Engineering Commons^™

Role Of Mitochondrial Electron Transport Complex I In Coenzyme Q1 Reduction By Intact Pulmonary Arterial Endothelial Cells And The Effect Of Hyperoxia, Marilyn P. Merker, Said H. Audi, Brian J. Lindemer, Gary S. Krenz, Robert D. Bongard

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The objective was to determine the impact of intact normoxic and hyperoxia-exposed (95% O(2) for 48 h) bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells in culture on the redox status of the coenzyme Q(10) homolog coenzyme Q(1) (CoQ(1)). When CoQ(1) (50 microM) was incubated with the cells for 30 min, its concentration in the medium decreased over time, reaching a lower level for normoxic than hyperoxia-exposed cells. The decreases in CoQ(1) concentration were associated with generation of CoQ(1) hydroquinone (CoQ(1)H(2)), wherein 3.4 times more CoQ(1)H(2) was produced in the normoxic than hyperoxia-exposed cell medium (8.2 +/- 0.3 and 2.4 +/- 0.4 microM, …

Marquette Interchange Phase I Final Report, Nicholas Hornyak, James Crovetti, David Newman, Jay Schabelski

Transportation Research Center: Marquette Interchange Instrumentation

This report provides details on the design, installation and monitoring of a pavement instrumentation system for the analysis of load-induced stresses and strains within a perpetual HMA pavement system. The HMA pavement was constructed as part of an urban highway improvement project in the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The outer wheel path of the outside lane was instrumented with asphalt strain sensors, base and subgrade pressure sensors, subgrade moisture and temperature sensors, HMA layer temperature sensors, traffic wander strips and a weigh in motion system. Environmental sensors for air temperature, wind speed and solar radiation are also included. The system …

Pulmonary Microvascular Injury Resulting From A Single Exposure To Low-Dose Thoracic Radiation, Q. Wu, G. Schmirler, John E. Moulder, Elizabeth R. Jacobs, Meetha Medhora, Robert C. Molthen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Soleus H-Reflex Excitability Changes In Response To Sinusoidal Hip Stretches In The Injured Human Spinal Cord, Maria Knikou, Brian D. Schmit, Debjani Chaudhuri, Elizabeth Kay, William Zev Rymer

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Imposed static hip stretches substantially modulate the soleus H-reflex in people with an intact or injured spinal cord while stretch of the hip flexors affect the walking pattern in lower vertebrates and humans. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of dynamic hip stretches on the soleus H-reflex in supine spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects. Sinusoidal movements were imposed on the right hip joint at 0.2 Hz by a Biodex system. H-reflexes from the soleus muscle were recorded as the leg moved in flexion or extension. Stimuli were sent only once in every hip movement cycle that …

D-4f Does Not Mitigate Key Parameters In Rat Model Of Severe Pulmonary Hypertension, Robert C. Molthen, Shelley Baumgardt, K. A. Pritchard Jr

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Design And Validation Of A Mr-Compatible Pneumatic Manipulandum, Aaron J. Suminski, Janice L. Zimbelman, Robert A. Scheidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The combination of functional MR imaging and novel robotic tools may provide unique opportunities to probe the neural systems underlying motor control and learning. Here, we describe the design and validation of a MR-compatible, 1 degree-of-freedom pneumatic manipulandum along with experiments demonstrating its safety and efficacy. We first validated the robot's ability to apply computer-controlled loads about the wrist, demonstrating that it possesses sufficient bandwidth to simulate torsional spring-like loads during point-to-point flexion movements. Next, we verified the MR-compatibility of the device by imaging a head phantom during robot operation. We observed no systematic differences in two measures of MRI …

Parallel Facilitatory Reflex Pathways From The Foot And Hip To Flexors And Extensors In The Injured Human Spinal Cord, Maria Knikou, Elizabeth Kay, Brian D. Schmit

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Spinal integration of sensory signals associated with hip position, muscle loading, and cutaneous sensation of the foot contributes to movement regulation. The exact interactive effects of these sensory signals under controlled dynamic conditions are unknown. The purpose of the present study was to establish the effects of combined plantar cutaneous afferent excitation and hip movement on the Hoffmann (H) and flexion reflexes in people with a spinal cord injury (SCI). The flexion and H-reflexes were elicited through stimulation of the right sural (at non-nociceptive levels) and posterior tibial nerves respectively. Reflex responses were recorded from the ipsilateral tibialis anterior (TA) …

