Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Automated Measurement Of Fracture Callus In Radiographs Using Portable Software, Stephen M. Porter, Hannah L. Dailey, Katharine A. Hollar, Karina Klein, James A. Harty, Trevor J. Lujan

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The development of software applications that assist the radiographic evaluation of fracture healing could advance clinical diagnosis and expedite the identification of effective treatment strategies. A radiographic feature regularly used as an outcome measure for basic and clinical fracture healing research is new bone growth, or fracture callus. In this study, we developed OrthoRead, a portable software application that uses image-processing algorithms to detect and measure fracture callus in plain radiographs. OrthoRead utilizes an optimal boundary tracking algorithm to semi-automatically segment the cortical surface, and a novel iterative thresholding selection algorithm to then automatically segment the fracture callus. The software …

Multidisciplinary Game-Based Approach For Generating Student Enthusiasm For Addressing Critical Infrastructure Challenges, John F. Gardner

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Building upon experiences from past course offering,¹ several universities across the United States (U.S) have incorporated a critical infrastructure educational game platform as a unifying platform to integrate different disciplines to a common goal. The critical infrastructure backbones of the world provide the delivery mechanisms for energy and other utilities that provide the lifestyle we have come to expect in our society. As these critical infrastructure systems have evolved, the complexity of their integration has generated numerous challenges as a side effect of increased automation that are more pronounced as the infrastructure ages. Although still a modern technological wonder, …

An Immersed Boundary Geometric Preprocessor For Arbitrarily Complex Terrain And Geometry, Inanc Senocak, Micah Sandusky, Rey Deleon, Derek Wade, Kyle Felzien, Marianna Budnikova

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is a growing interest to apply the immersed boundary method to compute wind fields over arbitrarily complex terrain. The computer implementation of an immersed boundary module into an existing flow solver can be accomplished with minor modifications to the rest of the computer program. However, a versatile preprocessor is needed at the first place to extract the essential geometric information pertinent to the immersion of an arbitrarily complex terrain inside a 3D Cartesian mesh. Errors in the geometric information can negatively impact the correct implementation of the immersed boundary method as part of the solution algorithm. Additionally, the distance …

A Community Of World Class Engineering Students, Devshikha Bose, Krishna Pakala

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is a work in progress report on an Engineering Living Learning Community (LLC) at Boise State University. Though the LLC under consideration is for the time period of Fall 2014 to Fall 2016, this report is limited to student as well as instructor anecdotal and self-reported experiences, observations, and evaluations made during Fall 2014 and Spring 2015. The mission of the Residential College program at BSU is to integrate student academic and personal life in a residential setting, so as to develop interdisciplinary knowledge, foster deep learning, and maximize student success. In support of this goal, students completed …

Use Of Mobile Learning Strategies And Devices For E-Portfolio Content Creation In An Engineering Thermodynamics And Fluid Mechanics Classes: Student Perceptions, Devshikha Bose, Krishna Pakala

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Use of mobile learning strategies and devices for e-portfolio content creation in an engineering Thermodynamics class: Student perceptions Mobile devices can be useful for creating educational content and to help students to learn better (Benedict & Pence, 2012; Tabor & Minch, 2013; Pereira, Echeazarra, Sanz-Santamaria, & Gutierrez, 2014). The purpose of this study is to determine student perceptions on the efficacy of using mobile learning strategies and devices to create electronic content for inclusion in an engineering individual e-portfolio. Students enrolled in an undergraduate 300-level engineering Thermodynamics class, created multimedia videos and produced content demonstrating course content summaries, problem solving …

Stethoscope-Based Detection Of Detorqued Bolts Using Impact-Induced Acoustic Emissions, Joe Guarino, Robert Hamilton

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Results of a preliminary study investigating a simple method for detecting looseness in bolted fasteners of a steel structure are presented. Extensive research by many investigators demonstrates that the frequency response of a bolted structural member changes when one or more bolts are loosened. A simple and effective method for detecting looseness can be applied to bolted joints, using inexpensive and commonly-available equipment and software. The difference between spectrograms associated with tight and loose bolts is clearly apparent due to the presence of a tell-tale mode when one or more bolts are loosened. Further, a striking difference can be elucidated …

