Engineering Commons^™

Image Analysis Methodology For Evaluating Coating Uniformity Of Drug-Coated Angioplasty Balloons, Allison Dobson Zieschang

LSU Master's Theses

Percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty (PTA) is a surgical procedure to treat peripheral artery disease, but restenosis causes suboptimal outcomes in many patients. Drug-coated angioplasty balloons (DCBs) were developed to reduce the risk of restenosis by delivering anti-proliferative drugs to the lesion. The efficacy of DCBs depends on factors like drug loading and drug release rate, both of which are directly impacted by the coating uniformity. This thesis evaluates the uniformity of DBCs using fluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), qualitative analysis, and an image processing algorithm. Uniformity was quantified by three measurements: histogram standard deviation, histogram percentage of coverage, and …

Optimizing Treatment Of Cytomegalovirus, Alisa Dabb

Student Research Symposium

The current treatment to Cytomegalovirus, ganciclovir, kills neutrophils, a type of cell in the immune system. In an effort to reduce the concentration of ganciclovir, quercetin and poloxamer 188 have been added in treatment in a cellular and mouse model. This treatment has been successful, but can be further optimized by reworking the ratio of quercetin to poloxamer 188 and by adding vitamin c to prevent oxidation.

Murine Hearing Abr/Dpoae Assessments In Cmv-Infected Mouse Pups Receiving Peritoneal Antivirals Of Gcv, Quercetin+P188, Or A Combination. Controls Include Infected And Untreated And Non-Infected And Treated. Second Dataset Of Antiviral Assay In A Murine Stria Vascularis (Sv) Monolayer Cell Culture, David Britt, Albert Park

Browse all Datasets

Ganciclovir (GCV) has been shown to be an effective antiviral for the treatment of congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) induced sensorineural hearing loss. However, dose-dependent adverse effects (e.g. neutropenia) require strict, burdensome monitoring, limiting GCV use in some patients. Quercetin is a flavonoid with antioxidant properties that has demonstrated antiviral therapy against CMV. Although more benign than GCV, quercetin has limited therapeutic value due to its poor solubility. We previously reported that GCV improves hearing thresholds in a murine model of cCMV. We also noted that solubilizing quercetin with poloxamer 188 (P188) and combining with GCV therapy amplified CMV inhibition in murine …

Understanding The Role Of A Putative Type I Polyketide Synthase In Chlorflavonin Biosynthesis, Ammar Mussaji

Student Research Symposium

Flavonoids are an important class of plant secondary metabolites with a variety of biological functions in the development processes of hosts. These molecules have also shown health-benefiting properties such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. As such, they are commonly used as pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. In plants, flavonoids are assembled through a type III polyketide synthase (PKS) and associated tailoring enzymes such as hydroxylase and glycosyltransferase. Some filamentous fungi also produce flavonoids, such as chlorflavonin from Aspergillus candidus. Chlorflavonin is a novel halogenated flavonoid found in nature reported to possess antifungal and anti-tuberculosis activity. Unlike plants, the biosynthetic process of flavonoids …

Glycosylation Of Anti-Tb Agent Chlorflavonin For Combating Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Jie Ren

Student Research Symposium

More than two billion people were infected by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in 2020. However, during the past 50 years, the first-line (isoniazid, delamanid, and rifampicin) and second-line (capreomycin, streptomycin, and cycloserine) therapies have remained unchanged with disadvantages such as long treatment periods and severe side effects. The slow development of anti-TB drugs cannot combat the fast development of drug resistant M. tuberculosis strains from multidrug-resistant (MDR) into extensively drug resistant (XDR), which further hinders the World Health Organization’s goal to end the global TB pandemic by the year 2035. Flavonoids are a type of natural product with …

Microcanonical Thermodynamics Of Small Ideal Gas Systems, David S. Corti, Donya Ohadi, Ricardo Fariello, Mark J. Uline

Faculty Publications

We consider the thermal, mechanical, and chemical contact of two subsystems composed of ideal gases, both of which are not in the thermodynamic limit. After contact, the combined system is isolated, and the entropy is determined through the use of its standard connection to the phase space density (PSD), where only those microstates at a given energy value are counted. The various intensive properties of these small systems that follow from a derivative of the PSD, such as the temperature, pressure, and chemical potential (evaluated via a backward difference), while equal when the two subsystems are in equilibrium are nevertheless …

