Engineering Commons^™

Development Of An Automated Delivery System To Apply Copper Sulfate Crystals Using Precision Dry Fertilizer Application Technology, Kevin Charles Wise

Theses and Dissertations

The digenetic trematode, Bolbophorus damnificus, poses a substantial threat to catfish aquaculture, causing significant economic losses. Infestations lead to suppressed feed consumption, secondary bacterial infections and poor production performance. Survey data reveals widespread infestation in the in the southeastern United States. Current control strategies involve the application of a concentrated copper sulfate solution to reduce snail populations which serve as the first intermediate host of the trematode life cycle. This study aimed to improve treatment efficacy by developing a granular copper sulfate application system. A modified Gandy fertilizer applicator, equipped with a programmable control system, demonstrated accurate distribution of copper …

Design, Development, And Validation Of A Perfusion-Compression Bioreactor To Study Osteogenesis In Bone Explants, Alexis Victoria Graham

Theses and Dissertations

The current gold standard treatment for bone defects is autologous cancellous bone graft, which involves increased surgery time and donor site morbidity, and limited supply of bone and cells for regeneration. Bioreactors may aid in the generation of mechanically conditioned bone grafts with more cells compared to traditional grafts. However, the specific parameters of fluid flow and mechanical loading which contribute to osteogenesis and cell viability in bioreactors are not fully characterized. Here, a perfusion-compression bioreactor system was developed to study osteogenesis in porcine trabecular bone explants. Loading accuracy was over 88% across six bioreactors at a 0.1 s-1 strain …

Electroencephalography And Biomechanics Of The Basketball Throw, Phong Ky Phan

Theses and Dissertations

According to various studies, compared with novice athletes, experts exhibit superior integration of perceptual, cognitive, and motor skills. This superior ability has been associated with the focused and efficient organization of task-related neural networks. Specifically, skilled individuals demonstrate a spatially localized or relatively lower response in brain activity, characterized as ‘neural efficiency’, when performing within their domain of expertise. Previous works also suggested that elite basketball players can predict successful free throws more rapidly and accurately based on cues from body kinematics. These traits are the result of a prolonged training of specific motor skills and focused excitability of the …

Study Of Surface And Groundwater Quality And Quantity At Watershed Scale In Mississippi, Dipesh Nepal

Theses and Dissertations

Hydrology and water quality are affected by land use and climate changes. Mississippi’s diverse agro–ecosystem comprises of a range of land use land cover (LULC) including agriculture, forest, wetlands, urban, and grasslands. The objectives of this study were to investigate the impacts of various factors such as Best Management Practices (BMPs), wetlands, LULC, and climate changes on water quality and quantity. The hydrologic and water quality responses to dynamic LULC input in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) were evaluated. Results showed that agricultural and forest expansion were major drivers of hydrologic and water quality changes in Big Sunflower River …

Quantification Of Intervertebral Disc Strain From High-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging During Dynamic Loading, Diya Sakhrani

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

High-resolution ultrasound imaging employs high-frequency sound waves that can be used to noninvasively visualize the structures within the body, facilitating medical diagnosis without the need for open surgery. The widespread utilization of ultrasound is attributed to its affordability, non-invasive characteristics, and use of non-ionizing radiation. Nevertheless, ultrasound is prone to artifacts originating from the surrounding environment, gas-liquid interfaces, or dense tissue. These artifacts are common in ultrasound images and can cause dropout, noise, and degraded resolution. In this study we analyzed intervertebral disc (IVD) strain during two axial compression testing cycles of bovine intervertebral discs with a 2-dimensional direct deformation …

Modular Open-Source Design Of Pyrolysis Reactor Monitoring And Control Electronics, Finn K. Hafting, Daniel G. Kulas, Etienne Michels, Sarvada Chipkar, Stefan Wisniewski, David Shonnard, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Industrial pilot projects often rely on proprietary and expensive electronic hardware to control and monitor experiments. This raises costs and retards innovation. Open-source hardware tools exist for implementing these processes individually; however, they are not easily integrated with other designs. The Broadly Reconfigurable and Expandable Automation Device (BREAD) is a framework that provides many open-source devices which can be connected to create more complex data acquisition and control systems. This article explores the feasibility of using BREAD plug-and-play open hardware to quickly design and test monitoring and control electronics for an industrial materials processing prototype pyrolysis reactor. Generally, pilot-scale pyrolysis …

Evaluation Of Polyvinyl Alcohol (Pva) For Electrospinning Utility In The Blood Vessel Mimic (Bvm) Lab, Logan Vandenbroucke