Robust Minimum Variance Linear State Estimators For Multiple Sensors With Different Failure Rates, Franck O. Hounkpevi, Edwin E. Yaz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Linear minimum variance unbiased state estimation is considered for systems with uncertain parameters in their state space models and sensor failures. The existing results are generalized to the case where each sensor may fail at any sample time independently of the others. For robust performance, stochastic parameter perturbations are included in the system matrix. Also, stochastic perturbations are allowed in the estimator gain to guarantee resilient operation. An illustrative example is included to demonstrate performance improvement over the Kalman filter which does not include sensor failures in its measurement model.

Generalized Characteristics Of Resonant Polymer-Coated Microcantilevers In Viscous Liquid Media, Russell Cox, Michael J. Wenzel, Fabien Josse, Stephen M. Heinrich, Isabelle Dufour

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Expressions describing the resonant frequency and quality factor of a dynamically-driven, polymer-coated microcantilever in a viscous liquid medium have been obtained. These generalized formulas are used to describe the effects the operational medium and the coating has on the device sensitivity when used in liquid-phase chemical sensing applications. The derived expressions are shown to reduce to well-known formulas for the case of an uncoated cantilever in an invisicid [sic] medium and the case of a coated cantilever in air. The theoretical results are compared to existing chemical sensor data in aqueous and viscous solutions.

Stress And Emotion Classification Using Jitter And Shimmer Features, Xi Li, Jidong Tao, Michael T. Johnson, Joseph Soltis, Anne Savage, Kirsten Leong, John D. Newman

Dr. Dolittle Project: A Framework for Classification and Understanding of Animal Vocalizations

In this paper, we evaluate the use of appended jitter and shimmer speech features for the classification of human speaking styles and of animal vocalization arousal levels. Jitter and shimmer features are extracted from the fundamental frequency contour and added to baseline spectral features, specifically Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) for human speech and Greenwood function cepstral coefficients (GFCCs) for animal vocalizations. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) with Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) state distributions are used for classification. The appended jitter and shimmer features result in an increase in classification accuracy for several illustrative datasets, including the SUSAS dataset for human speaking …

Intelligent Painting Process Planner For Robotic Bridge Painting, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Due to increased government regulations on environment, health, and safety, the cost of on-site bridge painting has quadrupled over the past several years. The construction industry faces a great challenge in how to control the increased costs of bridge painting and meet the regulations at the same time. A possible solution to address this challenge is to develop a robotic bridge painting system. The development of the robotic system can be justified by the potential improvements in safety and productivity. This paper presents the development and testing of an Intelligent Painting Process Planner. The Planner, built based on bridge feature …

Reach Adaptation And Final Position Control Amid Environmental Uncertainty After Stroke, Robert A. Scheidt, Tina M. Stoeckmann

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

We characterized how hemiparetic stroke survivors and neurologically intact individuals adapt reaching movements to compensate for unpredictable environmental perturbations. We tested the hypotheses that like unimpaired subjects, hemiparetic stroke survivors adapt using sensory information obtained during only the most recent movements and that the reliability of target acquisition decreases as the degree of sensorimotor impairment increases. Subjects held the handle of a two-joint robotic arm that applied forces to the hand while reaching between targets in a horizontal plane. The robot simulated a dynamic environment that varied randomly in strength from one trial to the next. The trial sequence of …

In Vitro Cell Culture Infectivity Assay For Human Noroviruses, Timothy M. Straub, Kerstin Höner Zu Bentrup, Patricia Orosz Coghlan, Alice Dohnalkova, Brooke K. Mayer, Rachel A. Bartholomew, Catherine O. Valdez, Cynthia J. Bruckner-Lea, Charles P. Gerba, Morteza A. Abbaszadegan, Cheryl A. Nickerson

