Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Processing-Structure-Property Relationships Of Biopolyester/Zinc Oxide Fibrous Scaffolds Engineered By Centrifugal Spinning, Victoria Padilla-Gainza, Heriberto Rodríguez-Tobías, Graciela Morales, Antonio Ledezma-Pérez, Carmen Alvarado-Canché, Cristobal Rodriguez, Robert Gilkerson, Karen Lozano

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

This study addresses the processing of nonwoven fibrous materials obtained by centrifugal spinning method, namely Forcespinning; a high yield and low production cost technique little explored in this field. Poly(D, L-lactic acid) (PDLLA) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) were used as matrices and reinforced with zinc oxide nanoparticles (n-ZnO). The morphology, mechanical, and thermal performance of the developed composites were analyzed as well as the antibacterial effect of n-ZnO. Fibrous materials with n-ZnO concentrations of 1, 3, and 5 wt. % for PDLLA and 1 and 3 wt. % for PHB were evaluated. The results showed that the incorporation of n-ZnO produces …

Cis-Resveratrol Upregulates Tyrosyl-Trna Synthetase And Inhibits The Proliferation Of Select Breast Cancer Cell Lines, Marion Cone Hope Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is one of the most commonly occurring cancers in women. 70% of breast cancer patients express ERα and are treated with tamoxifen (Tam), a drug that is used to directly target ERα. However, 20-30% of cancer patients develop a resistance to Tam. This resistance leads to a worse prognosis and other treatments such as DNA damaging drugs or radiation to eliminate these cells. Resveratrol (RSV) is a polyphenolic- compound found in plants such as grapes and hellebore and is known to evoke anti-cancer effects. While natural resveratrol exists as a mixture of both cis- and trans- isomers, so …

Development And Optimization Of Imaging And Image Quantification Techniques For Tissue-Engineered Blood Vessel Mimics, Ashley Turcott

Master's Theses

Blood vessels mimics (BVMs) are tissue-engineered blood vessels used to test vascular devices in an environment that mimics some simple anatomical factors of native blood vessels. It is important to accurately and consistently assess tissue-engineered blood vessels, although there is currently a lack of standardization in Cal Poly’s Tissue Engineering Lab and in the entirety of the field. The goal of this thesis was to develop and optimize imaging and image quantification techniques for tissue-engineered blood vessels.

The first aim of this thesis optimized and compared imaging and assessment techniques for electrospun scaffolds. Images from different SEMs were compared to …

Red Blood Cell Dynamics On Non-Uniform Grids Using A Lattice Boltzmann Flux Solver And A Spring-Particle Red Blood Cell Model, Brendan Walsh

Doctoral

The Computational Haemodynamics Research Group (CHRG) in Technological University Dublin is developing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package aimed specifically at physiologically-realistic modelling of blood flow. A physiologically-realistic model of blood flow involves calculating the deformation of individual red blood cells (RBCs) and the contribution of this deformation to the overall blood flow. The CHRG has developed an enhanced spring-particle RBC structural model that is capable of modelling the full stomatocyte-discocyteechinocyte (SDE) transformation. This RBC model, incorporated into a fluid dynamics solver, will provide a physiologically-realistic blood flow model. In this work the overall plasma flow is modelled using …

An Improved Bone Age Assessment Using Advanced Image Processing And Deep Learning Approach, Kim Meng Liang

Student Works (2020-2029)

Pediatricians often apply bone age assessment to measure the skeletal maturity of children and to predict the future height. These discrepancies are good indicators for diagnosing growth disorders. Normally, left hand skeletal is employed in this assessment. The low quality of ossification sites of carpals deteriorates the pediatrician’s visibility in inspecting the pertinent radiographic manifestations. This in turn affects the bone age assessment. Therefore, we have to enhance the quality before assessing them. Histogram equalization is one of the contrast enhancement techniques that suit this type of enhancement. Existing histogram equalizations, however, are confronting with problems in preserving the brightness …

Suspended Carbon Nanowire Biosensor For Rapid And Label-Free Salmonella Detection, Thiha Aung

Student Works (2020-2029)

Carbon, the building block life, is rapidly becoming the building block of nextgeneration electronics and sensor materials. Of many ways to handle nanocarbon materials, Carbon Microelectromechanical Systems (C-MEMS) emerges as a unique way for top-down fabrication of three-dimensional carbon micro to nanostructures. In this work, the use of C-MEMS techniques in nanowire biosensor fabrication is explored. Two main hindrances in the use of C-MEMS carbon structures for biosensing lie in miniaturization to nanoscale sensor material and inertness of as-fabricated carbon. This dissertation presents ways to overcome these limitations. First, miniaturization to patterned sub-100 nm carbon nanowires was achieved by optimization …