Mitochondrial Complex Iii Bypass Complex I To Induce Ros In Gpr17 Signaling Activation In Gbm, Sana Kari, Jeyalakshmi Kandhavelu, Akshaya Murugesan, Ramesh Thiyagarajan, Srivatsan Kidambi, Meenakshisundaram Kandhavelu

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Guanine nucleotide binding protein (G protein) coupled receptor 17 (GPR17) plays crucial role in Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cell signaling and is primarily associated with reactive oxidative species (ROS) production and cell death. However, the underlying mechanisms by which GPR17 regulates ROS level and mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) complexes are still unknown. Here, we investigate the novel link between the GPR17 receptor and ETC complex I and III in regulating level of intracellular ROS (ROSi) in GBM using pharmacological inhibitors and gene expression profiling. Incubation of 1321N1 GBM cells with ETC I inhibitor and GPR17 agonist decreased the ROS level, …

Engineered Production Of Bioactive Polyphenolic O-Glycosides, Jie Ren, Caleb Don Barton, Jixun Zhan

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Polyphenolic compounds (such as quercetin and resveratrol) possess potential medicinal values due to their various bioactivities, but poor water solubility hinders their health benefits to humankind. Glycosylation is a well-known post-modification method to biosynthesize natural product glycosides with improved hydrophilicity. Glycosylation has profound effects on decreasing toxicity, increasing bioavailability and stability, together with changing bioactivity of polyphenolic compounds. Therefore, polyphenolic glycosides can be used as food additives, therapeutics, and nutraceuticals. Engineered biosynthesis provides an environmentally friendly and cost-effective approach to generate polyphenolic glycosides through the use of various glycosyltransferases (GTs) and sugar biosynthetic enzymes. GTs transfer the sugar moieties from …

Hydrogen Bonding Versus Halogen Bonding: Spectroscopic Investigation Of Gas-Phase Complexes Involving Bromide And Chloromethanes, Hayden T. Robinson, Christian T. Haakansson, Timothy R. Corkish, Peter D. Watson, Allan J. Mckinley, Duncan A. Wild

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Hydrogen bonding and halogen bonding are important non-covalent interactions that are known to occur in large molecular systems, such as in proteins and crystal structures. Although these interactions are important on a large scale, studying hydrogen and halogen bonding in small, gas-phase chemical species allows for the binding strengths to be determined and compared at a fundamental level. In this study, anion photoelectron spectra are presented for the gas-phase complexes involving bromide and the four chloromethanes, CH3Cl, CH2Cl2, CHCl3, and CCl4. The stabilisation energy and electron binding energy associated with each complex are determined experimentally, and the spectra are rationalised …

Beirut Arab University - Faculty Of Engineering - Newsletter Issue 0, Faculty Of Engineering, Beirut Arab University

Engineering Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Engineering Cell–Ecm–Material Interactions For Musculoskeletal Regeneration, Calvin L. Jones, Brian T. Penney, Sophia K. Theodossiou

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The extracellular microenvironment regulates many of the mechanical and biochemical cues that direct musculoskeletal development and are involved in musculoskeletal disease. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a main component of this microenvironment. Tissue engineered approaches towards regenerating muscle, cartilage, tendon, and bone target the ECM because it supplies critical signals for regenerating musculoskeletal tissues. Engineered ECM–material scaffolds that mimic key mechanical and biochemical components of the ECM are of particular interest in musculoskeletal tissue engineering. Such materials are biocompatible, can be fabricated to have desirable mechanical and biochemical properties, and can be further chemically or genetically modified to support cell …

Computational Design Of Fiber-Optic Probes For Biosensing, Suwarna Karna

Electrical Engineering Theses

This thesis presents a study on the optical characteristics of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs) with a band gap cladding structure and their applications in optical fiber sensing. This 800B HC-PCF exhibited excellent optical properties and has a flexible structure, which makes them suitable for a wide range of industrial applications. Finite element simulations and structural optimization designs were conducted using the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique to determine the optimal performance parameters of the 800B HC-PCF. The fiber was further modified using the SPR technique to improve its practical detection capabilities. The performance of the modified fiber was observed …

Detecting Physiological Concentrations Of Alzheimer’S Associated Amyloid-Β Protein Utilizing A Cell-Based Response, Brittany Elizabeth Watson

