Digital Commons Network^™

Flexor Reflex Decreases During Sympathetic Stimulation In Chronic Human Spinal Cord Injury, Mark Kevin Garrison, Brian D. Schmit

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A better understanding of autonomic influence on motor reflex pathways in spinal cord injury is important to the clinical management of autonomic dysreflexia and spasticity in spinal cord injured patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the modulation of flexor reflex windup during episodes of induced sympathetic activity in chronic human spinal cord injury (SCI). We simultaneously measured peripheral vascular conductance and the windup of the flexor reflex in response to conditioning stimuli of electrocutaneous stimulation to the opposite leg and bladder percussion. Flexor reflexes were quantified using torque measurements of the response to a noxious electrical stimulus …

Modulation Of Mitochondrial Bioenergetics In The Isolated Guinea Pig Beating Heart By Potassium And Lidocaine Cardioplegia: Implications For Cardioprotection, Mohammed Aldakkak, David F. Stowe, Edward J. Lesnefsky, James S. Heisner, Qun Chen, Amadou K.S. Camara

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Mitochondria are damaged by cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury but can contribute to cardioprotection. We tested if hyperkalemic cardioplegia (CP) and lidocaine (LID) differently modulate mitochondrial (m) bioenergetics and protect hearts against I/R injury. Guinea pig hearts (n = 71) were perfused with Krebs Ringer's solution before perfusion for 1 minute just before ischemia with either CP (16 mM K+) or LID (1 mM) or Krebs Ringer's (control, 4 mM K+). The 1-minute perfusion period assured treatment during ischemia but not on reperfusion. Cardiac function, NADH, FAD, m[Ca2+], and superoxide (reactive oxygen species) were assessed at baseline, during the 1-minute perfusion, …

Towards Supervised Autonomous Task Completion Using An In Vivo Surgical Robot, Jason J. Dumpert

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive alternative to traditional abdominal surgery. Unlike traditional surgery, a laparoscopic procedure can be completed using small incisions. The use of these small incision results in reduced pain to the patient, shorter recovery times, and less trauma to skin, muscle and other tissues. However, these benefits to the patient are offset by the increased difficulty to the surgeon performing the procedure. These difficulties include reduced dexterity, reduced perception, and longer procedure times. The use of small in vivo robotic devices in minimally invasive surgery is one possible solution to these problems. The movement of these devices …

Rapid Prototyping Augmented Skin Pathology For Medical Simulation And Training, Annette Castelino

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this research is to study how augmented reality technology could be applied in training medical students for better clinical practice and diagnosis in the treatment of skin conditions using skin pathology prototypes. Described within this thesis is an innovative method of producing skin abscess prototypes that augment the Standardized Patient (SP) for simulation purposes.

The method adopted is a combination of the cost-effective technique of rapid prototyping (RP) — 3D inkjet printing and 3D graphics modeling. The visual and haptic realism of these developed prototypes along with the use of moulage enable the SP to exhibit realistic …

Methods For Cancer Detection, Kimberly W. Anderson, Kimberly M.L. May, Leonidas G. Bachas

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Patents

A method is provided for detecting an analyte indicative of a cancer or a metastatic disease condition, which utilizes the ability of the analyte to induce permeability in a barrier. The method includes providing a biosensor having a barrier which is substantially impermeable to an ion, a permeable membrane which is selective for the ion, and a detector capable of detecting the ion. The biosensor is contacted with a sample including at least one of the ion and the analyte, wherein the analyte causes at least a portion of the ion to pass through the barrier and the membrane. Passage …

Stormwater Irrigation Volume Iii: Transport Of The Cyanotoxin Microcystin In Groundwater Beneath Stormwater Ponds: Results Of Soil Column Experiments, Martin Wanielista

BMP Trains Research and Publications

As the demand for fresh water increases in central Florida to meet both public supply and irrigation needs, stormwater is increasingly being managed as a resource to help offset possible future declines in aquifer water levels. Water quality is an important consideration when using stormwater for recharge or harvesting. A constituent of recent concern is cyanobacteria (popularly known as blue-green algae) because some of these can produce toxins (cyanotoxins) that are detrimental to animal and human health. Microcystins are the most commonly found type of cyanotoxin in Florida and have been detected in a variety of rivers, natural lakes, and …