The Neural Foundations Of Handedness: Insights From A Rare Case Of Deafferentation, S.A.L. Jayasinghe, F. R. Sarlegna, Robert A. Scheidt, R. L. Sainburg

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The role of proprioceptive feedback on motor lateralization remains unclear. We asked whether motor lateralization is dependent on proprioceptive feedback by examining a rare case of proprioceptive deafferentation (GL). Motor lateralization is thought to arise from asymmetries in neural organization, particularly at the cortical level. For example, we have previously provided evidence that the left hemisphere mediates optimal motor control that allows execution of smooth and efficient arm trajectories, while the right hemisphere mediates impedance control that can achieve stable and accurate final arm postures. The role of proprioception in both of these processes has previously been demonstrated empirically, bringing …

Task-Specific Versus Impairment-Based Training On Locomotor Performance In Individuals With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury: A Randomized Crossover Study, Jennifer K. Lotter, Christopher E. Henderson, Abby Plawecki, Molly E. Holthus, Emily H. Lucas, Marzieh M. Ardestani, Brian D. Schmit, George Hornby

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background. Many research studies attempting to improve locomotor function following motor incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) focus on providing stepping practice. However, observational studies of physical therapy strategies suggest the amount of stepping practice during clinical rehabilitation is limited; rather, many interventions focus on mitigating impairments underlying walking dysfunction. Objective. The purpose of this blinded-assessor randomized trial was to evaluate the effects of task-specific versus impairment-based interventions on walking outcomes in individuals with iSCI. Methods. Using a crossover design, ambulatory participants with iSCI >1-year duration performed either task-specific (upright stepping) or impairment-based training for up to 20 sessions over ≤6 …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Flexible Three-Phase Zno-Graphene-Epoxy Electro-Active Thin-Film Nanocomposites: Towards Applications In Wearable Biomedical Devices, Mandeep Singh, Sanjeev Kumar, Shervin Zoghi, Debaki Sarcar, Saquib Ahmed, Shaestagir Chowdhury, Sankha Banerjee

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Perovskite oxides have been used as sensors, actuators, transducers, for sound generation and detection, and also in optical instruments and microscopes. Perovskite halides are currently considered as optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, photodetectors, and radiation detection, but there are major issues with stability, interfacial recombination, and electron/hole mobility. The following work looks into the fabrication of non-toxic ZnO-based lead-free alternatives to perovskite oxides for use as secondary sensors or electron transport layers along with perovskite halides for application in stacked biomedical wearable devices. Three-phase, lead-free, Zinc Oxide-Graphene-Epoxy electroactive nanocomposite thin films were fabricated. The volume fraction of the Graphene …

Identification Of Microscopy Cell Images By Using Convolutional Neural Network Application, Ajis Norfatin Farisya

Student Works (2020-2029)

Breast cancer has been the major factor of cancer death and the second main cause of women’s deaths in the world. The false positive results of this cancer cell detection during the screening test leads to false treatment and emotional disturbance of the patients. Thus, breast cancer cell lines (MCF7) is used as the microscopy image samples together with the Human Bone Osteosarcoma Epithelial Cells (U2OS), and Human Hepatocyte as control to study the effectiveness of convolutional neural network (CNN) as a method of image recognition. The objectives of this study are to determine the ability of convolutional neural network …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Novel Silicone Hydrogel Biomaterials With Advanced Properties For Ocular Drug Delivery, Liana D. Wuchte

Theses and Dissertations

There is a need for next generation silicone hydrogel biomaterials with greater compositional flexibility and tailorable material properties for advanced manufacturing and new applications for ocular drug delivery. Poly(DMS-R11-co-TRIS-co-DMA-co-PEG200DMA-co-DEAEM-co-DADMAC) silicone hydrogel contact lenses were synthesized with macromolecular memory and showed 7-day in vitro release of latanoprost acid via a microfluidic platform with controlled release and improved drug payload capacity compared to control lenses. Six newly synthesized silicone macromers were then incorporated into contact lens formulations for the first time to produce a novel, improved platform. Various silicone macromer structures showed significantly improved solubility with TRIS and DMA with components ranging …

Novel Injectable Plga-Peg-Plga Self-Assembled Hydrogels For The Extended And Controlled Release Of Dna Nanocarriers To Prevent Secondary Cataracts, Laura L. Osorno

Theses and Dissertations

Cataracts are the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. There are over 20 million cataract surgeries each year, and these cases are expected to double within the next ten years. Over 40% of adults and nearly all children develop secondary cataracts, or posterior capsule opacification (PCO), following cataract surgery. Currently, Nd:YAG laser therapy is used to treat PCO; however, laser therapy is not available worldwide and treatment may have adverse effects on surrounding ocular tissues. Thus, there is a considerable unmet need for more efficacious and convenient treatments to prevent PCO.