Characterizing Phantom Arteries With Multi-Channel Laser Ultrasonics And Photo-Acoustics, Jami L. Johnson, Kasper Van Wijk, Michelle Sabick

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multi-channel photo-acoustic and laser ultrasonic waves are used to sense the characteristics of proxies for healthy and diseased vessels. The acquisition system is non-contacting and non-invasive with a pulsed laser source and a laser vibrometer detector. As the wave signatures of our targets are typically low in amplitude, we exploit multi-channel acquisition and processing techniques. These are commonly used in seismology to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of data. We identify vessel proxies with a diameter on the order of 1 mm, at a depth of 18 mm. Variations in scattered and photo-acoustic signatures are related to differences in vessel wall …

Heavy Element Doping For Enhancing Thermoelectric Properties Of Nanostructured Zinc Oxide, Priyanka Jood, Rutvik J. Mehta, Yanliang Zhang, Theo Borca-Tasciuc, Shi Xue Dou, David J. Singh, Ganpati Ramanath

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

ZnO is a high melting point, high charge carrier mobility semiconductor with potential as a thermoelectric material, but its high thermal conductivity κ is the limiting factor for increasing the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. Here, we demonstrate that doping ZnO with heavy elements can significantly enhance ZT. Indium doping leads to ultralow κ 3 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ and a high power factor α²σ 1.230 × 10⁻³ W m⁻¹ K⁻², yielding ZT_1000K 0.45 that is 80% higher than non-nanostructured In–Zn–O alloys. Although Bi doping also yields a high Seebeck coefficient of …

Characterization And Feasibility Of A Portable Oxygen Concentrator For Use With A Mass Casualty Ventilator, Paul Robert Williams

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The American Association for Respiratory Care has reported a need to stockpile 5,000-10,000 mass casualty ventilators with supplemental oxygen in preparation for pandemic emergencies (1). The American Medical Association specifies oxygen concentrators supply oxygen at 5 liters per minute at ≥90% purity (2). However, these design specifications may not be the most efficient use of system resources in portable oxygen concentrators using pressure swing adsorption. A testbed was developed to investigate the system performance of an oxygen concentrator while altering the system inlet and outlet pressures and flow rates. This investigation demonstrates that a more efficient portable oxygen concentrator, which …

Simulation Of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines With Variable Pitch Foils, L. Damon Woods, John F. Gardner, Kurt S. Myers

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A dynamic computer model of a turbine was developed in MATLAB in order to study the behavior of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) with variable pitch (articulating) foils. The simulation results corroborated the findings of several empirical studies on VAWTs. The model was used to analyze theories of pitch articulation and to inform the discussion on turbine design. Simulations of various models showed that pitch articulation allowed Darrieus-style vertical axis wind turbines to start from rest. Once in motion, the rotor was found to accelerate rapidly to very high rotational velocities. The simulations revealed a plateau region of high efficiency …

All-Optical Photoacoustic Detection Of Absorbers In Tissue Phantoms, Jami Johnson, Michelle Sabick, Kasper Vanwijk

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Visualizing and characterizing vascular structures is important for many areas of health care, from accessing difficult veins and arteries for laboratory testing, to diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging, one of the fastest growing fields of biomedical imaging, is well suited for this task. PA imaging is based on the photoacoustic effect, which starts with a pulsed laser source incident on biological tissue. If the wavelength of the source matches an absorption wavelength of a chromophore within the tissue, a portion of the pulse energy is absorbed by the chromophore and converted into heat. A subsequent increase …

Stochastic Reconstruction Of Multiple Source Atmospheric Contaminant Dispersion Events, Derek Wade, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstruction of intentional or accidental release of contaminants into the atmosphere using concentration measurements from a sensor network constitutes an inverse problem. An added complexity arises when the contaminant is released from multiple sources. Determining the correct number of sources is critical because an incorrect estimation could mislead and delay response efforts. We present a Bayesian inference method coupled with a composite ranking system to reconstruct multiple source contaminant release events. Our approach uses a multi-source data-driven Gaussian plume model as the forward model to predict the concentrations at sensor locations. Bayesian inference with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling …

Quantitative Assessment Of Program Outcomes Using Longitudinal Data From The Fe Exam, Joe C. Guarino, James R. Ferguson, V. Krishna C. Pakala

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There have been many studies providing details on using results from the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam as metrics for meeting ABET program outcomes¹. However, implementing an FE-based set of metrics poses challenges not limited to assessing validity of results. Programs using FE-based metrics must also determine the position of the metrics in the overall assessment process. We present a method for using FE-based metrics as an integral part of the ABET program assessment process. The principle issues we address are: (1) The validity of using FE metrics for a group of graduating students when not all of …

Biomedical Photoacoustic Imaging Using Gas-Coupled Laser Acoustic Detection, Jami L. Johnson

Student Research Initiative

Several detection methods have been explored for photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging of biological tissues. Piezoelectric transducers are commonly used, which require contact with the sample and have limiting bandwidth characteristics. Interferometry detection exhibits improved bandwidth characteristics and resolution, yet generally require complicated optics and the incorporation of a contacting reflective medium. Here, we report the use of a noncontact photoacoustic and laser-ultrasound imaging system that does not require the use of a reflective layer. A simple, robust technique known as gas-coupled laser acoustic detection is used, which has previously been applied to composite material evaluation. This technique has the potential …

Biomedical Photoacoustic Imaging Using Gas-Coupled Laser Acoustic Detection, Jami Johnson

Student Research Initiative

Several detection methods have been explored for photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging of biological tissues. Piezoelectric transducers are commonly used, which require contact with the sample to be imaged and have limiting bandwidth characteristics. Interferometry detection exhibits improved bandwidth characteristics and resolution, yet generally require complicated optics and the incorporation of a contacting reflective medium. In this paper, we report the use of a noncontact photoacoustic imaging system that does not require the use of a reflective layer. A simple, robust technique known as gas-coupled laser acoustic detection is used, which has previously been applied to evaluation of composite materials. This …

Toward Characterization Of Diseased Vascular Structures Using Noncontact Photoacoustic And Laser-Ultrasound Imaging: A Phantom Study, Jami Lynne Johnson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Visualizing and characterizing atherosclerotic plaques is important in determining the vulnerability of a plaque to rupture. To evaluate rupture risk, several compositional factors should be evaluated, including inflammation, the presence and size of lipid pools, thickness of the fibrous cap, and calcification. Currently, a need exists for an imaging modality that can detect each of these factors in a safe, noninvasive manner with high resolution and contrast at clinically relevant depths. Photoacoustic imaging is a growing field that has the potential to improve plaque diagnosis. Spectroscopic methods have shown promise toward detection of constituents of plaque with unique optical absorption …

Correlations Between Internal And External Power Outputs During Weightlifting Exercise, Kristof Kipp, Chad Harris, Michelle B. Sabick

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Identifying loads that maximize mechanical power is important because training at such loads may optimize gains in dynamic athletic performance. The purpose of this study was to examine correlations between measures of external mechanical power output and internal mechanical joint power output across different loads during a weightlifting exercise. Ten subjects performed 3 sets of the clean exercise at 65, 75, and 85% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM). Peak external mechanical power output was calculated with 4 commonly used methods, whereas an inverse dynamics approach was used to calculate peak internal mechanical power output for the hip, knee, and ankle …

Multi-Level Parallelism For Incompressible Flow Computations On Gpu Clusters, Dana A. Jacobsen, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate multi-level parallelism on GPU clusters with MPI-CUDA and hybrid MPI-OpenMP-CUDA parallel implementations, in which all computations are done on the GPU using CUDA. We explore efficiency and scalability of incompressible flow computations using up to 256 GPUs on a problem with approximately 17.2 billion cells. Our work addresses some of the unique issues faced when merging fine-grain parallelism on the GPU using CUDA with coarse-grain parallelism that use either MPI or MPI-OpenMP for communications. We present three different strategies to overlap computations with communications, and systematically assess their impact on parallel performance on two different GPU clusters. Our …