Master's Theses

Electrospinning has provided the opportunity to create extracellular matrix (ECM) mimicking scaffolds for the development of tissue-engineered constructs. Within Professor Kristen Cardinal’s Blood Vessel Mimic (BVM) Lab, at Cal Poly, there exists a constant demand for innovation and the expansion of polymer types and electrospinning capabilities for its BVM model. Along these lines, the BVM Lab has recently acquired two new electrospinning systems: the Spinbox, a commercially graded electrospinning system, and the Learn-By-Doing system, which was part of a recently completed thesis conducted by Jason Provol. Additionally, recently published literature has demonstrated polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a viable option for …

Effects Of Beet Supplements On Cardiovascular Response Using A Noninvasive Blood Pressure Cuff, Nicholas M. Hughes

Master's Theses

A Calibrated Cuff Plethysmography device was built, tested for verification, and used to experiment on human subjects to measure the cardiovascular response of consuming a beet supplement, specifically looking at arterial compliance and pressure-area curves. Each subject was tested four times. A baseline was measured under normal conditions and after five-minute hyperemia conditions. 10 subjects were given 6 ounces of water mixed with either purple Kool-Aid (control), a SuperBeets supplement, or a SuperBeets Sport supplement and after 45 minutes, measurements were taken undergoing normal and hyperemia conditions once more. The verification testing demonstrated the calibration of the device was effectively …

Molecular Separation By Using Active And Passive Microfluidic Chip Designs: A Comprehensive Review, A. Ebrahimi, K. Icoz, R. Didarian, C.-H. Shih, A. Akpek, Berivan Cecen, Sabanci A. Bal-Ozturk, K. Güleç, Y.-C.E Li, S. Shih, B. Sirma Tarim, H.C. Tekin, E. Alarçin, H. Ghorbanpoor, C. Özel, A. Eker Sarıboyacı, Guzel F. Dogan, N. Bassous, S.R. Shin, H. Avci

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Separation and identification of molecules and biomolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, and polysaccharides from complex fluids are known to be important due to unmet needs in various applications. Generally, many different separation techniques, including chromatography, electrophoresis, and magnetophoresis, have been developed to identify the target molecules precisely. However, these techniques are expensive and time consuming. “Lab-on-a-chip” systems with low cost per device, quick analysis capabilities, and minimal sample consumption seem to be ideal candidates for separating particles, cells, blood samples, and molecules. From this perspective, different microfluidic-based techniques have been extensively developed in the past two decades to separate …

Combining Adhesive And Nonadhesive Injectable Hydrogels For Intervertebral Disc Repair In An Ovine Discectomy Model., Christopher J Panebianco, Caroline Constant, Andrea J. Vernengo, Dirk Nehrbass, Dominic Gehweiler, Tyler J Distefano, Jesse Martin, David J Alpert, Saad B Chaudhary, Andrew C Hecht, Alan C Seifert, Steven B Nicoll, Sibylle Grad, Stephan Zeiter, James C Iatridis

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

BACKGROUND: Intervertebral disc (IVD) disorders (e.g., herniation) directly contribute to back pain, which is a leading cause of global disability. Next-generation treatments for IVD herniation need advanced preclinical testing to evaluate their ability to repair large defects, prevent reherniation, and limit progressive degeneration. This study tested whether experimental, injectable, and nonbioactive biomaterials could slow IVD degeneration in an ovine discectomy model.

METHODS: Ten skeletally mature sheep (4-5.5 years) experienced partial discectomy injury with cruciate-style annulus fibrosus (AF) defects and 0.1 g nucleus pulposus (NP) removal in the L1-L2, L2-L3, and L3-L4 lumbar IVDs. L4-L5 IVDs were Intact controls. IVD injury …

Perfusability And Immunogenicity Of Implantable Pre-Vascularized Tissues Recapitulating Features Of Native Capillary Network, Dhavan Sharma, Archita Sharma, Linghao Hu, Te An Chen, Sarah Voon, Kayla J. Bayless, Jeremy Goldman, Alex J. Walsh, Feng Zhao

Michigan Tech Publications

Vascularization is a key pre-requisite to engineered anatomical scale three dimensional (3-D) constructs to ensure their nutrient and oxygen supply upon implantation. Presently, engineered pre-vascularized 3-D tissues are limited to only micro-scale hydrogels, which meet neither the anatomical scale needs nor the complexity of natural extracellular matrix (ECM) environments. Anatomical scale perfusable constructs are critically needed for translational applications. To overcome this challenge, we previously developed pre-vascularized ECM sheets with long and oriented dense microvascular networks. The present study further evaluated the patency, perfusability and innate immune response toward these pre-vascularized constructs. Macrophage-co-cultured pre-vascularized constructs were evaluated in vitro to …