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Human noroviruses cause severe, self-limiting gastroenteritis that typically lasts 24–48 hours. Because of the lack of suitable tissue culture or animal models, the true nature of norovirus pathogenesis remains unknown. We show that noroviruses can infect and replicate in a 3-dimensional (3-D), organoid model of human small intestinal epithelium. Cells grown on porous collage-coated beads under fluid shear conditions in rotating wall vessel bioreactors differentiate into 3-D architectures resembling both the morphologic and physiologic function of in vivo tissues. Microscopy, PCR, and fluorescent in situ hybridization provided evidence of norovirus infection. Cytopathic effect and norovirus RNA were detected at each …

Effect Of Coating Viscoelasticity On Quality Factor And Limit Of Detection Of Microcantilever Chemical Sensors, Isabelle Dufour, Frederic Lochon, Stephen M. Heinrich, Fabien Josse, Dominique Rebiere

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Microcantilevers with polymer coatings hold great promise as resonant chemical sensors. It is known that the sensitivity of the coated cantilever increases with coating thickness; however, increasing this thickness also results in an increase of the frequency noise due to a decrease of the quality factor. By taking into account only the losses associated with the silicon beam and the surrounding medium, the decrease of the quality factor cannot be explained. In this paper, an analytical expression is obtained for the quality factor, which accounts for viscoelastic losses in the coating. This expression explains the observed decrease of the quality …

Theoretical Analysis Of Strong-Axis Bending Mode Vibrations For Resonant Microcantilever (Bio)Chemical Sensors In Gas Or Liquid Phase, Isabelle Dufour, Stephen M. Heinrich, Fabien Josse

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The frequency stability, sensitivity, and limit of detection of a coated-cantilever chemical sensor operating in a dynamic mode are mainly determined by its mechanical quality factor. While a coated-cantilever operating in the gas phase exhibits a large reduction in quality factor, immersion in liquids results in an even greater reduction in the Q-factor due to displaced fluid mass and losses in the surrounding liquid. In this paper, two different bending vibration modes are studied in order to minimize both the losses induced by the surrounding medium and the displaced fluid mass, thus increasing the quality factor and sensitivity and improving …

Neural And Electromyographic Correlates Of Wrist Posture Control, Aaron J. Suminski, Stephen M. Rao, Kristine M. Mosier, Robert A. Scheidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In identical experiments in and out of a MR scanner, we recorded functional magnetic resonance imaging and electromyographic correlates of wrist stabilization against constant and time-varying mechanical perturbations. Positioning errors were greatest while stabilizing random torques. Wrist muscle activity lagged changes in joint angular velocity at latencies suggesting trans-cortical reflex action. Drift in stabilized hand positions gave rise to frequent, accurately directed, corrective movements, suggesting that the brain maintains separate representations of desired wrist angle for feedback control of posture and the generation of discrete corrections. Two patterns of neural activity were evident in the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) time series …

Speech Signal Enhancement Through Adaptive Wavelet Thresholding, Michael T. Johnson, Xiaolong Yuan, Yao Ren

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper demonstrates the application of the Bionic Wavelet Transform (BWT), an adaptive wavelet transform derived from a non-linear auditory model of the cochlea, to the task of speech signal enhancement. Results, measured objectively by Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) and Segmental SNR (SSNR) and subjectively by Mean Opinion Score (MOS), are given for additive white Gaussian noise as well as four different types of realistic noise environments. Enhancement is accomplished through the use of thresholding on the adapted BWT coefficients, and the results are compared to a variety of speech enhancement techniques, including Ephraim Malah filtering, iterative Wiener filtering, and spectral …

Effects Of Subsurface Drainage On Pavement Performance, James Crovetti, Kathleen T. Hall

Transportation Reports with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation

This report evaluates the effects of subsurface drainage features on pavement performance through a program of inspection and testing of the subsurface drainage features present in the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) SPS-1 and SPS-2 field sections. The report will be of particular interest to engineers in the public and private sectors with responsibility for the design, construction, and rehabilitation of highway pavements.

