Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Experimental Analysis Of Diesel Engine Combustion Chamber Performance Using Field Measurements At The State Company For Heavy Engineering Equipment, Mohammed Kanaan Sedeeq

Al-Esraa University College Journal for Engineering Sciences

The current paper provides a detailed experiment and numerical study of the performance of the combustion chamber of a heavy-duty diesel engine in the common Iraqi industrial conditions at the State Company of Heavy Engineering Equipment (HEESCO). The main goal is to close the difference between what is specified by the manufacturers concerning the performance data, which is usually assumed to be under ideal conditions of the ISO standard, and the real efficiency of operation as witnessed in the field. The methodology is based on a hybrid approach that combines direct field measurements of in-cylinder pressure, temperature and fuel flow …

An Ai And Iot Framework For Dynamic Optimization And Sustainability In Smart Cities, Zeinab E. Ahmed, Rashid A. Saeed, Salah Hagahmoodi, Mamoon M. Saeed, Khalid Hamid, Sally D. Abugasim, Eyman F. A. Elsmany

Al-Esraa University College Journal for Engineering Sciences

Smart cities are emerging as a critical solution for creating more efficient, sustainable, and comfortable urban environments. This transformation is primarily driven by the synergistic integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The IoT provides a pervasive network of connected sensors that collect real-time urban data, while AI serves as the analytical engine that processes this information to optimize city-wide systems. This paper presents a comprehensive framework that leverages this AI-IoT convergence for dynamic optimization to achieve long-term urban sustainability. The framework focuses on enabling intelligent, data-driven decision-making across core urban domains. The discussion and analysis …

Optimization Of Bearing Design In Centrifugal Pumps Using Finite Element And Experimental Methods: Application At South Refineries Company, Basra, Mohammed Hasab Naser Al-Mtasher

Al-Esraa University College Journal for Engineering Sciences

In the study, nonlinear vibration and thermo-mechanical characteristics of centrifugal pump bearings utilized in the cooling tower system of South Refineries Company (Basra) were properly examined using a combined experimental and numerical method. The intent of the study was to learn the impact of misalignment, the nature of the lubrication film, and thermal gradients on the stability of the operation of these bearings and their service life under realistic industry environment conditions. Finite element model (FEM) was constructed and tested on the basis of real field data obtained at the working pumps that allowed realistic distribution of stress and temperature. …

Rf-Derived Viscoelastic Modeling For Blood Clot Occlusion Sensing, Abdulrahman Mohammed Aldosari

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

Early and reliable detection of vascular thrombus remains a critical challenge for portable and non-invasive diagnostic systems. This work presents an RF-based sensing methodology for blood clot occlusion sensing through the extraction of viscoelastic clot characteristics derived from microwave reflection coefficient (S₁₁) measurements. A compact single-port coaxial probe is employed to interrogate the vessel–tissue system over a wide frequency range (1–25 GHz), where the measured RF response is used to derive equivalent viscoelastic and electrical model parameters associated with clot formation and progression. Both lumped-element RLC and distributed transmission-line representations are utilized to establish the relationship between the measured dielectric …

A Portable Device To Elicit Sensory Trick And Monitor Forearm Muscle Activity In Pianists With Musician’S Dystonia, Josef Franczak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Musician’s Dystonia (MD) is a condition that can be acquired in professional musicians,causing involuntary contractions and the loss of fine motor control. The most common pharmaceutical treatment, botulinum toxin injections, has been shown to have side effects of muscle weakness and atrophy. The sensory trick, shown to temporarily relieve symptoms of dystonia, has potential to be used as an alternative or alongside current therapies, allowing patients with MD to return to playing music professionally. To systematically deploy the sensory trick and monitor forearm muscle activity, the first prototype of the Wearable Sensorimotor Integrator (wSMI) has been developed.

The wSMI is …

Optimizing Graphene Oxide In Self-Compacting Concrete: A Sustainable Nano-Material Strategy For Enhanced Durability And Structural Performance, Mohammed Shakeebulla Khan, Vijaya G. S

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

In order to reduce the environmental impact of the constructed world, advanced and sustainable construction materials are needed. This work is a summary of the comprehensive study on a novel self-compacting concrete with nano-engineered material (graphene oxide) modified self-compacting concrete (GO-SCC). The optimum dosage of GO was determined using Taguchi method, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) multi-objective statistical optimization method, and was found to be 0.10% by weight of cement (bwoc). This dosage of 0.10% GO led to the overall desirability score of 0.87, which confirmed that this was the optimum dosage for six response variables …

Sam-1: An Assistive Robot For Remote Patient Monitoring, Aana Farhana Ahsan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The global aging population has increased the demand for caregiving, while the availability of caregivers has not grown at the same pace. These trends have contributed to disparities in consistent and accessible care for older adults and increased caregiver burden. Geriatric care robots have emerged as a promising solution to support older adults and reduce caregiver burden. Existing systems have been developed for a wide range of applications, including rehabilitation, social support, assistance with activities of daily living, therapy, and caregiver telepresence. This thesis presents the development of SAM-1, an assistive robot designed to support remote monitoring of older adults …