Methods For Objective Determination Of Musculoskeletal Coordinate Systems, Tara Francesca Nagle

ETD Archive

Joint mechanics research relies on joint kinematics and kinetics measurements, represented from relative relationships of local coordinate systems (CS) belonging to bones of the joint. It’s common to define these CSs from anatomical landmarks, which are sensitive to observer variability and often don’t result in CS that best represent the functional motion of the joint. This work is presented in three articles addressing the following aims: 1) to develop a method to objectively define coordinate systems through optimization of unique passive movement paths, 2) to develop an alternative method to objectively define coordinates systems for joints with non-unique passive movement …

Influence Of Ligament Locations And Activity Profiles On Risk Of Knee Injury In Adolescents, Alexandria Mallinos

ETD Archive

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is the most commonly injured ligament in the body. The overall goal of this project is to develop patient-specific computational pediatric knee models that can accurately predict the in vivo biomechanical environment of the ACL. The foundation of this research is broken down into three specific parts: 1) model construction, 2) model validation, and 3) model application.

Specific Aim #1 developed anatomically accurate specimen-specific finite element representations of pediatric tibiofemoral joints. The models were able to demonstrate the ability for the Open Knee cruciate stereolithography (stl) files to be three-dimensional scaled to create subject-specific ligaments …

Noninvasive Mapping Of Global And Regional Functional Connectivity In The Brain Of Children With Drug Resistant Epilepsy And Healthy Controls, Ludovica Corona

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

For patients with drug resistant epilepsy (DRE), resective surgery is the most effective treatment to achieve seizure-freedom. Its success largely depends on the resection, ablation, or disconnection of the epileptogenic zone (EZ), defined as the minimal area indispensable for the generation of seizures, with minimal or no functional deficits. To date, there is no clinical exam to delineate the EZ unambiguously. Instead, the EZ is indirectly defined through multiple noninvasive diagnostic tests used by the multidisciplinary epilepsy team, whose results are often insufficiently concordant or inconclusive. Thus, extra-operative intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) monitoring may be needed to precisely define the EZ …

Lung Cancer Growth Forecasting And Classification Models By Machine Learning Using A Novel 2d Co-Culture High Throughput Device, Adam Adrien Germain

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Co-culture devices have commonly been used during in vitro experimentation to create therapeutic testing devices for lung cancer that more closely mimic the in vivo environment to gain better insights into new therapies and the reasons for inconsistency for current therapies. Moreover, AI (artificial intelligence) in the form of convolutional neural networks (CNN) and convolutional long-short term memory neural networks (convLSTM) are being used to classify, diagnose, and predict drug outcomes from the visual data provided by clinical imaging modalities, such as CT-scans, MRIs, or histopathological slides among others, or from numerical and textual data gathered from the genetic testing …

Advances And Applications In Ultrasound-Switchable Fluorescence Imaging, Liqin Ren

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Cancer diagnosis is a prerequisite for further medical therapy and treatment. Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging is a desirable modality without invasiveness and nonionizing radiation. However, fluorescence suffers from a strong light scattering in tissues, leading to a low spatial resolution and low sensitivity in centimeter-deep tissue (limited to several millimeters). To enhance spatial resolution and avoid the high scattering of conventional fluorescence imaging in deep tissue, ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (USF) imaging has emerged as a highly promising technique for biomedical imaging and research. The principle of improving spatial resolution in USF imaging is to confine the fluorescence emission from thermosensitive fluorophores …

Development Of Multiscale And Multidimensional Light Sheet Microscopy For Image-Based Modelling Of Organogenesis, Tanveer Ashwini Ashwini Teranikar

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Behavioral analysis of individual cells, in the form of structural phenotypes arising in response to mechanical stimuli or genomic alterations as small molecule intermediates of disease, are instrumental for understanding organogenesis. In this regard, dynamic cell tracking or temporal changes in cell shape, area and size are vital for modelling tissue interactions. However, optical diffraction limits imposed by lenses, hinders high resolution volume reconstruction of microscale biological processes and subcellular organelles. Thereby, isotropic intensity is restricted to limited focal volumes, reducing imaging distance to less than 1 mm for high magnification. To combat this, Light Sheet Microscopes (LSM) have emerged …

Quantification Of Dynamic Changes Of Hemodynamic And Metabolic Responses To Brachial Artery Occlusion: A Broadband Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study, Caroline Elizabeth Carter