Enhancing The Capability Of Rapid Bridge Replacement After Extreme Events, Yong Bai, Seong Hoon Kim, William R. Burkett

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

The potential threats of extreme events to highway bridges have received increased attention from government agencies, the engineering and construction communities, and the traveling public. These events include terrorist attacks as well as human‐induced and natural hazards such as earthquakes, explosions, fires, floods, and hurricanes. To respond to the potential threats on highway bridges, a research project was conducted to identify rapid bridge replacement processes, techniques, and needs for improvements.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the research objectives, a detailed case study of previous bridge replacement following an extreme event was conducted. The case study was performed using a three‐step approach. …

Efficacy Of Removal Of Ccl Viruses Under Enhanced Coagulation Conditions, Morteza Abbaszadegan, Brooke K. Mayer, Hodon Ryu, Nena Nwachuku

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The focus of coagulation as a water treatment process is shifting to accommodate recent regulatory additions that strive to balance the risks between microbial and chemical contamination of drinking water. In this work, enhanced coagulation using increased ferric chloride dose and/or pH adjustment was evaluated for removal efficacy of viruses on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Contaminant Candidate List (CCL), their surrogates, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Jar tests demonstrated that optimal DOC removal was achieved using 40 mg/L FeCl₃ at a pH between 5 and 6. Under these conditions, bench-scale testing resulted in a maximum removal …

Quantifying Kinematics Of Purposeful Movements To Real, Imagined, Or Absent Functional Objects: Implications For Modelling Trajectories For Robot-Assisted Adl Tasks, Kimberly J. Wisneski, Michelle J. Johnson

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Robotic therapy is at the forefront of stroke rehabilitation. The Activities of Daily Living Exercise Robot (ADLER) was developed to improve carryover of gains after training by combining the benefits of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) training (motivation and functional task practice with real objects), with the benefits of robot mediated therapy (repeatability and reliability). In combining these two therapy techniques, we seek to develop a new model for trajectory generation that will support functional movements to real objects during robot training. We studied natural movements to real objects and report on how initial reaching movements are affected by …

Potential Of A Suite Of Robot/Computer-Assisted Motivating Systems For Personalized, Home-Based, Stroke Rehabilitation, Michelle J. Johnson, Xin Feng, Laura M. Johnson, Jack M. Winters

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

There is a need to improve semi-autonomous stroke therapy in home environments often characterized by low supervision of clinical experts and low extrinsic motivation. Our distributed device approach to this problem consists of an integrated suite of low-cost robotic/computer-assistive technologies driven by a novel universal access software framework called UniTherapy. Our design strategy for personalizing the therapy, providing extrinsic motivation and outcome assessment is presented and evaluated.

Methods

Three studies were conducted to evaluate the potential of the suite. A conventional force-reflecting joystick, a modified joystick therapy platform (TheraJoy), and a steering wheel platform (TheraDrive) were tested separately with …

Marquette Interchange Installation Report, Marquette University, Transportation Research Center

Transportation Research Center: Marquette Interchange Instrumentation

Task three of the Perpetual Pavement Instrumentation Plan for the Marquette Interchange Project called for the installation of the various pavement sensors, data acquisition system, and various other components of the system outlined in the project proposal. The MU-TRC research team has successfully completed the installation of these various components of the system. This report fulfills the requirement of the installation report from task three in the project plan. This report is organized to describe in detail each specific component of the system. Most, but not all, of these details are written in the order they were completed.

Not every …

Distensibility Differs Between Sall Arteries And Veins In The Newborn Piglet Lung, John B. Gordon, Steven Thomas Haworth, Robert C. Molthen, Gary S. Krenz, Anne V. Clough

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

BACKGROUND: We previously used micro-CT techniques to measure pulmonary artery distensibility in 3 week old piglets. Pressure/diameter relationships were measured for each artery and the slope (a) was then plotted against its diameter intercept at 0 pressure (Do). The resultant diameter independent distensibility parameter, a, was estimated by linear regression to be 1.6% per mmHg for arteries between 0.2 and 3.0 mm Do.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine whether; 1) distensibility of smaller arteries was similar to that of arteries with Do> 0.2 mm; and 2) whether small vein and artery distensibility was similar.

