Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Localized Intra-Arterial Drug Delivery Device For Stroke Treatment, Benjamin Yip

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Strokes are one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability in the United States, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than 795,000 people experience a stroke every year. Around 87% of all strokes are ischemic strokes making it the most common form of stroke. While ischemic strokes are treatable, current devices and methods still result in high mortality rates and high risks of hemorrhaging after treatment. The aim of this study is to design and test a prototype of a novel device for the localized delivery of thrombolytics to treat ischemic strokes. The …

Modeling Leaf Area Index And Canopy Height Using Growing Degree Days, Ellie J. Kuhn

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

As the global population increases and food security is recognized as a critical issue, crop growth prediction models help ensure the sustainability of reliable food sources. Using a prediction model based on temperature and simple, measurable field parameters, e.g., Leaf Area Index (LAI) or Canopy Height (H_can), may allow farmers and others to intervene mid-season with fertilizer, irrigation, or other inputs to obtain a better harvest.

This study aims to create a general model that could predict LAI and H_can values for numerous rice varieties using Growing Degree Days (GDD) as the time scale. The models use …

Exploring The Effects Of Varied Land Use On Elemental Concentrations Within Streams, Logan Jennings

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

It is well documented that human activity influences the chemistry of surrounding waters. As such, it is possible that there is a link between land use within a watershed and the chemical composition of the stream. The objectives of this study are to determine if varied land use does affect the concentrations of macronutrients and trace elements present in the streams of Northwest Arkansas, and if so, to determine what extent urban and agricultural development are responsible for these changes. Water samples were collected across 19 streams in the Northwest Arkansas region between January and March of 2022. Water samples …

Development Of An Equation To Correlate Brite Tank Temperature And Pressure To Beverage Carbonation Concentration, Devyn Meyer

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Carbo Rock-It™ is an invention created to carbonate beverages at craft breweries. One of the Carbo Rock-It’s main features is that it does not add a significant volume of undissolved gas bubbles to the brite tank in which the beverage is carbonated. This may allow temperature and pressure readings from the brite tank to be used to determine the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide in the beverage continuously in real time. This eliminates the need for manual samplings, which could save breweries time and allow for more controlled, accurate carbonation. The goal of this project was to develop an …

Assessing The Potential Effectiveness Of Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy For Quantifying Neonatal Skin Properties Using Tissue Phantoms, Jack Murphy

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) has previously been shown to be effective at analyzing the optical characteristics of a wide variety of biological tissues, including the skin. In addition to being sensitive to the amount of blood and its oxygenation, DRS can be used to extract bilirubin levels and assess jaundice, a common complication in newborn infants. To assess its potential for being utilized in applications involving neonatal skin, we evaluated the utility of DRS for extracting hemoglobin and bilirubin concentrations from tissue phantoms. Phantom sets were created by including a known amount of scattering and by varying known concentrations of …

Surface Laser Texturing Of Cocrmo Alloys, Gabriel Dharwadker

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Artificial orthopedic implants such as hip joints suffer from excessive wear due to excess friction between the polyethylene and cobalt-chromium-molybdenum surfaces of the device. This increase in friction causes a fraction of them to give out within ten years. Therefore, to minimize the probability of this happening, recent research has been conducted regarding laser surface texturing of the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy components of artificial joints. These surface textures serve to mimic the native lubrication mechanisms of cartilage in natural joints, which, in a natural joint, lowers the friction. However, the production of these laser surface textures is still a field of …

Disparities In Response, Motivations, And Self-Efficacy To Entrepreneurially Minded Learning Within Underrepresented Students' Groups, Kaitlin Hall

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Systemic racism in the United States is embedded within the policies that have created oppression for certain groups. Women, people of color, and those from low-income families have less access to entrepreneurial knowledge due to the education gap. It has been determined that less than 20 percent of US patents entail a female inventor. Black and Hispanic college graduates also lack this access as fewer than half as many individuals hold patents. Ensuring that these populations are educated in inventor knowledge can facilitate greater inclusion. The historical Brown vs the Board of Education intended to end unequal public schooling. It …

Investigating The Impact Of Hypoxia On Reactive Oxygen Species Generation Within Murine Breast Cancer Cells, Jared Mcpeake