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized symptoms of cognitive impairment resulting from blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown and neuronal cell death. AD is associated with aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques deposited around brain vasculature and within the brain. Changes in the brain occur up to 20 years before symptoms arise; however, there is currently no pre-symptomatic detection method available for AD. An intact BBB requires tight junction proteins (TJs) that render relatively high transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER). AD-associated breakdown of the BBB correlates with vascular Aβ deposition, suggesting that aggregated, pathological Aβ can modulate TEER. We explore leveraging this cellular response for early …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Model Of Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy., Olivia Cooney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a procedure that targets abdominal tumors in the intraperitoneal space. During the procedure, chemotherapy heated to 40-43^oC is cycled through the abdomen for 1 to 2 hours. Although a majority of studies have focused on clinical outcomes, the dynamics of the intra-abdominal flow remain poorly understood. Consequently, it has been difficult to gauge the tumor targeting efficacy, which depends critically on temperature and chemotherapy flow rates. This study establishes a computational framework to evaluate the dynamics of fluid flow during HIPEC, with the goal to enable optimization of tumor drug exposure. A computer …

Metabolomic Differentiation Of Tumor Core And Edge In Glioma., Mary E. Baxter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioma is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. It has been shown that the microenvironments differ significantly between the core and edge regions of glioma tumors. This study obtained metabolomic profiles of glioma core and edge regions using paired glioma core and edge tissue samples from 27 human patients. Data was acquired by performing liquid-liquid metabolite extraction and 2DLC-MS/MS on the tissue samples. In addition, a boosted generalized linear machine learning model was employed to predict the metabolomic profiles associated with O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation.

A panel of 66 metabolites was found to be statistically significant …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Control System, Arnold Nieto, Jaylinn Solis, Matthew Tamanaha

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Light stimulation or transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) therapy has been shown to be effective when treating patients suffering neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. While there is currently no cure, light stimulation can help alleviate symptoms for those patient’s suffering from these diseases. With this in mind, the senior design team from last year began a prototype hybrid electroencephalography (EEG) and tPBM device. They implemented a specific wavelength of 810 nanometer (nm) near-infrared (NIR) light emitting diodes (LEDs), with a 16 channel EEG headset from OpenBCI. The device was intended to serve as a potential research tool, with a …

Transcriptome Profiling Of A Synergistic Volumetric Muscle Loss Repair Strategy, Kevin Roberts, John Taehwan Kim, Jacob Schluns, Grady Dunlap, Jamie Hestekin, Jeffery Wolchok

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Volumetric muscle loss overwhelms skeletal muscle’s ordinarily capable regenerative machinery, resulting in severe functional deficits that have defied clinical repair strategies. In this manuscript we pair the early in vivo functional response induced by differing volumetric muscle loss tissue engineering repair strategies that are broadly representative of those explored by the field (scaffold alone, cells alone, or scaffold + cells) to the transcriptomic response induced by each intervention. We demonstrate that an implant strategy comprising allogeneic decellularized skeletal muscle scaffolds seeded with autologous minced muscle cellular paste (scaffold + cells) mediates a pattern of increased expression for several genes known …

Gluten Free Diet Ameliorates Si Enteropathy In Iga Deficient Mice, Ryan Albert William Ball

Theses and Dissertations

Secretory IgA is the most abundant antibody in the intestinal mucosal and functions as the first line of defense against pathogens and micro-organisms in the gut. Selective IgA deficiency is the most common form of antibody deficiency. Clinically, IgA deficient patients are largely asymptomatic, they are however at a higher risk of developing certain inflammatory conditions like Celiac disease; an SI-specific enteropathy triggered by exposure to dietary gluten. Interestingly, celiac patients are 10-15 times more likely to have an IgA deficiency. Recent studies have shown that IgA^-/- mice develop enteropathy specifically in the ileum. We confirmed this phenotype in …

A Device For Measuring Acoustic Output Intensity Of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Transducers For Comparison With Fda Regulations, Sarah Altman, Gregory Bashford, Benjamin Hage

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography (TCD) is a non-invasive methodology which can evaluate cerebral blood flow velocity in real time. Single-element focused circular transducers placed on the scalp produce ultrasound waves capable of penetrating the skull with minimal aberration, enabling measurement of the Doppler shift. As such, TCD can measure blood flow velocity in the internal carotid and vertebral arteries, as well as the arteries of the Circle of Willis: the Anterior Cerebral (ACA), Posterior Cerebral (PCA), and Middle Cerebral Arteries (MCA). Intracranial aneurysm and ischemic stroke are serious conditions in which ballooning or occlusion of cerebral vessels cause insufficient perfusion, leading …