Motion Analysis Of Fluid Flow In A Spinning Disk Reactor, Valentina N. Korzhova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The flow of a liquid film over a rapidly rotating horizontal disk has numerous industrial applications including pharmaceuticals, chemical engineering, bioengineering, etc. The analysis and control of complex fluid flows over a rapidly rotating horizontal disk is an important issue in the experimental fluid mechanics. The spinning disk reactor exploits the benefits of centrifugal force, which produces thin highly sheared films due to radial acceleration. The hydrodynamics of the film results in excellent fluid mixing and high heat or mass transfer rates.

This work focuses on developing a novel approach for fluid flow tracking and analysis. Specifically, the developed algorithm …

Precision Navigation Using Pre-Georegistered Map Data, Frederick C. Webber

Theses and Dissertations

Navigation performance in small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is adversely affected by limitations in current sensor technology for small, lightweight sensors. Because most UAVs are equipped with cameras for mission-related purposes, it is advantageous to utilize the camera to improve the navigation solution. This research improves navigation by matching camera images to a priori georegistered image data and combining this update with existing image-aided navigation technology. The georegistration matching is done by projecting the images into the same plane, extracting features using the techniques Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) [5] and Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) [3]. The features are matched …

Post-Yield Relaxation Behavior Of Bovine Cancellous Bone, Travis A. Burgers, Roderic S. Lakes, Sylvana Garcia-Rodriguez, Geoffrey R. Piller, Heidi-Lynn Ploeg

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Relaxation studies were conducted on specimens of bovine cancellous bone at post-yield strains. Stress and strain were measured for 1000 s and the relaxation modulus was determined. Fifteen cylindrical, cancellous bone specimens were removed from one bovine femur in the anterior–posterior direction. The relaxation modulus was found to be a function of strain. Therefore cancellous bone is non-linearly viscoelastic/viscoplastic in the plastic region. A power law regression was fit to the relaxation modulus data. The multiplicative constant was found to be statistically related through a power law relationship to both strain (p < 0.0005) and apparent density (p < 0.0005) while the power coefficient was found to be related through a power law relationship, E(t, ε)= A(ε)t-n(ε), to strain (p < 0.0005), but not apparent density.

Weber River Basin Planning For The Future, Utah Division Of Water Resources

All In-stream Flows Material

The water resources of the Weber River Basin play an integral role in the life of every basin resident. From a morning shower to a weekend trip on Pineview Reservoir, water is interwoven into nearly every activity. Use of the basin’s water resources has allowed the land to be settled, has provided the basin’s citizens with numerous employment and recreational opportunities, and has made possible a high quality of life. The far-reaching vision of the basin’s leaders, coupled with modern engineering technology, has allowed the basin’s water supply to be harnessed and used on a large scale. Water has been …

Pesticide Fact Sheet: Mammalian Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (Gnrh) [Gonacon]

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Available data provide adequate information to support the conditional registration of GnRH as a tool for management of nuisance white-tailed deer.

White-tailed deer have been classified by EPA as a public health pest because they are a host for blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), more commonly known as deer ticks, which are a carrier of Lyme disease.

In many urban and suburban areas white-tailed deer populations have become over abundant and are considered a year-round nuisance causing many human-wildlife conflicts such as destruction on gardens, landscapes and golf courses as well as a cause of numerous vehicle accidents. According …

Feasibility Of Ellipsometric Sensor Development For Use During Pecvd Siox Coated Polymer Product Manufacturing, Daniel Lynn Helms

Master's Theses

Polymeric materials have provided pathways to products that could not be manufactured otherwise. A new technology which merges the benefits of ceramics into these polymer products has created materials ideally suited to many different industries, like food packaging. Nano Scale Surface Systems, Inc. (NS3), a company which coats polymers with ceramic oxides like SiO2 through a process known as plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), was interested in the feasibility of an in line measurement system for monitoring the deposited films on various polymer products. This project examined two different coated polymer products, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage containers and biaxially …

Classification Of Organic Soils, Pao-Tsung Huang, Mital Patel, Maria Caterina Santagata, Antonio Bobet