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

When cancer metastasizes from a primary tumor site to secondary site through the bloodstream or lymph, the cancer becomes more difficult to treat. For this reason, it is vital to study what indicates the metastatic potential of a tumor. Current research has shown that cell lines with high metastatic potential display increased levels of metabolic adaptability over their nonmetastatic counterparts after undergoing hypoxic conditions. One method of assessing this adaptability is to measure the concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by the cells while undergoing oxidative stress. In highly adaptable metastatic cells, an increase of ROS buildup within the …

The Influence Of Mmp14 On Angiogenesis In Chemotherapy-Treated Tumors, Abdussaboor Muhammad

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, and it is the fourth most common cause of cancer related death (1). There have been many significant advancements regarding the treatment of cancer which aim to shrink the size of tumors in patients. However, there is still more that needs to be understood about the many different factors that play a role in colorectal cancer development.

Angiogenesis is the process of forming new blood vessels from existing ones and it requires breaking down and remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in order to allow endothelial cells to migrate …

Pulse Rate Variability Analysis During Hemorrhage In An Experimental Porcine Model, Gabbie Bonvillain, Lauren Crimmins, Md Abul Hayat, Adria Abella Villafranca, Sam Stephens, Hanna K. Jensen, Joseph A. Sanford, Jingxian Wu, Kevin W. Sexton, Morten Jensen

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

During the acute phase of hemorrhage, heart rate and peripheral resistance increases to maintain proper oxygen delivery to vital organs. This response is mediated by the autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability (HRV) has become a widely utilized measure to determine the autonomic nervous system control over the heart. Recently, pulse rate variability (PRV) has been suggested to serve as a surrogate for HRV. This study evaluates the ability of PRV obtained from peripheral arterial pressure waveforms as a method for detecting hemorrhage. Time domain and frequency domain metrics were evaluated for 5-minute and 15-minute arterial pressure waveform signals prior …

Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault At The University Of Arkansas, Barrett Weidman

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This work was written to fulfill two main purposes. First, to help survivors of Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault (DFSA) process their experience by compiling the toxicological, pharmacological, and distribution of the three most used date-rape drugs. Second, to gauge the knowledge and interest of University of Arkansas students regarding drug impairments, sexual assault education, and bystander intervention training. A survey was conducted for the latter and revealed that 91.6% of students believe the University’s existing sexual assault prevention education and bystander intervention training have room for improvement. Also, 37.1% of students who have received this education report that the programming does …

Exploring The Role Of Metabolites In Cancer And The Associated Nerve Crosstalk, Inah Gu, Emory A. Gregory, Casey Atwood, Sun-Ok Lee, Young Hye Song

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since Otto Warburg's first report on the increased uptake of glucose and lactate release by cancer cells, dysregulated metabolism has been acknowledged as a hallmark of cancer that promotes proliferation and metastasis. Over the last century, studies have shown that cancer metabolism is complex, and by-products of glucose and glutamine catabolism induce a cascade of both pro- and antitumorigenic processes. Some vitamins, which have traditionally been praised for preventing and inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells, have also been proven to cause cancer progression in a dose-dependent manner. Importantly, recent findings have shown that the nervous system is a key …

An Engineering And Economic Analysis Of The Implementation Of The Carbo Rock-It, Lydia Huck

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The patented Carbo Rock-It system was developed to carbonate beverages for the craft brewing industry with the goal of reducing time, cost, and environmental impacts of the carbonation process. This research field tests, models, analyzes and optimizes the engineering and economic performance of a commercial-scale Carbo Rock-It placed in production at an operating brewery (Core Brewing and Distilling Co., Springdale, AR). Field tests indicated that the Carbo Rock-It was able to successfully carbonate twelve 120 BBL batches of Scarlet Letter Seltzer to 3.0 vol/vol while meeting all beverage quality and safety requirements. The Carbo Rock-It was able to reduce carbonation …

Diffusive Dynamics Of Biological Macromolecules In The Cytoplasm Of Live Bacteria, Asmaa Ali Sadoon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria are small organisms that play important roles in our bodies and in maintaining our surrounding environment. However, bacterial infections are considered as one of the health diseases that threatens the lives of humans. Resistance of bacteria to antibiotics has made treating bacterial infections more challenging. With the emergence of many developed optical techniques, it has become possible to study various biological mechanisms of molecules inside these small organisms with high resolution and precise localization. In this research, single particle tracking photoactivation localization microscopy (sptPALM) technique was used to investigate the dynamics of fluorescent histonelike nucleoid-structuring proteins (H-NS) in live …