Force-Feedback And Load Sharing Mechanisms In Cardiac Myosin Ii Ensembles Revealed By Motor-Specific Perturbations, Omayma Alazzam, Md. Amzadul Hoque Chowdhury, Heath M. Stevens

Faculty and Student Publications

Myosin II motors within ensembles exhibit emergent force-generating behavior that varies based on ensemble size and makeup. However, the mechanisms by which myosins within ensembles sense and modulate behavior due to local and systemic changes in motor behavior, and concomitantly mechanics, remains unclear. To understand how myosin kinetics alter ensemble-level force generation, we employ myosin inotropes, specifically Mavacamten (MAVA) and Omecamtiv Mecarbil (OM), to pointedly alter myosin behavior in a concentration-dependent manner. MAVA has been shown to reduce the number of active myosin heads participating in crossbridge formation and force generation, while OM is recognized for prolonging motor attachment to …

Beneficial Investigation Of Sustainable Recycled Waste Plastic In Treating The Consolidation Behavior Of Fine Soil, Aram Mohammed Raheem, Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan, Mohammed Hiwa Abdullrahman, Ali Tariq Omer

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

Recycled waste plastic is one of the regular garbage utilized as a sustainable material in soil remediation. This study examines the efficacy of utilizing local recycled waste plastic as an ecological quantifiable along with soil containing fine particles to analyze the consolidation behavior. Various recycled waste plastic contents ranging from 2% to 10% were employed experimentally in two patterns where in the first pattern the recycled waste plastic were mixed as dry material with the fine soil particles while in the second pattern a sandwich layer of 10% of the recycled waste plastic was placed in the middle of the …

Enhanced Thermal Energy Storage In Buildings: Impregnation, Leakage, And Environmental Performance Of Organic And Inorganic Pcm Composites, Gökhan Genç, Esra Yılmaz, M. Yusuf Yazıcı

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

This study experimentally investigates the impregnation and leakage performance of various organic (tobacco, sawdust, bay leaf, black cumin) and inorganic (vermiculite, perlite, bentonite, sepiolite) carrier materials used for phase change material (PCM) integration in building applications. The commercial paraffin-based PCM RT-31 was used as the thermal storage medium. Impregnation and leakage tests were conducted to evaluate the PCM absorption capacity, form stability, and energy storage potential of each carrier. The results revealed that perlite (C = 80%) and bay leaf (C = 78%) exhibited the highest impregnation capacities due to their porous and fibrous structures; however, they also demonstrated significant …

Modeling Of Tensile Stress-Strain Response For Steel Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concretes, Anıl Niş, Nilufer Özyurt, Turan Özturan

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

Main aim of the research was to further understand self-compacting concrete reinforced with steel fibers (SFR-SCC) behavior and to contribute modeling of the tensile stress-strain diagrams for the standardization of the fiber reinforced materials for structural utilization. Fiber reinforced materials has not been used without structural rebar because of the absence of stress-strain curve in tension required for the structural design codes. Hence, an inverse analysis (multi-layer model) was further modified for various steel fibers to predict tensile stress-strain behaviour. For this purpose, 5 different mixes; control, reinforced with long fibers with 0.5% and 1%, short fiber with 0.5% and …

Molecular Devolution For Gene Editing: Reverse Directed Evolution Of Cre Recombinase, Giovanna Esposito, Simran Sood, Katie Liu

Bioengineering Senior Theses

The principal objective of this paper is to provide a proof-of-concept of a novel protein engineering method called Molecular Devolution (MD). MD is an evolutionary protein engineering method that reduces the size of enzymes while retaining its functional properties. This paper outlines an MD protocol for Cre Recombinase. Cre Recombinase is an enzyme that is part of the Cre LoxP DNA Recombination System, which is a leading gene editing system widely used in genetic research. This paper outlines a MD approach that was used to miniaturize Cre Recombinase and remove unnecessary complexities, allowing for simpler and more e!cient use in …

A Point-Of-Care Hormone Monitoring Platform For Postpartum Health Assessment, Ava Mcdonald, Avary Torres, Frances Warneke

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Our point-of-care hormone monitoring device for postpartum health assessment uses paper-based microfluidics to provide an accessible and affordable hormone monitoring tool, tracking biomarkers correlated with postpartum depression (PPD). The device features a 3D-printed spring-box housing and platform containing chromatography paper testing sheets that are lined with polydimethulsiloxane (PDMS) and wax paper, embedded with specific reagents that generate colorimetric hormone readouts from saliva samples. This device was motivated by the need to address critical shortcomings in PPD care, where societal stigma surrounding mental health and reliance on self-reporting diagnostic methods prevent mothers from truthfully reporting symptoms and receiving timely support and …

Fluorescence Cryotomography For Preclinical Validation: Applications In Gene Therapy And Fluorescence-Guided Surgery, Caleb Y. J. Kwon

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Fluorescence imaging has become a powerful tool in biomedical research and clinical practice, offering molecular specificity and high sensitivity for visualizing biological processes in real time, However, the successful translation of novel fluorescent probes or medicines from preclinical development to clinical applications requires rigorous validation of their biodistribution and target specificity. Traditional methods for assessing performance, such as bulk excised organ analysis or two-dimensional histology, provide limited information as they cannot capture the complete, organism-wide distribution of these probes or medicines. This thesis aims to improve this analysis pipeline through the application and optimization of fluorescence cryotomography for quantitative, high-resolution …

