Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of An Electrospinning Apparatus For The Deposition Of Pmma Polymer For Biomedical Applications, Harsha Malshe

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper describes the successful design and fabrication of a deposition system for synthesis and assembly of nanoscale and submicron sized fibers of poly(methylmethacrylate)(PMMA) polymer. To optimize the electrospinning deposition process, the distance between the needle and the electrically grounded substrate, the applied voltage, and the concentration of PMMA polymer in the solution were varied. PMMA fibers as small as 500 nanometers were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chemical signature of PMMA was confirmed for best quality and retention of chemistry using Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). PMMA is a biocompatible polymer, and nanofibers of PMMA are key …

A Secure Behavior Modification Sensor System For Physical Activity Improvement, Alan Price

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Today, advances in wireless sensor networks are making it possible to capture large amounts of information about a person and their interaction within their home environment. However, what is missing is how to ensure the security of the collected data and its use to alter human behavior for positive benefit.

In this research, exploration was conducted involving the "infrastructure" and "intelligence" aspects of a wireless sensor network through a Behavior Modification Sensor System. First was to understand how a secure wireless sensor network could be established through the symmetric distribution of keys (the securing of the infrastructure), and it involves …

The Role Of Conflict Management On Virtual Team Performance And Satisfaction, Pilar Pazos, Anil Ustun, Rolando Delaguila

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The role that input factors from project planning processes play on conflict emergence and conflict resolution in virtual teams is not well understood. Of particular interest for this paper is the role that factors during planning stages play in preventing interpersonal conflict, supporting conflict resolution and ultimately enhancing team outcomes in virtual team settings. This study examines the relationships among commitment to team goals, conflict management and team outcomes in virtual teams. First we provide an in depth review of relevant empirical findings. Next, we describe a study examining the relationships between three sets of variables: 1) goal commitment, 2) …

Comparison Of Progression Of Diffuse Axonal Injury With Histology And Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Nisrine Zakaria

Wayne State University Dissertations

Diffuse axonal injury, also known as traumatic axonal injury (TAI), is a major contributor to the pathology of traumatic brain injury. However, TAI is undetectable to conventional clinical magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques. Histologically, TAI is characterized by swollen axons that eventually disconnect and form axonal retraction balls (RB) in various white matter tracts. MR-diffusion tensor imaging (MR-DTI) has been reported to be sensitive to TAI in human TBI patients by measuring water molecular diffusion motion in white matter fiber tracts. To date, only one correlative animal study has been carried out to investigate the DTI relationship to TAI, and …

The Incidence Of Type-1 Diabetes In Nod Mice Is Modulated By Restricted Flora Not Germ-Free Conditions., Cecile King, Nora Sarvetnick

Journal Articles: Regenerative Medicine

In the NOD mouse, the incidence of type-1 diabetes is thought to be influenced by the degree of cleanliness of the mouse colony. Studies collectively demonstrate that exposure to bacterial antigen or infection in the neonatal period prevents diabetes [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], supporting the notion that immunostimulation can benefit the maturation of the postnatal immune system [11]. A widely accepted extrapolation from this data has been the notion that NOD mice maintained under germ-free conditions have an increased incidence of diabetes. However, evidence supporting this influential concept is surprisingly limited [12]. In this …

Characterization Of Multifunctional Biodegradable - Biocompatible Icg-Loaded Nanoparticles And Their Feasibility For Prostate Cancer Imaging And Phototherapy, Ronak Patel

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the United States, and the second leading cause of cancer death in men. The conventional diagnostic procedures use an invasive approach to collect the biopsy tissue samples. Also, treatments currently used include radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgical removal of the prostate associated with high risks of surgical complications. Among all the imaging modalities, Near Infrared (NIR) optical imaging could be a possible candidate for minimally invasive diagnosis of prostate cancer with avoidance of harmful radiation and relatively low cost. This motivation brings the development of multifunctional polymeric (di- lactide-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) Nanoparticles …

Organic Biocompatible Nanolayered Polymerization Of Solid-State Devices, Sri Divya Vidyala

