Biomedical Commons^™

Vascularization In Interconnected 3d Printed Ti-6al-4v Foams With Hydrogel Matrix For Biomedical Bone Replacement Implants, Victor Correa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abstract:

Vascularization or angiogenesis on newly implanted metal orthopedic implants has remained a challenge in the field of tissue engineering. In this research, an interconnected foam structure of Ti-6Al-4V was micro-fabricated by Electron Beam Melting (EBM) technique. The foam in question has a density of 1.77g/cm3 with 60% porosity and a tensile strength of 18GPa. An Extracellular Matrix based hydrogel was added as an aqueous matrix to the foam in question. Hypoxia mimetic stress has been closely related to many wound healing biomedical applications as it increases survival and proliferation molecular signals. To that end, increased expression of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α …

Development And Initial Testing Of A Low-Cost, Electronic, Microprocessor-Controlled Prosthetic Knee, Lucas Jonathan Galey

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cost-effective lower-limb prostheses have been successful in restoring mobility, independence, and a way of life to millions of global amputees who do not have the means to afford more sophisticated prosthetics. Comprehensively, the current above knee (AK) prosthetic market is segmented into two extremes â?? very affordable relief style knees that offer basic functionality with high risk of accident due to falls, and very expensive styles that offer electronic microprocessor stumble control and adaptive cadence. There remains a gap for a middle-ground system that provides stumble control and greater stability within an achievable price bracket for the developing world. This …

The Viability Of High-Frequency Oscillation Analysis In Eeg Signals For Seizure Prediction, Bryan David Kern

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Seizure prediction is a decades-old research problem that has yet to reach any satisfying conclusions. Many studies have tackled the problem with varying results, but there has yet to be any major breakthroughs that define the direction of all future research. However, a promising, new predictor may have presented itself in recent years in the form of high frequency oscillations (HFOs). With the discovery of HFOs (80 - 800 Hz) as a biomarker for epilepsy, new interest has been placed in studying the high frequency content of EEGs to find a possible link between epilepsy and HFOs. In this paper, …

Emlighten, Emily Mulvany

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is focused on creating a system to increase patient satisfaction in hospitals. My senior design team has been working hand in hand with the emergency department of Akron General to design this system called EMlighten. The goal is to create an experience for patients where they exit the hospital feeling more satisfied than they currently are. Patient satisfaction is a key performance indicator used by many hospitals to determine how much additional funding each hospital department is granted. If patients feel more satisfied, not only is that indicative of better care, but departments will receive extra funding. EMlighten …

Assessment Of Optimized Electrode Configuration In Electrical Impedance Myography Study Using Genetic Algorithm Via Finite Element Model, Somen Baidya

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Electrical Impedance Myography (EIM) is a neurophysiologic technique in which high- frequency, low-intensity electrical current is applied via surface electrodes over a muscle or muscle group of interest and the resulting electrical parameters (resistance, reactance and phase) are analyzed to isolate diseased muscles from healthy ones. Beside muscle properties, some other anatomic and non-anatomic factors like muscle shape, subcutaneous fat (SF) thickness, inter-electrode distance, etc. also impact the major EIM parameters and thus affect the EIM analysis outcomes. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of variation in some of these factors impose on EIM parameters and …

Intracellular Ros Mediates Gas Plasma-Facilitated Cellular Transfection In 2d And 3d Cultures, Dehui Xu, Biqing Wang, Yujing Xu, Zeyu Chen, Qinjie Cui, Yanjie Yang, Hailan Chen, Michael G. Kong

Bioelectrics Publications

This study reports the potential of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) as a versatile tool for delivering oligonucleotides into mammalian cells. Compared to lipofection and electroporation methods, plasma transfection showed a better uptake efficiency and less cell death in the transfection of oligonucleotides. We demonstrated that the level of extracellular aqueous reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by gas plasma is correlated with the uptake efficiency and that this is achieved through an increase of intracellular ROS levels and the resulting increase in cell membrane permeability. This finding was supported by the use of ROS scavengers, which reduced CAP-based uptake efficiency. In …

Design Of Highly Stable Low-Density Self-Assembled Monolayers Using Thiol-Yne Click Reaction For The Study Of Protein-Surface Interactions, Leila Safazadeh Haghighi

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Protein adsorption on solid surfaces is a common yet complicated phenomenon that is not fully understood. Self-assembled monolayers have been utilized in many studies, as well-defined model systems for studying protein-surface interactions in the atomic level. Various strategies, including the use of single component SAMs[1, 2], combinations of long and short alkanethiolates with methyl- and hydroxyl- terminal groups[3, 4], and using mixtures of alkanethiolates with similar chain length and varying terminal functional group [5] have been used to effectively control the surface wettability and determine the effect of surface composition and wettability on protein adsorption. In this dissertation we report …