JTRP Technical Reports

The presence of organics in soils is generally associated with high compressibility, significant secondary compression, often unsatisfactory strength characteristics, and low unit weight. As a result of the above, many state DOTs (Departments of Transportation) in the United States have strict limits on the maximum value of the organic content (2-7%) that can be present in soils to be used as sub grades and backfills. The loss on ignition test is the most widely used technique for measuring organic content. However, especially for low organic content soils, this method can lead to significantly overestimate the true organic content. As a …

Worker Injury Prevention Strategies, Carlos A. Ferreira-Diaz, Alma Torres-Zapata, Christopher A. Nanovic, Dulcy M. Abraham

JTRP Technical Reports

As the trend of increased highway construction and/or rehabilitation continues to grow, the public often demands that delays in work zones be kept to a minimum. Thus, the flow of traffic through the construction zone must be maintained while performing pavement maintenance/ repair/ reconstruction activities. At the same time, the safety of personnel and property in highway construction work zones must be ensured. Three types of risks are encountered by construction and maintenance workers in construction workzones: (a) risks due to underprotection or lack of protection against potential hazards (including lack of hearing protection, eye protection, respiratory protection); (b) effect …

Methods For Calculating Coronary Perfusion Pressure During Cpr, Michael P. Otlewski, Leslie A. Geddes, Michael Pargett, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) is a major indicator of the effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in human and animal research studies; however methods for calculating CPP differ among research groups. Here we compare the 6 published methods for calculating CPP using the same data set of aortic (Ao) and right atrial (RA) blood pressures. CPP was computed using each of the 6 calculation methods in an anesthetized pig model, instrumented with catheters with Cobe pressure transducers. Aortic and right atrial pressures were recorded continuously during electrically induced ventricular fibrillation and standard CPR. CPP calculated from the same raw data set by …

Assessment Of Electrospinning As An In-House Fabrication Technique For Blood Vessel Mimic Cellular Scaffolding, Colby M. James

Master's Theses

Intravascular devices, such as stents, must be rigorously tested before they can be approved by the FDA. This includes bench top in vitro testing to determine biocompatibility, and animal model testing to ensure safety and efficacy. As an intermediate step, a blood vessel mimic (BVM) testing method has been developed that mimics the three dimensional structure of blood vessels using a perfusion bioreactor system, human derived endothelial cells, and a biocompatible polymer scaffold used to support growth of the blood vessel cells. The focus of this thesis was to find an in-house fabrication method capable of making cellular scaffolding for …

Evaluation Of Swine-Specific Pcr Assays Used For Fecal Source Tracking And Analysis Of Molecular Diversity Of Swine-Specific "Bacteroidales" Populations, Regina Lamendella, Jorge W. Santo Domingo, Anthony C. Yannarell, Shreya Ghosh, Giovanni George Di, Roderick Ian Mackie, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, we evaluated the specificity, distribution, and sensitivity of Prevotella strain-based (PF163 and PigBac1) and methanogen-based (P23-2) PCR assays proposed to detect swine fecal pollution in environmental waters. The assays were tested against 222 fecal DNA extracts derived from target and nontarget animal hosts and against 34 groundwater and 15 surface water samples from five different sites. We also investigated the phylogenetic diversity of 1,340 "Bacteroidales" 16S rRNA gene sequences derived from swine feces, swine waste lagoons, swine manure pits, and waters adjacent to swine operations. Most swine fecal samples were positive for the host-specific Prevotella-based PCR assays …

Non-Foster Matching Of An Rfid Antenna, Nedime Pelin Yalcin

Theses

In this thesis, novel designs of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag antennas with better matching characteristics to achieve extended range for passive tags have been investigated in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band. A variety of cavitybacked/coupled microstrip dipole antennas in 915 MHz range were considered. Additionally, a negative impedance converter designed to cancel out antenna's input capacitance at resonance frequency and to produce the real antenna input impedance was designed, simulated and implemented for an RFID antenna. Numerical simulations have been carried out using ORCAD software package (Cadence), ADS software package (Agilent) and HFSS software package (ANSYS/ANSOFT Inc). Antennas have been …

Water Purification In Haiti : An Engineers Without Borders Project, Melissa Valoura