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Nanotechnology plays a major role in today's society due to its convergence of nanoscale which is the level of atoms and molecules as a part of miniaturization trend. The interference between biomedical and nanotechnology are of intense research. It concerns about the utilization of miniature biological systems such as nucleic acids, proteins, cells and cellular components to fabricate functional organic and inorganic nanostructures. This research work focuses on the process of developing a simple method to obtain fluorinated organic nanocoating which can be used to coat 3D structures and also explain the extended applications of the coating in the fields …

Substrate Stiffness Adjustable Pdms Device/Array For Understanding Its Effect On Cell Growth, Differentiation And Migration, Chetan Bhuwania

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

The mechanical properties of the cellular environment play an important role in the functioning of the cell. Cells attach to the extracellular matrix or other surrounding cells, thus sensing their mechanical properties and tune their own internal mechanical properties accordingly. A number of in vitro studies have been performed to study various cellular mechanical phenomena, but most of them employ a very stiff substrate such as glass or plastic that does not encompass the physiologically relevant range. Also, for tissues of the nervous system, the relationship between the substrate stiffness and the cellular behavior is less understood. In this study, …

Diagnosis Of Breast Cancer Using Auto-Flourescence Lifetime And Light Reflectance Spectroscopy: A Potential Tool For Positive Margin Assessment, Shivaranjani Shivalingaiah

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Malignant Breast Neoplasm (MBN) or breast cancer is a heterogeneous cancer type originating in the breast tissue. Surgery is considered the primary treatment for breast cancer, with many early stage patients being cured without recurrence. The goals of the surgery include complete resection of the primary tumor, with negative margins to reduce the risk of local recurrences. Further, pathological staging of the tumor and axillary lymph nodes are carried out to extract necessary prognostic information. Surgery works well in case of complete Mastectomies. However, the biggest challenge for this technique is determining adequate margins on the partial mastectomy (lumpectomy) specimen. …

A Viscoelastic Model For Human Prolapsed Vaginal Wall Tissue, Milton Ma

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) affects thousands of elderly women each year. Improvements in surgical repair could benefit from the understanding of the biomechanical properties of the vaginal wall (VW) tissues to better tailor the needed repair. VW tissue property has been measured by uniaxial tensile test on excised fresh human anterior VW tissues. Data available, however, are limited to elastic modulus obtained in vitro. Recently, in vivo biomechanical data of VW from POP patients have been obtained by adapting a cutometer-like device, the BTC-2000TM (SRLI). The Voigt and Standard Linear models in conjunction with the framework of quasi-linear viscoelasticity theory …

3-Dimensional Scanning And Reconstruction Using A Modified Hrt-Rcm Corneal Confocal Microscope, Saurabh Vaidya

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

The HRT II - Rostock Corneal Module (HRT II-RCM) provides excellent resolution, contrast and optical sectioning capability for cornea imaging. It offers the most detailed views of cornea structure and pathology. However, the major limitation of this microscope is its scanning method. It has a threaded dial on the front side of the microscope which is coupled to the objective, and this dial has to be rotated manually to change the focal plane and to scan through the cornea.The dial is within inches of the cornea. During the scans, manual control causes serious interference and degrades the quality of the …

Optimization Of Hydrogel System For Complex Wound Healing, Nikhil Vilas Aphale

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Various conventional therapies and preventive measures have been developed and used for treating complex wounds; however, patients with complex wounds still develop wound infection and consist of delayed wound healing. These limitations necessitate the development of a novel therapeutic system, which is cost effective, easily apply onto the complex wounds, and consists of an efficient therapeutic nature. An in situ forming hydrogel system, made up of a novel biodegradable elastomer poly (ethylene glycol) maleate citrate (PEGMC), was designed and optimized for complex wound healing. Biocompatibility of this hydrogel system was studied by determining the toxicity of both the formation factors, …

Development Of A Biomechanical Surrogate For The Evaluation Of Commotio Cordis Protection, Nathan Dau

Wayne State University Dissertations

Commotio Cordis (CC) has proven to be life threatening for young athletes as it is the second leading cause of mortality in youth sports. In the past 15 years, researchers have been working to understand the pathophysiology of this event. It has been proven that impacts directly over the cardiac silhouette during a vulnerable period of the cardiac cycle can cause CC. In order to reduce the occurrence of CC in sports, chest protectors need to be tested for efficacy. Currently there is no biofidelic surrogate to serve this purpose. In order to test equipment to a given standard of …