A Computational Micropatterning Approach To Study Caveolae And Protein Localization In Vascular Biology, Andrew B. Grespin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Caveolae are specialized, flask-shaped membrane invaginations highly expressed in endothelium and dysregulated in atherosclerosis. Caveolae play a central role in buffering membrane tension, yet the principles governing their spatial organization remain elusive. Thus, we sought to generate the most comprehensive and systematic analysis of blood vessel caveolar spatial organization. However, cell culturing, the backbone of human-focused biological research, does not standardly do well to model physiologically relevant cell behaviors such as migration or polarity-based tissue formation, particularly for punctate proteins and structures like caveolae. Micropatterns are cell-adhesive shapes that biophysically confine cell(s) to a user defined geometry which stereotype organelle …

Oriented Electrospun Fibers Of Poly(Pro-Curcumin/Peg) Sequester Reactive Oxygen Species And Promote The Growth Of Schwann Cells, Jack W. Devlin, Payton R. O'Connor, Conrad H. Cheung, John T. Leman, Martin Oudega, Edmund F. Palermo, Ryan J. Gilbert

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the biological injury microenvironment, pathologically elevated oxidative stress hinders healthy cell migration. Aligned electrospun fibers are used as tissue engineering scaffolds to support and guide the directionality of cell migration. The ability of cells in the central nervous system to sequester and quench reactive oxygen species is limited, and most electrospun fibers do not exert any antioxidant activity on contact. Thus, the challenge remains in designing a scaffold that can both guide cells to the injury site as well as sequester and quench excess free radicals, allowing cells to thrive and potentially regenerate. Curcumin is a well-known, potent antioxidant, …

Enhancing The Performance Of Brain-Computer Interfaces Via A Spatially-Aware Framework, Ahmed Ayman Eloraby

Theses and Dissertations

Electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) provide a non-invasive pathway for communication, with the P300 speller being one of the most established paradigms. Despite its practicality, EEG signals present inherent challenges, including low signal-to-noise ratio, high dimensionality, and limited spatial resolution. These characteristics complicate the extraction of discriminative spatial patterns, which are critical for accurate P300 detection and character-level decoding.

This thesis addresses these challenges through the development of AttenPCA-Net, a deep learning framework that integrates spatially-aware processing with dimensionality reduction. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is employed to reduce redundancy and noise while preserving the most informative components of the EEG …

Moisture-Induced Degradation And Mechanical Durability Of Mineral-Filled Polylactide (Pla) Composites, Barbara Szaraniec, Aleksandra Ptaszkowska, Alicja Rapacz-Kmita

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

This study investigates the influence of mineral fillers on the hydrolytic stability and mechanical durability of polylactide (PLA) composites under accelerated aqueous ageing conditions. Composites containing halloysite nanotubes (HNT) and bentonite-based fillers (BM, BS, BSP) at 2 wt.% were prepared using a powder-coating and injection moulding approach. Accelerated hydrolytic degradation was conducted at 50 °C for up to six weeks. The degradation behaviour was evaluated through mass variation, water absorption, incubation medium analysis (pH and electrical conductivity), mechanical testing, surface observations, and contact angle measurements. The results revealed a clear filler-dependent response. Bentonite-filled composites exhibited increased water absorption and accelerated …

Ai In Precision Medicine: Redefining Blindness Treatment Via Retinal Stem Cell Differentiation, Calissa Leong, Tiffany Nguyen

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Age Macular Degeneration (AMD) is currently the leading cause of blindness, driven by the degradation of Retinal Pigment Epithelial (RPE) cells. Stem-cell based therapies, particularly those involving induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), typically consists of differentiating stem cells into RPE cells in vitro and transplanting them into the subretinal space. Our goal is to improve the accuracy of differentiation into RPE cells to better promote retinal regeneration. Traditional methods to alleviate symptoms of AMD is through therapeutic medications to slow disease progression, though stem cell therapy has emerged as a promising alternative. However, despite its potential, stem cell therapy presents …

Investigation Of Electrochemical Transport, Gate Leakage, And Transconductance Behavior In Pedot:Pss Organic Electrochemical Transistors, Vinay Bhudhraja, Bilal Khan, Abijeet Mehta

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECTs) are promising candidates for low-voltage bioelectronic systems due to their high transconductance, mixed ionic–electronic transport, and compatibility with flexible substrates. In this work, we investigate the electrochemical transport, gate leakage, and transconductance behavior of screen-printed PEDOT:PSS OECTs, with emphasis on the relationship between ionic coupling and output characteristics. Key electrical and electrochemical parameters—including drain current modulation, transconductance evolution, gate current behavior, and capacitance–voltage response—were systematically analyzed to elucidate the mechanisms governing device operation. The results reveal clear trade-offs between parasitic resistance, volumetric electrochemical capacitance, and effective gate control, which in turn influence signal integrity and amplification …