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death in the United States, and non-Hispanic African Americans are at higher risk than other racial and ethnic groups. Endothelial dysfunction is a major contributor to CVD development and progression. Remote ischemic pre/conditioning (RIC), which involves exposing cells or tissues to brief sublethal stress, has been shown to protect cardiovascular cells from ischemia and reperfusion injury, including CVD. This study aimed to investigate hemodynamic and metabolic dynamics in response to 5-min forearm arterial occlusion using broadband near-infrared spectroscopy. My thesis is a tripartite investigation that weaves RIC, mitochondrial dynamics, and health disparities …

Formation And Morphological Changes Of Stress Actin Filaments In Adipose-Derived Stem Cells, Adam Priester

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Adipose-Derived Stem Cells (ADSCs) are a sub-type of stem cell that can be collected and isolated from the adipose tissue. Adipogenesis describes the commitment and differentiation of stem cells, including ADSCs, toward the adipocyte lineage. While much research has been completed on this process in the long term (>2 weeks), morphological changes of adipogenesis during the early phase (<24 hours) are lacking in the literature and remain to be elucidated. The current study focuses on these changes in the early and later stages of adipogenesis using adipogenic differentiation factors and fluorescent imaging analyses. Quantifiable data on morphological changes during both phases can provide insight into how these changes affect later differentiation and lay the groundwork for additional research in this area. Using fluorescent image analysis, it was shown that the eccentricity of ADSCs, a measure of cellular circularity, decreases exponentially in the early phase of adipogenesis. In contrast, the cellular area appears to increase exponentially during the same early period. During the later stages of differentiation, it was shown that actin filament length decreases exponentially and the ratio of lipid to actin length increases exponentially, demonstrating that lipid accumulation outpaces actin filament shortening and increasing circularity during the later stages. These findings may be used in future studies to further define the role of actin filament-mediated morphological changes and mechanobiology during adipogenesis.

Investigation Of Rate Pressure Product As A Metric To Quantify Cardiac Workload In Sleep Apnea Events, Carlos Cruz

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

An investigation on the use of rate pressure product (RPP) to measure the cardiac workload in sleep apnea patients is presented. RPP is the product of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate (HR). The application of RPP to quantify cardiac workload is combined with the detection of respiratory events occurring in close proximity (less than 30 seconds apart). These two combined factors provide a unique framework for analyzing sleep apnea events and are the primary novelty of the study. Close proximity events are referred to as respiratory event chains (RECs). Statistical analyses were conducted on various RPP metrics as …

The Effects Of Poloxamer 188 On Wound Closure In A Mouse Brain Endothelium Model, Mia Claire Grubbs

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) plays a crucial role in maintaining central nervous system homeostasis and, if structurally and functionally compromised, can lead to severe neurological consequences. This thesis explores the therapeutic potential of Poloxamer 188 (P188) in the context of BBB wound healing. P188, FDA-approved copolymer that is known for its cytoprotective properties, is examined for its impact on endothelial monolayers through in vitro scratch wound assays. The study aims to establish a consistent endothelial monolayer model, quantify wound healing dynamics, and assess the efficacy of P188 at varying concentrations. The thesis goals include detailed methodologies such as cell culture …

Novel Implementation Of Additive Manufacturing To Visualize The Human Brain Connectome, Greg Tyler

Computational and Data Sciences (MS) Theses

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging technology with diverse areas of application. In this paper we explore a new application of AM that uses a subset of AM known as 3D printing, to create real life models of the human connectome. The human connectome is a color coded map of the connections in the human brain where directions are indicated by colors and the density of connections are indicated by color intensity.

There are several different algorithms for mapping the connections and describing the output. The Neu- roImaging Tools and Resource Collaboratory (NITRC) provides one such algorithm. It uses probabilistic …

An Improved Saliency Map With Trustworthiness For Localizing Abnormalities In Medical Imaging, Nolan C. Skelly

Theses and Dissertations

Saliency maps are a widely used methodology to make deep learning models more interpretable. They provide post-hoc explanations through identification of the most pertinent areas of an input medical image. These techniques have been assessed based on 1) localization utility, 2) sensitivity to model weight randomization, 3) repeatability, and 4) reproducibility. Ten saliency map techniques will be tested, Grad, Smooth Grad, Integrated Gradients, Smooth Integrated Gradients, XRAI, Grad-CAM, Guided Backpropagation, Guided GradCAM, GradCAM++, and ScoreCAM. The neural networks used to predict and read medical information require a reliable solution to provide medical practitioners intelligible results. Using the information of two, …

Determining The Effects Of Glycocalyx Modifications On The Electrophysical Properties Of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Rominna E. Valentine Ico