Neurodevelopmental And Transient Impacts Of Brain Kynurenic Acid Elevation And Sleep-Wake Behavior, Katherine Rentschler

Theses and Dissertations

Sleep is vital for healthy cognition and mood. Sleep dysregulation is implicated in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Sex differences in sleep and arousal dysregulation are prominent in patients with psychotic disorders. Elevated levels of the neuroactive tryptophan metabolite, kynurenic acid (KYNA), have been found in cerebrospinal fluid and postmortem brain tissue samples from patients with psychotic disorders. KYNA is an astrocyte derived antagonist at N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors and α7 nicotinic acetylcholine (α7nACh) receptors. KYNA is synthesized in the brain from its biological precursor, kynurenine, via the enzyme kynurenine aminotransferase II (KAT II), a potential therapeutic …

Decellularized Heart Extracellular Matrix As A Biomimetic Substrate For Alleviating Hipsc-Cardiac Fibroblast Activation And Enhancing Isogenic Cardiac Organoids, Charles Kerr

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the constant leading cause of death worldwide. While substantial efforts have been undertaken to improve disease outcomes, the lack of adequate human cardiac tissue models exacerbates research and development costs and clinical trial failures, hampering novel therapeutic discovery. To address this, human engineered cardiac microtissues composed of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) show potential in recapitulating hallmark qualities of natural human myocardium for novel therapeutic testing, disease modeling and cardiotoxicity screening. However, as these models are engineered in vitro, they are limited in their capacity to fully recapitulate myocardium and are vulnerable to influences …

Evaluating Foot-Drop Interventions For Multiple Sclerosis Using A Multimodal System, Laura Marie Byrnes-Blanco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how multimodal walking impacts quantitative and qualitative aspects of gait for persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) experiencing foot-drop. Foot-drop can dramatically impede mobility and clinicians routinely prescribe ankle-foot-orthosis (AFO) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) devices to alleviate its impacts on daily life. However, little is known about how these devices affect pwMS while traversing environments with real-world complexity. To explore this topic, an interventional, parallel assigned study was conducted. A realistic nature pathway containing changes in floor pitch, audiovisual stimulation, and during-trial tasks (for dual-tasking) was generated in an immersive virtual reality system called CAREN: Computer Assisted …

Anti-Inflammatory And Anti-Thrombogenic Properties Of Arterial Elastic Laminae, Jeremy Goldman, Shu Q. Liu, Brandon J. Tefft

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Elastic laminae, an elastin-based, layered extracellular matrix structure in the media of arteries, can inhibit leukocyte adhesion and vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration, exhibiting anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombogenic properties. These properties prevent inflammatory and thrombogenic activities in the arterial media, constituting a mechanism for the maintenance of the structural integrity of the arterial wall in vascular disorders. The biological basis for these properties is the elastin-induced activation of inhibitory signaling pathways, involving the inhibitory cell receptor signal regulatory protein α (SIRPα) and Src homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 1 (SHP1). The activation of these molecules causes deactivation of …

Histological Evidence For The Therapeutic Effect Of Chitosan Nanofibrous Dressing On Acute Skin Wounds In A Rat Model, Mahboubeh Ghanbari, Sayed Ahmadreza Razian, Sara Cartwright, Yury Salkovskiy, Jason Mactaggart, Mark A. Carlson

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Introduction: Large-area skin traumas, such as thermal burns, are among the most severe health issues that decrease patients’ quality of life and burden healthcare systems. The CDC estimates that there are 1.1 million burns requiring medical attention each year, with more than 20,000 cases involving at least 25% of the body surface, resulting in 4,500 deaths. In addition, about 10,000 people die from burn-related infections. A promising solution to alleviate this problem is using wound dressings based on biopolymers with inherent wound healing properties and biodegradability. One of these biopolymers is chitosan, which is derived from arthropod shells and exhibits …

The Effects Of Demographics And Risk Factors On The Morphological Characteristics Of Human Femoropopliteal Arteries, Sayed Ahmadreza Razian, Majid Jadidi, Alexey Kamenskiy

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Background: Disease of the lower extremity arteries (Peripheral Arterial Disease, PAD) is associated with high morbidity and mortality. During disease development, the arteries adapt by changing their diameter, wall thickness, and residual deformations, but the effects of demographics and risk factors on this process are not clear.