Theses

The objective of this thesis was to present the necessary steps to help a town in Haiti develop an organization focused on improving their water quality. It goes through the technology needed to create the organization and explains the procedures for implementing a charitable project in a foreign country. A narrative of the student project in Milot, Haiti, where students from the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Engineers Without Borders Chapter implemented a water purification project, explains the course of action that was taken and gives an example of a successful project. A summary of Haiti and its history paints …

Pulsed Em Field Response Of A Thin, High-Contrast, Finely Layered Structure With Dielectric And Conductive Properties, Adrianus T. De Hoop, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The response of a thin, high-contrast, finely layered structure with dielectric and conductive properties to an incident, pulsed, electromagnetic field is investigated theoretically. The fine layering causes the standard spatial discretization techniques to solve Maxwell's equations numerically to be practically inapplicable. To overcome this difficulty, an approximate method is proposed that models the interaction of the layer with an incident electromagnetic field via a boundary condition that expresses the in-plane conduction and contrast electric polarization currents in terms of the exciting incident field by relating the jump in the tangential component of the magnetic field strength across the layer in …

Diversity And Strain Specificity Of Plant Cell Wall Degrading Enzymes Revealed By The Draft Genome Of Ruminococcus Flavefaciens Fd-1, Margret E. Berg Miller, Dionysios A. Antonopoulos, Mark Brand, Albert Bari, Alvaro Hernandez, Jyothi Thimmapuram, Bryan A. White, Marco Rincon, Harry J. Flint, Bernard Henrissat, Pedro M. Coutinho

Cyber Center Publications

Ruminococcus flavefaciens is a predominant cellulolytic rumen bacterium, which forms a multi-enzyme cellulosome complex that could play an integral role in the ability of this bacterium to degrade plant cell wall polysaccharides. Identifying the major enzyme types involved in plant cell wall degradation is essential for gaining a better understanding of the cellulolytic capabilities of this organism as well as highlighting potential enzymes for application in improvement of livestock nutrition and for conversion of cellulosic biomass to liquid fuels.

Pilot Rainwater Harvesting Study Ireland, Liam Mccarton, Sean O'Hogain, Anna Reid, Niamh Mcintyre, Jenny Pender

Conference papers

There are no National Water Quality Standards for Rainwater Harvesting supply in Ireland. The Development Technology Centre (DTC) at the Technological University Dublin was commissioned by the National Rural Water Monitoring Committee in 2005 to assess the feasibility of using rainwater harvesting to supplement treated mains water for non-potable uses. The project involved the design, installation, commissioning and monitoring of rainwater harvesting facilities for rural domestic and agricultural water supply. This paper will present the results from the domestic pilot rwh project. A dual water supply system was designed and installed to use rainwater collected from the roof surface to …

The Use Of A Tri-Axial Accelerometer To Measure Changes In Lower Extremity Fatigue During Functional Activity, Kristin Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

In 2004, the National Collegiate Athletic Association reported ankle sprain as the most frequent injury in soccer, basketball, and volleyball players. Further research found an increased likelihood with fatigue. Measuring fatigue during functional activities has been a longstanding problem. In this study, changes in ankle biomechanics were measured using a tri-axial accelerometer embedded in the shoe as subjects (n=12) performed a fatiguing activity. Data were collected from the accelerometer and from established devices that are considered the industry gold standard. Several kinetic and kinematic accelerometer derived variables were highly correlated with these standards (r2>0.90) and were associated with changes …

Microsoft Silverlight Photography Framework: Comparing Component Based Designs In Adobe Flex And Microsoft Silverlight, David Roossien

Masters Projects

Flex and Silverlight provide large Application Programming Interfaces (API’s). Applications can be designed using a variety of architectures. The purpose of this paper is not to perform a complete comparison between Flex and Silverlight. To do such a comparison would require massive amounts of time and research. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and implementation of the Silverlight photography framework project. Along the way this paper compares the Silverlight project to the Adobe Flex project and discusses the goals of each product. During the comparison many important similarities and differences between Silverlight and Flex technologies are …