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have gained popularity in clinical trials due to their multipotent differentiation characteristics, ability to secrete bioactive molecules, migrate into diseased or damaged tissues, and their immunosuppressive properties. HMSC cultures are heterogeneous, containing stem cells, partially differentiated progenitor cells, and fully differentiated cells. One of the major challenges with hMSCs therapeutic potential is the inability to select specific cell subpopulations due to an insufficient number of biomarkers. Often the biomarkers used, like those for fluorescence-activated cell sorting, are not sufficient to define hMSCs because they overlap with other cell types. Consequently, there is a need to …

Effects Of Indole Derivative Idc16 On Cell Proliferation, Transfection, And Alternative Splicing In Production Of Lentiviral Vectors By Transient Co-Transfection, Nataly Mier

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Viruses can efficiently introduce genetic material into a variety of cells through cell infection. Therefore, viral vectors, defined as virus-based gene delivery systems, effectively transfer functional gene constructs to target cells. Among different viral vectors, lentiviral vectors are of interest due to the advantages offered to research and therapeutic applications. Low productivity of lentiviral vectors in mammalian producer cells and high production cost, however, remain barriers to the vectors’ routinary use, particularly in clinical settings.

Since most lentiviral vectors are derived from human immunodeficiency virus type I, their genome has been engineered to increase safety. Nevertheless, modifications of the lentiviral …

Representativeness Evaluation Of Delta-Flux Eddy Covariance Towers For Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Rice Fields In The Mid-South Region, Katherine Skiles

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Rice grown in 5 states across the Mid-South (AR, LA, MS, TX, and MO) account for nearly 80% of all domestic U.S. rice production. Methane emissions produced during rice farming and the large seasonal water demand to maintain flooded fields have created a need for alternative irrigation research that can reduce methane emissions and conserve water. Structures called eddy covariance towers (ECTs) can observe methane and other flux responses to changing irrigation styles, and their data is shared across flux tower networks such as Delta-Flux in the Mid-South. The Delta-Flux network is relatively new, and its data-sharing capacity is not …

Controlled Manipulation And Transport By Microswimmers In Stokes Flows, Jake Buzhardt

All Dissertations

Remotely actuated microscale swimming robots have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of biomedicine. However, for the longterm goals of this field of research to be achievable, it is necessary to develop modelling, simulation, and control strategies which effectively and efficiently account for not only the motion of individual swimmers, but also the complex interactions of such swimmers with their environment including other nearby swimmers, boundaries, other cargo and passive particles, and the fluid medium itself. The aim of this thesis is to study these problems in simulation from the perspective of controls and dynamical systems, with a particular focus …

A Framework Of Flow Models For The Development And Testing Of Cardiovascular Devices, Megan Laughlin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide and its treatment continues to improve due to the advancement of innovative cardiovascular medical devices. In vitro and in silico models serve to replicate the in vivo environment for the development and testing of these devices prior to using animals for testing, and eventually humans in clinical trials. However, limitations related to these models exist in multiple areas including general, cardiac, and venous applications. Specifically, current gaps have been identified with customizable, tissue-mimicking phantoms (general), 2D Blood Speckle Imaging (BSI) (cardiac) and a bioprosthetic venous valve (venous). This dissertation focuses …

Tissue-Engineered Models For Investigating Nerve Infiltration In Fibrotic Microenvironments, Nikolas Ala-Kokko

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neuron infiltration is involved in a multitude of diseased states and is critical in the regeneration of physiologic conditions. Modeling of innervation in three-dimensional, heterogenous, environments would allow early investigation in the crosstalk of neurons and native cells in normal and pathophysiologic microenvironments to gain an understanding of mechanistic functions. This would allow for greater insight into the role of metabolism, cell adhesion, microenvironmental alternations, cellular crosstalk, and signaling pathways that play a role in the promotion and prevention of neurite growth. In this thesis, with the construction of collagen-based hydrogels as the foundation for cell culture, we investigate cell …

Process-Structure-Property Relationships Of Nanofibers For Biomedical Applications, Dipasree Bhowmick

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the fabrication, characterization, and applications of nanofiber membranes utilizing Forcespinning® technology. Two distinct nanofiber systems were developed and evaluated, one focusing on pH-responsive Eudragit-baicalin loaded nanofibrous membranes for wound healing and the second one on thermo-responsive nanofiber-hydrogel (PNIPAAm) systems for biosensing applications, specifically dopamine detection. In the first project, nanofiber membranes loaded with Eudragit and baicalin demonstrated superior antibacterial properties against both gram-negative (E. coli) and gram-positive (B. meg) bacteria. Additionally, these membranes exhibited antioxidant properties and enhanced cell proliferation of 3TT cells, making them promising candidates for wound healing dressings. In the second project, a …