Methods: Superficial femoral arteries from 736 subjects (505 male, 231 female, 12 to 99 years old, average age 51±17.8 years) and the associated demographic and risk factor variables were used to construct machine learning (ML) regression models that predicted morphological characteristics (diameter, wall thickness, and longitudinal opening angle resulting from the …

Time Evolution Is A Source Of Bias In The Wolf Algorithm For Largest Lyapunov Exponents, Kolby Brink, Tyler Wiles, Nicholas Stergiou, Aaron Likens

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Human movement is inherently variable by nature. One of the most common analytical tools for assessing movement variability is the largest Lyapunov exponent (LyE) which quantifies the rate of trajectory divergence or convergence in an n-dimensional state space. One popular method for assessing LyE is the Wolf algorithm. Many studies have investigated how Wolf’s calculation of the LyE changes due to sampling frequency, filtering, data normalization, and stride normalization. However, a surprisingly understudied parameter needed for LyE computation is evolution time. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the LyE changes as a function of evolution time …

Differentiating Axonal From Demyelinating Neuropathies Using Multiparametric Quantitative Mri Of Peripheral Nerves, Jacob D. Baraz, Stephanie Xuan, Sadaf Saba, Xue Yang, Ryan Castoro, Yang Xuan, Alison Roth, Richard D. Dortch, Jun Li, Yongsheng Chen

Medical Student Research Symposium

Objectives: To develop a multiparametric quantitative MRI (qMRI) method to track pathological changes in the peripheral neuropathies.

Background: Irrespective of the causes or types of polyneuropathies, peripheral nerves are mainly afflicted by two kinds of pathologies – axonal loss and demyelination. It is critical to differentiate between the two as treatments are different for the two conditions. While nerve conduction studies (NCS) have been used to differentiate the two pathologies in the distal nerves, there are no tools to probe the pathologies in the proximal peripheral nerves. This is particularly needed when distal nerves become non-responsive in NCS.

Methods: We …

Evaluation Of A Portable Gynecological Examination Table On Increasing Access To Cervical Cancer Screenings, Brennan Burrows, Giuliana Motta, Vibhasri Davuluri, Urvee Deo, Aman Tahir, Brindha Rajakumar, Jacob Blumenstein, Eliza Steinberg, Mariam Tobia, Asmita Tuladhar, Abigail Ahn

Medical Student Research Symposium

Introduction: Cervical cancer is a preventable disease affecting millions of women worldwide, with higher prevalence and mortality in developing countries. One explanation of this disparity is due to reduced access to screenings, especially in rural communities where mobile health clinics are limited by what medical equipment they can bring. To address these barriers, an engineering team called Project MESA (Making Examinations Safe and Accessible) designed a gynecological examination table that is portable, lightweight, and easily sanitizable.

Objective: This study aims to (1) evaluate whether the implementation of this device improves the clinician’s ability to perform pap smears as opposed to …

Development And Implementation Of Telemetry Devices To Identify And Characterize Sources Of Intraocular Pressure Variability In Rats, Christina M. Nicou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Eye health depends partially on intraocular pressure (IOP) as abnormal levels can lead to ocular tissue damage. Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nearly 80 million people worldwide [1]. It is associated with elevated IOP, which can lead to irreversible blindness. Relatively little is known about IOP dynamics and the physiological factors that affect it as IOP is typically monitored using tonometry. Tonometry is a common tool used by clinicians and researchers to measure IOP noninvasively. It provides a good estimate of IOP mean but not variance because data collection takes time. Readings can also be influenced by subject …

Protocol To Engineer Nanofilms Embedded Lipid Nanoparticles For Controlled And Targeted Drug Delivery (Nectar), Rashi Porwal, Stephen L. Hayward, Srivatsan Kidambi

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

We present a protocol to engineer a substrate-mediated delivery platform comprising hyaluronic acid-coated lipid nanoparticles (HALNPs) embedded into polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films. This platform allows controlled spatiotemporal release of lipid nanoparticles (LNP) by embedding them within the polyelectrolyte multilayer films matrix. HALNP conjugate with antibodies also adds the ability for targeted delivery. The use of LNP enables this platform to encapsulate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. This platform can easily be reproduced and utilized for various biomedical drug delivery applications. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Hayward et al. (2015, 2016a, 2016b), …