Diffusive Dynamics Of Biological Macromolecules In The Cytoplasm Of Live Bacteria, Asmaa Sadoon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria are small organisms that play important roles in our bodies and in maintaining our surrounding environment. However, bacterial infections are considered as one of the health diseases that threatens the lives of humans. Resistance of bacteria to antibiotics has made treating bacterial infections more challenging. With the emergence of many developed optical techniques, it has become possible to study various biological mechanisms of molecules inside these small organisms with high resolution and precise localization. In this research, single particle tracking photoactivation localization microscopy (sptPALM) technique was used to investigate the dynamics of fluorescent histonelike nucleoid-structuring proteins (H-NS) in live …

Development Of A Long-Read Sequencing Protocol To Assess The Precision And Efficacy Of Gene Editing For Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Landon Andrew Burcham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work establishes a method for assessing on-target precision due to CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, especially within the context of exon skipping therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The proposed method utilizes an Oxford nanopore long-read sequencing approach to sequence amplified regions of DNA that have been edited using CRISPR-Cas9. NIH3T3 and C2C12 cell lines were treated with a dual-guide CRISPR-Cas9 system, that targets and deletes exon 23 from the DMD gene in mouse samples. Deletion PCR revealed deletion of exon 23 in both DNA and cDNA samples. Additionally, sequencing using Oxford Nanopore revealed targeted exon 23 deletion as the most prevalent …

Cyanobacterial And Microcystin Response To Nutrient Additions At Lake Fayetteville Throughout The 2021 Growing Season, Lillie Haddock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are becoming a global concern due to their increasing distribution, frequency, intensity, and the occurrence of toxins. While it is known that eutrophication influences algal blooms, there is less known about what triggers these HABs to produce toxins, especially microcystin. In this study, we conducted 21 community bioassays at Lake Fayetteville, a hypereutrophic reservoir in Fayetteville, Arkansas, from April-November 2021 to examine how the addition of phosphorous and nitrogen influence cyanobacteria concentrations, microcystin concentrations, and microcystin toxin production. These experiments included a control, nitrogen (1.0 mg/L as KNO3), low phosphorus (0.025 mg/L as K2HPO4), high phosphorus …

The Effects Of Metronomic And Maximum-Tolerated Dose Chemotherapy In Colorectal Cancer Angiogenesis: A Combined Approach Using Endoscopic Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy And Mrna Expression, Ariel Isaac Mundo Ortiz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Colorectal cancer (CRC) continues to be one of the most incident and deadliest types of cancer worldwide. Chemotherapy has proven effective to reduce tumor burden for CRC patients, but there are several disadvantages associated with the use of mainstay maximtolerated dose (MTD) chemotherapeutic strategies. Metronomic chemotherapy (MET) has been developed as an alternative that addresses the shortcomings of maximum-tolerated dose chemotherapy but so far its effectiveness as a neoadjuvant strategy for CRC has not been explored.

This dissertation uses a combined optics and molecular biology approach (using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and mRNA expression) to study the changes in angiogenesis and …

Macrophage-Targeted Anti-Ccl2 Immunotherapy Enhances Tumor Sensitivity To 5-Fluorouracil In A Balb/C-Ct26 Murine Colon Carcinoma Model Measured Using Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy, Shelby N. Bess, Gage J. Greening, Narasimhan Rajaram, Timothy J. Muldoon

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Immunotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC) regulates specific immune checkpoints and, when used in combination with chemotherapy, can improve patient prognosis. One specific immune checkpoint is the recruitment of circulating monocytes that differentiate into tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and promote tumor angiogenesis. Changes in vascularization can be non-invasively assessed via diffuse reflectance spectroscopy using hemoglobin concentrations and oxygenation in a localized tumor volume. In this study, we examine whether blockade of monocyte recruitment via CCL2 (macrophage chemoattractant protein-1) leads to enhanced sensitivity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in a CT26-Balb/c mouse model of CRC. It was hypothesized that the blockade of TAMs will …

Process- And Product-Related Foulants In Virus Filtration, Solomon Isu, Xianghong Qian, Andrew L. Zydney, S. Ranil Wickramasinghe