Computational Tracking Of Shear-Mediated Platelet Interactions With Von Willebrand Factor, Adam Ralph, Martin Somers, Jonathan Cowman, Bruno Voisin, Emma Hogan, Hannah Dunne, Eimear Dunne, Barry Byrne, Nigel Kent, Antonio J. Ricco, Dermot Kenny, Simon Wong

Articles

The imaging of shear-mediated dynamic platelet behavior interacting with surface-immobilized von Willebrand factor (vWF) has tremendous potential in characterizing changes in platelet function for clinical diagnostics purposes. However, the imaging output, a series of images representing platelets adhering and rolling on the surface, poses unique, non-trivial challenges for software algorithms that reconstruct the positional trajectories of platelets. We report on an algorithm that tracks platelets using the output of such flow run experiments, taking into account common artifacts encountered by previously-published methods, and we derive seven key metrics of platelet dynamics that can be used to characterize platelet function. Extensive …

Image Processing And Visualization Of Terahertz Pulsed Imaging Of Breast Cancer Tumors, Yuhao Wu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terahertz imaging technology has grown substantially in recent years. With new advances made in the generation, manipulation, and detection of terahertz radiation, terahertz imaging has found its application as inspection tools in a wide range of areas including biomedicine, materials science, and aerospace industries. In the field of medical imaging, terahertz (THz) has emerged as a new imaging modality due to some fundamental physical properties of the THz wave. THz imaging has been used to examine various biological structures, and THz tomography has been developed to probe the 3D structures of those samples.

THz pulsed imaging (TPI) is one of …

Computational Characterization Of Exogenous Micrornas That Can Be Transferred Into Human Circulation, Jiang Shu, Kevin Chiang, Janos Zempleni, Juan Cui

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

MicroRNAs have been long considered synthesized endogenously until very recent discoveries showing that human can absorb dietary microRNAs from animal and plant origins while the mechanism remains unknown. Compelling evidences of microRNAs from rice, milk, and honeysuckle transported to human blood and tissues have created a high volume of interests in the fundamental questions that which and how exogenous microRNAs can be transferred into human circulation and possibly exert functions in humans. Here we present an integrated genomics and computational analysis to study the potential deciding features of transportable microRNAs. Specifically, we analyzed all publicly available microRNAs, a total of …

Fast Gpu-Based Approach To Branchless Distance-Driven Projection And Back-Projection In Cone Beam Ct, Daniel Edward Schlifske

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Modern CT image reconstruction algorithms rely on projection and back-projection operations to refine an image estimate in iterative image reconstruction. A widely-used state-of-the-art technique is distance-driven projection and back-projection. While the distance-driven technique yields superior image quality in iterative algorithms, it is a computationally demanding process. This has a detrimental effect on the relevance of the algorithms in clinical settings. A few methods have been proposed for enhancing the distance-driven technique in order to take advantage of modern computer hardware. This study explores a two-dimensional extension of the branchless method, which is a technique that does not compromise image quality. …

Towards Mhealth Solutions For Asthma Patients, Nahid Negar

Master's Theses (2009 -)

With the recent, rapid growth in mobile-computing technology, mobile health (mHealth) is becoming a popular research topic. mHealth is one of several examples of how using technology in the health sector is being more advanced every day. mHealth is being applied to the care of a broad spectrum of diseases from acute to chronic, such as the flu, asthma, and cancer. Due to the easy-to-understand and friendly user interfaces, mobility and cost effectiveness; a mobile application can be a powerful tool to collect patient information. Asthma is a common disease around the globe. Collecting the proper symptom, trigger, peak-flow and …

Quantification Of Blood Flow Velocity Using Color Sensing, Aditya Deepak Sanghani

Master's Theses

Blood flow velocity is an important parameter that can give information on several pathologies including atherosclerosis, glaucoma, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and ischemic stroke [2,5,6,10]. Present techniques of measuring blood flow velocity involve expensive procedures such as Doppler echocardiography, Doppler ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging [11,12]. They cost from $8500-$20000. It is desired to find a low-cost yet equally effective solution for measuring blood flow velocity. This thesis has a goal of creating a proof of concept device for measuring blood flow velocity.

