Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Chemotaxis Of Drosophila Glia With Controlled Microenvironments, Cade Beck

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Neural Correlates Of Phantom Auditory Perception, Paul Joseph S. Deguzman

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Rugose, A Drosophila Akap And Loco, A Rgs Protein In Synaptogenesis And Development, Kemeh Georgina

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Human Lung Cancer Cytochrome C-Gfp Reporter Cell Line To Study Anti-Cancer Drug Responses In Apoptosis Pathways, Sidra A Piracha

Dissertations and Theses

"Currently chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the most popular methods for cancer treatments after surgery, but lack of specificity and are thus toxic to the healthy human cells. Studies have shown that targeted therapies have been linked to activation of apoptosis signal pathways (cascade of caspases) in cancer cells including intrinsic and extrinsic pathways. One of the major pathways leading to caspase activation involves the release of cytochrome-c from mitochondria. However, in some tumor cells this pathway is inactivated due to the mutation of mitochondria membrane stabilizing proteins (e.g. Bcl-2, Bcl-xL). Therefore, the overall objective of this proposal was to understand …

Technologya Nd Protocolsf Or Translational Researchin Electricals Timulation, Asif Rahman

Dissertations and Theses

"Noninvasive electrical stimulation techniques like transcranial direct currents stimulation (tDCS) have been demonstrated to modulate neural function. Weak constant current is applied via scalp electrodes leading to subthreshold changes in neuron membrane potentials. Neuromodulation of the cortex using direct current (DC) stimulation may be a viable treatment for neurological disorders, enhancing cognitive function as well as facilitating neural plasticity. Theoretically, tDCS can employ many electrodes montages to emphasize directionality, focality, or intensity (Datta 2008, 2009, Dmochowski 2011) but what remains unclear is how these parameters influence cortical neurons considering their orientation and the local synaptic circuit in the region of …

Characterization Of Rheological Properties And Degradation Of Genipin Crosslinked Fibrin Hydrogel For Annulus Repair, Dave Khyati

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Mild Heating On The Osteogenic Differentiation Of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells During Inflammation, Kristifor Sunderic

Dissertations and Theses

"Current surgical procedures to treat osteoarthritis have varying degrees of success, but carry inherent risks and a finite life expectancy. A more permanent solution is a treatment that regenerates biologically viable tissue that integrates with the patient and retains functionality. For maximal effectiveness, such a treatment should also repair bone loss known to occur in osteoarthritis and attenuate chronic inflammation that can obstruct healing. Mesenchymal stem cells have great potential to be used as part of a novel therapy for bone and cartilage regeneration. They are a highly regulated, self-renewing population of cells with potent mechanisms to avoid allogeneic rejection, …

Life-Cycle Optimization And Flow Control In A Nickel-Zinc Flow Assisted Battery, Steve Lever

Dissertations and Theses

Nickel-Zinc flow-assisted rechargeable batteries are currently being explored as a potential new generation of large-scale, low-cost energy storage devices. The viability of a commercial nickel-zinc battery has been hindered by the well-known phenomena of dendrite formation and zinc morphology variation over time. Applying electrolyte flow to traditional nickel-zinc battery systems has demonstrated significant life cycle performance improvements by reducing both dendrite formation and morphological variation. It has also been demonstrated that periodic low-current reconditioning discharge further improves cycle life. This thesis examines the effect of eliminating electrolyte flow during discharge of nickel-zinc flow assisted batteries, which would allow a much …

Feasibility Analysis Of Estrification Systems With Entrainers, Kang Wook Lee

Dissertations and Theses

(Ethyl Acetate) and IPA (Isopropyl Acetate) production systems are studied in terms of the feasibility analysis. It is not feasible to retrieve pure products by a simple reactive distillation for IPA production system because CCR (Critical Composition Region) covers the entire desired binary edge for IPA system. On the other hand, even though CCR does not cover the entire desired binary edge of the EA system completely, internal reflux ratio (IRR) analysis does not allow the production of the pure product via reactive distillation for EA production system. To overcome the restraints, external entrainers are utilized to take advantage of …

Bone Tissue Quality Determination Of Mice Through A Novel Reference Point Indentation Technique, Matin Lendhey

Dissertations and Theses

"Bone strength deteriorates with age; which increases the susceptibility to fracture. Current clinical techniques for the estimation of bone strength are largely Bone Mineral Density (BMD) based. However, toughness, which is the ability to resist crack growth, plays a critical role in bones‟ fracture resistance. Traditionally, toughness measurements involve large samples, obviating their use clinically. Recent data suggest that a reference point indentation approach provides a novel, localized measure of toughness from whole bones. In the current research, we evaluated the sensitivity of this method to discriminate small known differences in fracture toughness that exist between inbred mouse strains with …