Exploring The Potential Of Inkjet Printing For The Fabrication Of Tissue Test Systems, Vidya Seshadri

All Theses

Animal models and two-dimensional assays involved in drug testing, vaccine development and basic scientific discovery are not an accurate representation of the human body; hence there is a need to develop new bench top methodologies which are better suited to yield information about in vivo behavior. There is a paucity of reliable in vitro-derived information regarding the reasons for the cause and progression of diseases. These concerns have lead to the development of three-dimensional systems which can facilitate improved understanding of disease etiology and also can bridge the path to the clinic.
The long term goal, beyond the scope of …

Ethanol Yields And Cell Wall Properties In Divergently Bred Switchgrass Genotypes, Gautam Sarath, Bruce S. Dien, Aaron J. Saathoff, Kenneth P. Vogel, Robert B. Mitchell, Han Chen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Genetic modification of herbaceous plant cell walls to increase biofuels yields is a primary bioenergy research goal. Using two switchgrass populations developed by divergent breeding for ruminant digestibility, the contributions of several wall-related factors to ethanol yields was evaluated. Field grown low lignin plants significantly out yielded high lignin plants for conversion to ethanol by 39.1% and extraction of xylans by 12%. However, across all plants analyzed, greater than 50% of the variation in ethanol yields was attributable to changes in tissue and cell wall architecture, and responses of stem biomass to diluteacid pretreatment. Although lignin levels were lower in …

Magnetic Resonance Image Processing Using Levy, Jonathan Blackledge, Matthew D. Blackledge

Conference papers

We consider the physical nature of the self-diffusion of water molecules in tissue and explore how (Nuclear) Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging may be used as a means of measuring the rate of diffusion in vivo. A discussion is presented on how these techniques may be implemented as a non-invasive means of assessing the response of tumours to novel therapeutics including some of the basic advantages and disadvan- tages when compared to other methods. The physical basis and mathematical models for diffusion are considered together with models for the distribution of the diffusion co- efficient including a Lévy distributed model. Using …

Heterogeneous Modeling Of Medical Image Data Using B-Spline Functions, Olya Grove

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ongoing developments in the field of medical imaging modalities have pushed the frontiers of modern medicine and biomedical engineering, prompting the need for new applications to improve diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases.

Biomedical data visualization and modeling rely predominately on manual processing and utilization of voxel and facet based homogeneous models. Biological structures are naturally heterogeneous and in order to accurately design and biomimic biological structures, properties such as chemical composition, size and shape of biological constituents need to be incorporated in the computational biological models.

Our proposed approach involves generating a density point cloud based on the intensity …

Targeted Nanoparticles For Cancer Therapy: Promises And Challenge, Kytai Truong Nguyen

Bioengineering Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of Microbubble/Droplet Formation In Cross-Flow And Co-Flow Micro Devices, Tom J. John

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary goal of the work presented in this dissertation is to generate microbubbles of a diameter of less than 15μm inside micro channels. In order to achieve this detailed understanding, the facts and limitations behind the generation of microbubbles inside a micro channel are determined from existing literature. The major limitations of the current bubble/droplet generators are found to be the bubble confinement effect, the merging of bubbles, the difficulty in determining bubble diameter and the need for smaller channels to generate smaller bubbles. A device eliminating these drawbacks is conceptualized, and its feasibility is studied using COMSOL® and …

Comparison Of Brain Activity In The Prefrontal Cortex During Digit Span Task Between Student Veterans With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder And Controls Using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Bejoy Mathai

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is an optical non-invasive imaging technique which makes use of infrared light at particular wavelengths to measure the changes in concentrations of oxygenated blood haemoglobin (HbO) as well as the deoxygenated blood haemoglobin (HbR). Making use of this technique to acquire measurements during different functional activities subcategorises it into the novel and fast developing field of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). In my study I have made use of this novel imaging technique to study the pre-frontal cortex while the subject performs the functional task of digit span task consisting of the forward digit span and …