any resulting materials. Using current production methods, larger rSSp cannot be produced in commercially viable quantities while simultaneously being economically viable. The current production …

Development And Characterization Of Aqueous-Based Recombinant Spider Silk Protein Biomaterials With Investigations Into Potential Applications, Thomas I. Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spider silks are incredible natural materials that possess desirable combinations of strength, elasticity, weight, and robustness. Other properties such as biocompatibility and biodegradability further increase the worth of these materials. The possibility of farming spiders is impractical due to spiders’ natural behaviors. Modern biotechnologies have allowed for recombinant spider silk proteins (rSSps) to be produced without the use of spiders. However, the features responsible for spider silks impressive properties can cause difficulties with producing silk materials. A recently developed water-based and biomimetic solvation method has provided a solution to such difficulties and has also led to novel silk biomaterials. Most …