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Regulatory authorities place stringent guidelines on the removal of contaminants during the manufacture of biopharmaceutical products. Monoclonal antibodies, Fc-fusion proteins, and other mammalian cell-derived biotherapeutics are heterogeneous molecules that are validated based on the production process and not on molecular homogeneity. Validation of clearance of potential contamination by viruses is a major challenge during the downstream purification of these therapeutics. Virus filtration is a single-use, size-based separation process in which the contaminating virus particles are retained while the therapeutic molecules pass through the membrane pores. Virus filtration is routinely used as part of the overall virus clearance strategy. Compromised performance …

Development Of Custom Wall-Less Cardiovascular Flow Phantoms With Tissue-Mimicking Gel, Megan Laughlin, Sam E. Stephens, Jamie A. Hestekin, Morten O. Jensen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

Flow phantoms are used in experimental settings to aid in the simulation of blood flow. Custom geometries are available, but current phantom materials present issues with degradability and/or mimicking the mechanical properties of human tissue. In this study, a method of fabricating custom wall-less flow phantoms from a tissue-mimicking gel using 3D printed inserts is developed.

Methods

A 3D blood vessel geometry example of a bifurcated artery model was 3D printed in polyvinyl alcohol, embedded in tissue-mimicking gel, and subsequently dissolved to create a phantom. Uniaxial compression testing was performed to determine the Young’s moduli of the five gel …

Anesthetics Affect Peripheral Venous Pressure Waveforms And The Cross-Talk With Arterial Pressure, Ali Z. Al-Alawi, Kaylee R. Henry, Lauren D. Crimmins, Patrick C. Bonasso, Md Abul Hayat, Melvin S. Dassinger, Jeffrey M. Burford, Hanna K. Jensen, Joseph Sanford, Jingxian Wu, Kevin W. Sexton, Morten O. Jensen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Analysis of peripheral venous pressure (PVP) waveforms is a novel method of monitoring intravascular volume. Two pediatric cohorts were studied to test the effect of anesthetic agents on the PVP waveform and cross-talk between peripheral veins and arteries: (1) dehydration setting in a pyloromyotomy using the infused anesthetic propofol and (2) hemorrhage setting during elective surgery for craniosynostosis with the inhaled anesthetic isoflurane. PVP waveforms were collected from 39 patients that received propofol and 9 that received isoflurane. A multiple analysis of variance test determined if anesthetics influence the PVP waveform. A prediction system was built using k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) …

In Vitro Mitral Valve Model With Unrestricted Ventricular Access: Using Vacuum To Close The Valve And Enable Static Trans-Mitral Pressure, Sam E. Stephens, Alexander J. Kammien, Jacob C. Paris, Alexis P. Applequist, Neil B. Ingels, Hanna K. Jensen, Drew E. Rodgers, Charles R. Cole, Jonathan F. Wenk, Morten O. Jensen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Current in vitro models of the left heart establish the pressure difference required to close the mitral valve by sealing and pressurizing the ventricular side of the valve, limiting important access to the subvalvular apparatus. This paper describes and evaluates a system that establishes physiological pressure differences across the valve using vacuum on the atrial side. The subvalvular apparatus is open to atmospheric pressure and accessible by tools and sensors, establishing a novel technique for experimentation on atrioventricular valves. Porcine mitral valves were excised and closed by vacuum within the atrial chamber. Images were used to document and analyze closure …

Minimally Invasive In Vivo Endoscopic Monitoring Of Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Murine Colitis, Elizabeth A. Bullard, Ariel I. Mundo, Shelby N. Bess, Kathryn Miller Priest, Timothy J. Muldoon

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a gastrointestinal, autoimmune disease that causes ulceration and inflammation of the colon with an incidence of 10 out of every 100,000 people in North America and Western Europe. Though the specific cause is unknown, several studies have demonstrated that inflammatory cells as well as environmental variables, genetics, and lifestyle behaviors can play a role in the long-term inflammatory response. Researchers have commonly used immunohistochemistry, western blotting and gene sequencing to establish the cellular processes behind UC relapse and remission. However, because these destructive methods necessitate the removal of a sample, they can only be used on …