Development Of An Approach To Increase Drug Uptake To Bone Tumors Using Non-Invasive Mechanical Loading, Paolo E. Palacio

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis develops an approach to enhance drug delivery to bone tumors by implementing a non-invasive mechanical loading technique. An imaging protocol that characterizes the load-enhanced drug uptake is also presented. The long-term goal of this work is to develop a clinical protocol that enhances the delivery of therapeutic agents to bone tumors by utilizing load-bearing activity. This easy-to-implement approach could help increase drug uptake into the tumor interstitial fluid space as well as into tumor cells, thereby enhancing a drug's clinical effect while decreasing systemic drug dosage and unwanted side effects. This thesis details the process used to grow …

Effects Of Estrogen Loss On The Vascular Porosity In Rat Cortical Bone, Jessica D Levy

Dissertations and Theses

"Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease that currently affects 10 million Americans, and is characterized by low bone mass and increased skeletal fragility (National Osteoporosis Foundation, 2011). Estrogen loss, which begins during menopause, is the leading cause of osteoporosis in women. Recent research has focused on changes in cortical bone microporosity due to estrogen loss, which is important for bone health; load-induced interstitial fluid flow within the lacunar-canalicular porosity surrounding osteocytes is thought to play an important role in bone maintenance, while the vascular porosity provides a pressure relaxation mechanism for the fluid flow in the lacunar-canalicular porosity. Recent high-resolution micro-CT …

Transport Of Antibodies And Nanoparticles Across An In Vitro Blood-Brain Barrier, Lin Zhang

Dissertations and Theses

"The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a dynamic interface between the blood circulation and the central nervous system (CNS). While it serves as a selective barrier to water and solutes to prevent the blood-borne toxins from entering into the brain tissue, it hinders the drug delivery to the CNS for the treatment of brain diseases. Recently therapeutic antibodies and a variety of drug-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely used to treat CNS disorders such as brain tumors, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. To improve brain delivery efficacy of antibodies and NPs, it is necessary to quantify their transport parameters across the …

Evaluation Of A Novel Self-Assembled Nanocoating In Promoting Bone On-Growth And Apposition On Metal, Hani Ghazi

Dissertations and Theses

"Loosening of metal is the leading cause of clinical failures of orthopedic surgeries. A novel coating of self-assembled monolayer of phosphonate molecules (SAMP) that chemically enhances metallic surfaces by covalently bonding to their naturally occurring oxidized surfaces has been developed.1 The SAMP coating is chemically stable, and its in-vitro results showed that it promotes cell proliferation, osteoblast adhesion and enhances biological attachment to metal surfaces.1 The purpose of this study is to establish the efficacy of this novel chemical surface treatment in improving the fixation of metallic implants in both cortical and cancellous bone over a conventional untreated implant. We …

Proteomic Analysis Of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Aging During Serial Sub-Culture, Pawan Kc

Dissertations and Theses

"Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) hold great potential for clinical applications in regenerative medicine. However, hMSCs occur at a very low frequency in bone marrow so the clinical use as cellular therapeutics requires suitable techniques for isolation and expansion. Furthermore, these cells can be expanded in vitro for only limited passage numbers before they reach a senescent state. Previous studies have shown that long term culture of hMSCs results in the decrease in proliferation rates, changes in genomic expressions, increase in cell sizes, and other morphological changes. Currently the mechanisms of hMSC aging and biomarkers associated with it have not …

Wavelet Based Feature Extraction And Dimension Reduction For The Classification Of Human Cardiac Electrogram Depolarization Waveforms, Christopher S. De Voir

Dissertations and Theses

An essential task for a pacemaker or implantable defibrillator is the accurate identification of rhythm categories so that the correct electrotherapy can be administered. Because some rhythms cause a rapid dangerous drop in cardiac output, it is necessary to categorize depolarization waveforms on a beat-to-beat basis to accomplish rhythm classification as rapidly as possible. In this thesis, a depolarization waveform classifier based on the Lifting Line Wavelet Transform is described. It overcomes problems in existing rate-based event classifiers; namely, (1) they are insensitive to the conduction path of the heart rhythm and (2) they are not robust to pseudo-events. The …

Investigation Of Blood Pressure Measurement Using A Hydraulic Occlusive Cuff, Kusha R. Bhattarai

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis presents an improved oscillotonometric system for the measurement of human blood pressure. The study included:

1. The design of a hydraulic occlusive cuff,

2. The investigation of the wave forms taken from the blood pressure measurements, and

3. The design of a mechanism for the simulation of human blood pressure pulse.

In this study, an experimental system consisting of a rigid shell occlusive cuff, a constant volume displacement pump, a transducer, and a chart recorder was designed and used for data collection.