Toward A Gpu-Accelerated Immersed Boundary Method For Wind Forecasting Over Complex Terrain, Rey Deleon, Kyle Felzien, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A short-term wind power forecasting capability can be a valuable tool in the renewable energy industry to address load-balancing issues that arise from intermittent wind fields. Although numerical weather prediction models have been used to forecast winds, their applicability to micro-scale atmospheric boundary layer flows and ability to predict wind speeds at turbine hub height with a desired accuracy is not clear. To address this issue, we develop a multi-GPU parallel flow solver to forecast winds over complex terrain at the micro-scale, where computational domain size can range from meters to several kilometers. In the solver, we adopt the immersed …

Weightlifting Performance Is Related To Kinematic And Kinetic Patterns Of The Hip And Knee Joints, Kristof Kipp, Josh Redden, Michelle B. Sabick, Chad Harris

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to investigate correlations between biomechanical outcome measures and weightlifting performance. Joint kinematics and kinetics of the hip, knee, and ankle were calculated while ten subjects performed a clean at 85% of 1-RM. Kinematic and kinetic time-series patterns were extracted with principal components analysis. Discrete scores for each time-series pattern were calculated and used to determine how each pattern was related to body-mass normalized 1-RM. Two hip kinematic and two knee kinetic patterns were significantly correlated with relative 1-RM. The kinematic patterns captured hip and trunk motions during the first pull and hip joint motion …

Kinematic And Kinetic Synergies Of The Lower Extremities During The Pull In Olympic Weightlifting, Kristof Kipp, Josh Redden, Michelle Sabick, Chad Harris

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to identify multijoint lower extremity kinematic and kinetic synergies in weightlifting and compare these synergies between joints and across different external loads. Subjects completed sets of the clean exercise at loads equal to 65, 75, and 85% of their estimated 1-RM. Functional data analysis was used to extract principal component functions (PCF's) for hip, knee, and ankle joint angles and moments of force during the pull phase of the clean at all loads. The PCF scores were then compared between joints and across loads to determine how much of each PCF was present at …

Gpu-Accelerated Large-Eddy Simulation Of Turbulent Channel Flows, Rey Deleon, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

High performance computing clusters that are augmented with cost and power efficient graphics processing unit (GPU) provide new opportunities to broaden the use of large-eddy simulation technique to study high Reynolds number turbulent flows in fluids engineering applications. In this paper, we extend our earlier work on multi-GPU acceleration of an incompressible Navier-Stokes solver to include a large-eddy simulation (LES) capability. In particular, we implement the Lagrangian dynamic subgrid scale model and compare our results against existing direct numerical simulation (DNS) data of a turbulent channel flow at Re_τ = 180. Overall, our LES results match fairly well with …

Lower Extremity Biomechanics During Weightlifting Exercise Vary Across Joint And Load, Kristof Kipp, Chad Harris, Michelle B. Sabick

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of load on lower extremity biomechanics during the pull-phase of the clean. Kinematic and kinetic data of the three joints of the lower extremity were collected while participants performed multiple sets of cleans at three percentages: 65, 75, and 85% of 1-Reptition maximum (RM). General linear models with repeated measures were used to assess the influence of load on angular velocities, net torques, powers, and rates of torque development at the ankle, knee, and hip joint. The results suggest that the biomechanical demands required from the lower extremities change with …

A Full-Depth Amalgamated Parallel 3d Geometric Multigrid Solver For Gpu Clusters, Dana A. Jacobsen, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Numerical computations of incompressible flow equations with pressure-based algorithms necessitate the solution of an elliptic Poisson equation, for which multigrid methods are known to be very efficient. In our previous work we presented a dual-level (MPI-CUDA) parallel implementation of the Navier-Stokes equations to simulate buoyancy-driven incompressible fluid flows on GPU clusters with simple iterative methods while focusing on the scalability of the overall solver. In the present study we describe the implementation and performance of a multigrid method to solve the pressure Poisson equation within our MPI-CUDA parallel incompressible flow solver. Various design decisions and algorithmic choices for multigrid methods …