Raman Spectroscopy Reveals Phenotype Switches In Breast Cancer Metastasis, Santosh Kumar Paidi, Joel Rodriguez Troncoso, Mason G. Harper, Zhenhui Liu, Khue G. Nguyen, Sruthi Ravindranathan, Lisa Rebello, David E. Lee, Jesse D. Ivers, David A. Zaharoff, Narasimhan Rajaram, Ishan Barman

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The accurate analytical characterization of metastatic phenotype at primary tumor diagnosis and its evolution with time are critical for controlling metastatic progression of cancer. Here, we report a label-free optical strategy using Raman spectroscopy and machine learning to identify distinct metastatic phenotypes observed in tumors formed by isogenic murine breast cancer cell lines of progressively increasing metastatic propensities. Methods: We employed the 4T1 isogenic panel of murine breast cancer cells to grow tumors of varying metastatic potential and acquired label-free spectra using a fiber probe-based portable Raman spectroscopy system. We used MCR-ALS and random forests classifiers to identify putative spectral …

Immunomodulatory Functions Of Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Are Enhanced When Cultured On Hep/Col Multilayers Supplemented With Interferon-Gamma, Mahsa Letter-Mahsa Haseli, David A. Castilla-Casadiego, Luis Carlos Pinzon-Herrera, Alexander Hillsley, Katherine A. Miranda-Munoz, Srikanth Sivaraman, Adrianne M. Rosales, Raj R. Rao, Jorge Almodovar

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) are multipotent cells that have been proposed for cell therapies due to their immunosuppressive capacity that can be enhanced in the presence of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). In this study, multilayers of heparin (HEP) and collagen (COL) (HEP/COL) were used as a bioactive surface to enhance the immunomodulatory activity of hMSCs using soluble IFN-γ. Multilayers were formed, via layer-by-layer assembly, varying the final layer between COL and HEP and supplemented with IFN-γ in the culture medium. We evaluated the viability, adhesion, real-time growth, differentiation, and immunomodulatory activity of hMSCs on (HEP/COL) multilayers. HMSCs viability, adhesion, and growth …

Tissue Engineering And The Effect Of Volumetric Muscle Loss On Muscle Performance, Alex Pemberton

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Trauma, for so many people, creates life altering injuries. One of the major injuries that results from trauma is volumetric muscle loss (VML), which is the loss of muscle tissue that cannot be naturally regenerated and results in chronic loss of function. When a small amount of damage is done to a muscle, but the underlying extracellular matrix of the cell is still intact, the muscle can regenerate much of its volume and function. If the injury damages the extracellular matrix, the injury site is instead filled with scar tissue, which cannot regenerate muscle mass or function. Seen widely in …

Effect Of Hydrogen Peroxide On Algae And Microcystin In Control And Lake Waters, Tatiana Castillo Hernandez

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cyanobacteria are photo-autotrophic organisms with a worldwide distribution, which can result in Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) producing toxins. One of the most common strains of cyanobacteria is Microcystis, which produces the most abundant cyanotoxin, microcystin. In this study, we analyzed the effect of H₂O₂ on algae and microcystin using both lake and reagent grade water. The first objective was to determine the effect of H₂O₂ on algae and cyanobacteria in lake water that was nutrient enriched. The second objective was to detect the effect of H₂O₂ at oxidizing microcystin in …

Effects Of Il-10 On Local Cell Populations And Functional Recovery Following Vml Injury, Zain Blackwell

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) injuries are prevalent in both military personnel suffering from battlefield related incidents, and civilians following severe motor accidents. Despite its prevalence, VML has no pro-regenerative clinical treatments in place to recover some of the functional capabilities of the damaged muscle. Free flap grafting, debridement of damaged tissue, and physical therapy are the only clinical standards available that offer little functional recovery benefits, even after years of consistent treatment. In this study, anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 in conjunction with autologous minced muscle was assessed as a possible treatment for VML injuries and its influences on cellular behavior within …

Evapotranspiration In Mid-South Rice Production, Colby Wade Reavis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rice provides much needed sustenance to a large portion of the global population, particularly in the developing world. With stress placed on food production systems under the reality of climate change and an increasing global population, rice production systems require solutions to a number of issues, including a limited water supply. As producers explore new strategies for conserving local water resources to continue to maintain yields, new irrigation strategies and technologies are being developed and validated for use at commercial production scales. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is an irrigation practice that provides water savings through the capture of rainfall …