Finger blood flow velocity is investigated in this project. The close proximity to the skin of the finger’s arteries …

Bioinformatics Approaches To Single-Cell Analysis In Developmental Biology, Dicle Yalcin, Zeynep M. Hakguder, Hasan H. Otu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Individual cells within the same population show various degrees of heterogeneity, which may be better handled with single-cell analysis to address biological and clinical questions. Single-cell analysis is especially important in developmental biology as subtle spatial and temporal differences in cells have significant associations with cell fate decisions during differentiation and with the description of a particular state of a cell exhibiting an aberrant phenotype. Biotechnological advances, especially in the area of microfluidics, have led to a robust, massively parallel and multi-dimensional capturing, sorting, and lysis of single-cells and amplification of related macromolecules, which have enabled the use of imaging …

Simulating Low-Frequency Sonic Pulsations To Achieve Thrombolysis, Joseph C. Muskat, Matthew C. Pharris, Charles F. Babbs

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cardiovascular thrombosis may result in critical ischemia to a range of anatomical regions, constituting a leading cause of death in the United States. Current invasive treatments for such arterial blockages often yield blood clot recurrence, resulting in repeated hospitalization of patients. This research aims to show how internally introduced pressure oscillations may be used to initiate thrombolysis. We present a novel computational model for determining the resonant frequency and corresponding deformation of an idealized thrombus. Sinusoidal pressure differences across the thrombus induce axial displacements of frequency dependent amplitude. The maximum peak displacement occurs at a resonant frequency of 73 Hz …

The Effects Of Vagus Nerve Stimulation On Neuroinflammation In Epilepsy, Elizabeth A. St. Clair, Gabriel O Albors, Pedro Irazoqui Dr., Amy Brewster

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by chronic, unexplainable seizures. Recurring epileptic seizures are associated with long-term structural damage and cognitive deficits, and can even lead to sudden, unexplainable death. Approximately 30% of epilepsy cases are not responsive to medication. Epileptic seizures often induce inflammation in the brain and may increase the frequency of future seizures, resulting in a detrimental cycle. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a non-pharmaceutical treatment method for epilepsy that has been shown to reduce inflammation in peripheral pathways. The role of VNS in the modulation of neuroinflammation has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. To explore this, …

Device, Method, And Algorithm To Assess Changes In Cardiac Output Via Intracardiac Impedance Monitoring, Geoffrey Fredrick Schau

Dissertations and Theses

Cardiac output, the volume of blood pumped by the heart over time, is a powerful clinical metric used by physicians to assess overall cardiac health and patient well-being. However, current cardiac output estimation methods are typically invasive, time-consuming, expensive, or some combination of all three. Patients that receive artificial cardiac pacemaker devices are particularly susceptible to cardiac dysfunction and often require long-term cardiac monitoring support.

This thesis proposes a novel cardiac output monitoring solution which leverages an implantable intracardiac medical device. The principles of traditional impedance cardiography, an established cardiac output monitoring technique in practice for over fifty years, have …

An Iris Authentication System Based On Artificial Neural Networks, Brenden Velu

Electrical Engineering

An iris authentication system verifies the authenticity of a person based on their iris features. The iris features are extracted through wavelet transform of the isolated iris from modified iris images. A level 5 wavelet decomposition is performed on the images, and the resulting low-frequency wavelet coefficients represent the inputs to the artificial neural network. The artificial neural network reads these features as inputs, and classifies each set of inputs according to their target identity. This authentication system currently classifies up to 10 people. The irises used for classification represent ideal situations with minimum eyelash and eyelid interference.

Permanent Magnet Display System, Xenia Leon Rodriguez

Electrical Engineering

Pacemakers can malfunction when exposed to high magnetic fields. This becomes especially problematic for patients with pacemakers who need MRI scans as MRI machines can subject the pacemaker to damaging magnetic fields. St.Jude Medical, one of the leading biotech companies, is working to make their pacemakers MRI-safe. In order to test their MRI-safe pacemaker designs, they need an automated test apparatus that will collect and report the magnetic field the pacemaker is being exposed to. This report describes the design of such a test system that reads the Tesla intensity the pacemaker is exposed to and wirelessly transmits the data …

Characterization Of Two Vernier-Tuned Distributed Bragg Reflector (Vt-Dbr) Lasers Used In Swept Source Optical Coherence Tomography (Ss-Oct), Greg M. Bergdoll

Master's Theses

Insight Photonic Solutions Inc. has continued to develop their patented VT-DBR laser design; these wavelength tunable lasers promise marked image-quality and acquisition time improvements in SS-OCT applications.

To be well suited for SS-OCT, tunable lasers must be capable of producing a highly linear wavelength sweep across a tuning range well-matched to the medium being imaged; many different tunable lasers used in SS-OCT are compared to identify the optimal solution.

This work electrically and spectrally characterizes two completely new all-semiconductor VT-DBR designs to compare, as well. The Neptune VT-DBR, an O-band laser, operates around the 1310 nm range and is a …