DESIGN/METHODS: Lower lobes were isolated …

Inter-Turn Fault Diagnosis In Induction Motors Using The Pendulous Oscillation Phenomenon, Behrooz Mirafzal, Richard J. Povinelli, Nabeel Demerdash

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A robust interturn fault diagnostic approach based on the concept of magnetic field pendulous oscillation, which occurs in induction motors under faulty conditions, is introduced in this paper. This approach enables one to distinguish and classify an unbalanced voltage power supply and machine manufacturing/construction imperfections from an interturn fault. The experimental results for the two case studies of a set of 5-hp and 2-hp induction motors verify the validity of the proposed approach. Moreover, it can be concluded from the experimental results that if the circulating current level in the shorted loop increases beyond the phase current level, an interturn …

Rapid Bridge Replacement: Processes, Techniques, And Needs For Improvements, Yong Bai, William R. Burkett

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequent potential threats to the United States transportation systems have presented an urgent need to develop emergency response plans in order to quickly react to the possible consequences of an extreme event. Highway bridges, as critical components of the nation’s transportation network, have received increased attention. To respond to the potential threats on highway bridges, a research project was conducted to identify rapid bridge replacement processes, techniques, and needs for improvements. To achieve the research objectives, the research team studied three cases of previous bridge replacements following extreme events. By studying these …

Study Of Viscoelastic Effect On The Frequency Shift Of Microcantilever Chemical Sensors (Journal Article), Uttara Sampath, Stephen M. Heinrich, Fabien Josse, Frederic Lochon, Isabelle Dufour, Dominique Rebiere

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Microcantilevers coated with a chemically sensitive layer are increasingly being used in chemical detection systems. The sensitive coating, often a polymer, absorbs specific molecules, which can be detected by monitoring the shift in the mechanical resonant frequency. Usually. the frequency shift resulting from molecular absorption is interpreted as a mass loading effect. However, mass loading is not the only effect that has an impact on the frequency shift; the viscoelastic properties of the sensitive coating also are affected by the sorption process. Sorption-induced modulus changes are typically difficult to characterize. However, it is known that the sorption of analyte molecules …

One-Class-At-A-Time Removal Sequence Planning Method For Multiclass Classification Problems, Chieh-Neng Young, Chen-Wen Yen, Yi-Hua Pao, Mark L. Nagurka

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Using dynamic programming, this work develops a one-class-at-a-time removal sequence planning method to decompose a multiclass classification problem into a series of two-class problems. Compared with previous decomposition methods, the approach has the following distinct features. First, under the one-class-at-a-time framework, the approach guarantees the optimality of the decomposition. Second, for a K-class problem, the number of binary classifiers required by the method is only K-1. Third, to achieve higher classification accuracy, the approach can easily be adapted to form a committee machine. A drawback of the approach is that its computational burden increases rapidly with the number of classes. …

Synergistic Use Of Compound Properties And Docking Scores In Neural Network Modeling Of Cyp2d6 Binding: Predicting Affinity And Conformational Sampling, Peter S. Bazeley, Sridevi Prithivi, Craig Struble, Richard J. Povinelli, Daniel S. Sem

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) is used to develop an approach for predicting affinity and relevant binding conformation(s) for highly flexible binding sites. The approach combines the use of docking scores and compound properties as attributes in building a neural network (NN) model. It begins by identifying segments of CYP2D6 that are important for binding specificity, based on structural variability among diverse CYP enzymes. A family of distinct, low-energy conformations of CYP2D6 are generated using simulated annealing (SA) and a collection of 82 compounds with known CYP2D6 affinities are docked. Interestingly, docking poses are observed on the backside of the heme …

Modulation Of Stretch Reflexes Of The Finger Flexors By Sensory Feedback From The Proximal Upper Limb Poststroke, Gilles Hoffmann, Derek G. Kamper, Jennifer H. Kahn, William Zev Rymer, Brian D. Schmit

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Neural coupling of proximal and distal upper limb segments may have functional implications in the recovery of hemiparesis after stroke. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether the stretch reflex response magnitude of spastic finger flexor muscles poststroke is influenced by sensory input from the shoulder and the elbow and whether reflex coupling of muscles throughout the upper limb is altered in spastic stroke survivors. Through imposed extension of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints, stretch of the relaxed finger flexors of the four fingers was imposed in 10 relaxed stroke subjects under different conditions of proximal sensory input, …