Scalability Of Incompressible Flow Computations On Multi-Gpu Clusters Using Dual-Level And Tri-Level Parallelism, Dana A. Jacobsen, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

High performance computing using graphics processing units (GPUs) is gaining popularity in the scientific computing field, with many large compute clusters being augmented with multiple GPUs in each node. We investigate hybrid tri-level (MPI-OpenMP-CUDA) parallel implementations to explore the efficiency and scalability of incompressible flow computations on GPU clusters up to 128 GPUS. This work details some of the unique issues faced when merging fine-grain parallelism on the GPU using CUDA with coarse-grain parallelism using OpenMP for intra-node and MPI for inter-node communication. Comparisons between the tri-level MPI-OpenMP-CUDA and dual-level MPI-CUDA implementations are shown using computationally large computational fluid dynamics …

Individual Muscle Contributions To The Axial Knee Joint Contact Force During Normal Walking, Kotaro Sasaki, Richard R. Neptune

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Muscles are significant contributors to the high joint forces developed in the knee during human walking. Not only do muscles contribute to the knee joint forces by acting to compress the joint, but they also develop joint forces indirectly through their contributions to the ground reaction forces via dynamic coupling. Thus, muscles can have significant contributions to forces at joints they do not span. However, few studies have investigated how the major lower-limb muscles contribute to the knee joint contact forces during walking. The goal of this study was to use a muscle-actuated forward dynamics simulation of walking to identify …

Application Of A Bayesian Inference Method To Reconstruct Short-Range Atmospheric Dispersion Events, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the event of an accidental or intentional release of chemical or biological (CB) agents into the atmosphere, first responders and decision makers need to rapidly locate and characterize the source of dispersion events using limited information from sensor networks. In this study the stochastic event reconstruction tool (SERT) is applied to a subset of the Fusing Sensor Information from Observing Networks (FUSION) Field Trial 2007 (FFT 07) database. The inference in SERT is based on Bayesian inference with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. SERT adopts a probability model that takes into account both positive and zero-reading sensors. In …

Using The Continuous Wavelet Transform To Characterize Differences Between Impact Signals From Non-Cleated And Cleated Turf Shoes, Wayne Robert Fischer

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The continuous wavelet transform was used to characterize the time-frequency differences between impact forces from non-cleated and cleated turf shoes among male football athletes who perform cut and run activities. This research is significant because it elucidates how athletes experience different impact force and torque frequency content based on the type of shoe they are wearing. The complex Morlet mother wavelet was used to analyze all ground reaction force and vertical ground reaction moment signals to create time-frequency power spectrum plots. For each signal, a statistical confidence interval was calculated and displayed along with the cone of influence caused by …

Effect Of Loading Condition On Traction Coefficient Between Shoes And Artificial Turf Surfaces, Seth M. Kuhlman, Michelle B. Sabick, Ronald Pfeiffer, Benjamin Cooper, Jackie Forhan

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background. The interaction between a shoe and a turf surface is highly complex and difficult to characterize. Over the three decades since artificial turf was introduced, researchers have attempted to understand the traction caused by the interaction. However, some of the methodologies used for traction measurements have not capitalized on advances in currently available technology for testing and most testing conditions have not simulated realistic physiological loads.

Method of Approach. To assess the effect of test condition on traction results, the newly designed TurfBuster testing device was used to collect traction data on FieldTurf™ brand artificial turf under varying conditions. …

Influence Of Towing Force Magnitude On The Kinematics Of Supramaximal Sprinting, David A. Clark, Seth Kuhlman, Michelle B. Sabick, Ronald P. Pfeiffer, Nicole A. Knigge

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of towing force magnitude on the kinematics of supramaximal sprinting. Ten high school and collegiate aged track and field athletes ran 60m maximal sprints under 5 different conditions: non-towed (NT), Tow A (2.0% body weight), Tow B (2.8%BW), Tow C (3.8%BW), and Tow D (4.7%BW). Three-dimensional kinematics of a 4-segment model of the right side of the body were collected starting at the 35m point of the trial. Significant differences were observed in stride length (SL) and horizontal velocity of the center of mass (VH) during Tow C and Tow …