Parametric Model Of Head Related Transfer Functions Based On Systematic Movements Of Poles And Zeros With Sound Location For Pole/Zero Models, Bahaa W. Al-Sheikh Hussein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Directional transfer functions (DTFs), the directional components of the Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs), are generally measured at finite locations in azimuth and elevation. Thus models are needed to synthesize DTFs at finer spatial resolution than the measured data to create complete virtual auditory displays. In this research, minimum-phase all-pole and all-zero models were used for modeling both human and cat DTFs. Real cepstrum analysis has been used to represent minimum phase HRTFs in the time domain. For the human DTFs, model orders were chosen to achieve specific objective error criteria published in previous studies that were based on subjective …

The Very Basics Of Sustainability - An Alternative Viewpoint, Jim Mcgovern

Other resources

This paper examines the context and meaning of the term ‘sustainability’, the factors that determine and govern climate on Earth, the population of the Earth and its trends and influencers, the requirements for sustaining life and the options that are available to humankind. Some viewpoints are presented that are alternative to ‘conventional alternative’ thinking. The author advocates keeping an open mind on all available options, including the use of oil, gas, coal, tar sands, carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear power etc., as well as the technologies that are more widely considered ‘green’ and also argues that humankind needs to face …

High Efficient Electrical Stimulation Of Hippocampal Slices With Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofiber Microbrush Array, Edward D. De Asis Jr., T. D. Barbara Nguyen-Vu, Prabhu U. Arumugam, Hua Chen, Alan M. Cassell, Russell J. Andrews, Cary Y. Yang, Jun Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Long-term neuroprostheses for functional electrical stimulation must efficiently stimulate tissue without electrolyzing water and raising the extracellular pH to toxic levels. Comparison of the stimulation efficiency of tungsten wire electrodes (W wires), platinum microelectrode arrays (PtMEA), as-grown vertically aligned carbon nanofiber microbrush arrays (VACNF MBAs), and polypyrrole coated (PPy-coated) VACNF MBAs in eliciting field potentials in the hippocampus slice indicates that, at low stimulating voltages that preclude the electrolysis of water, only the PPy-coated VACNF MBA is able to stimulate the CA₃ to CA₁ pathway. Unlike the W wires, PtMEA, as-grown VACNF MBA, and the PPy-coated VACNF MBA …

Hierarchical Bayesian Cortical Models: Analysis And Acceleration On Multicore Architectures, Pavan Yalamanchili

All Theses

There is a significant interest in the research community to develop large scale,
high performance implementations of neuromorphic models. These have the potential to
provide significantly stronger information processing capabilities than current computing
algorithms. This thesis examines the parallelization of two recent biologically inspired
hierarchical Bayesian cortical models onto recent multicore architectures. These models
have been developed recently based on new insights from neuroscience and have several
advantages over traditional neural networks. In particular, they need far fewer network
nodes to simulate a large scale cortical model than traditional neural networks, making
them computationally more efficient. This is the first …

Acceleration Of Spiking Neural Networks On Multicore Architectures, Rommel Jalasutram

All Theses

The human cortex is the seat of learning and cognition. Biological scale
implementations of cortical models have the potential to provide significantly more
power problem solving capabilities than traditional computing algorithms. The large
scale implementation and design of these models has attracted significant attention
recently. High performance implementations of the models are needed to enable such
large scale designs. This thesis examines the acceleration of the spiking neural network
class of cortical models on several modern multicore processors. These include the
Izhikevich, Wilson, Morris-Lecar, and Hodgkin-Huxley models. The architectures
examined are the STI Cell, Sun UltraSPARC T2+, and Intel Xeon …

Removal Of Boron From Produced Water By Co-Precipitation / Adsorption For Reverse Osmosis Concentrate, Imran Yusuf Rahman, Yarrow Nelson, Tryg Lundquist

Master's Theses

Co-precipitation and absorption methods were investigated for removal of boron from produced water, which is groundwater brought to the surface during oil and natural gas extraction. Boron can be toxic to many crops and often needs to be controlled to low levels in irrigation water. The present research focused on synthetic reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate modeled on concentrate expected from a future treatment facility at the Arroyo Grande Oil Field on the central coast of California. The produced water at this site is brackish with a boron concentration of 8 mg/L and an expected temperature of 80°C. The future overall …