Injectable, stimuli-responsive gels were designed using poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)-b-poly(ethylene glycol)) …

Active Deep Learning Method To Automate Unbiased Stereology Cell Counting, Saeed Alahmari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell quantification in histopathology images plays a significant role in understanding and diagnosing diseases such as cancer and Alzheimers. The gold-standard for quantifying cells in tissue sections is the unbiased stereology approach. Unfortunately, in unbiased stereology current practices rely on a well-trained human to manually count hundreds of cells in microscopy images. However, this human-based manual approach is time-consuming, labor-intensive, subject to human errors, recognition bias, fatigue, variable training, poor reproducibility, and inter-observer error. Thus, the lack of high-throughput technology for automating unbiased stereology analyses remains a major obstacle to further progress in a wide range of neuroscience and cancer …

Designing Silk Protein-Based Composite Materials With Tunable Heat Transfer And Magnetic Properties, Ye Xue

Theses and Dissertations

Renewable and biocompatible silk protein materials with desired physical properties show promising applications in biomedical field. In this work, a set of protein-based composites with desired thermal and magnetic properties, enhanced by the appropriate distribution of nanofillers in the protein matrix in both 2D-film and 1D-fiber forms was investigated. Results indicate that secondary structures of silk protein materials regenerated by a formic acid-calcium chloride method are different from those of their respective natural silk fibers. Intramolecular beta-sheet structures were found to dominate these silk films, causing these regenerated samples to be water-insoluble but more flexible than traditional silk films with …

Spatial Heterogeneity Utilization In Ct Images For Lung Nodule Classication, Dmitrii Cherezov

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lung cancer (LC) is leading in the number of deaths among the other types of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, 135,720 deaths during 2020 in the USA will be associated with LC. The patient 5-year survival rate of 16\% was reported in 1986 and 19% in 2019. One of the reasons why survival rate remains low is that the majority of patients diagnosed with cancer had stages III and IV. In contrast, a 5-year survival rate of 70% was reported for patients of stage IA after surgical resection in the National Lung Screening Trial.

CT screening detects a …

Reprapable Automated Open Source Bag Valve Mask-Based Ventilator, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Samantha C. Dertinger, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This study describes the development of an automated bag valve mask (BVM) compression system, which, during acute shortages and supply chain disruptions can serve as a temporary emergency ventilator. The resuscitation system is based on the Arduino controller with a real-time operating system installed on a largely RepRap 3-D printable parametric component-based structure. The cost of the system is under $170, which makes it affordable for replication by makers around the world. The device provides a controlled breathing mode with tidal volumes from 100 to 800 milliliters, breathing rates from 5 to 40 breaths/minute, and inspiratory-to-expiratory ratio from 1:1 to …

Existing Empirical Kinetic Models In Biochemical Methane Potential (Bmp) Testing, Their Selection And Numerical Solution, Yehor Pererva, Charles D. Miller, Ronald C. Sims

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) tests are a crucial part of feasibility studies to estimate energy recovery opportunities from organic wastes and wastewater. Despite the large number of publications dedicated to BMP testing and numerous attempts to standardize procedures, there is no “one size fits all” mathematical model to describe biomethane formation kinetic precisely. Importantly, the kinetics models are utilized for treatability estimation and modeling processes for the purpose of scale-up. A numerical computation approach is a widely used method to determine model coefficients, as a replacement for the previously used linearization approach. However, it requires more information for each model …

Revolutionizing The Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum, Shelby Ann Mcneilly, Krishna Pakala, Donald Plumlee

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the age of technological advancement and occupational opportunity continues to progress, companies must be constantly adjusting and transforming in order to accommodate industry demands. With these quickly developing requirements comes an expectation of employee experience and skill sets. For individuals seeking a career in mechanical engineering, moving forward with the tools necessary for success in this continuously evolving world begins with higher education. This paper is the first of a three-part series to report on the progress of Boise State University’s Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department’s mission to implement a revolutionized curriculum in their academic program. This paper will …

Small Molecule Drug Release Form In Situ Forming Degradable Scaffolds Incorporating Hydrogels And Bioceramic Microparticles, David A. Puleo, Todd A. Milbrandt, J. Zach Hilt, Paul Fisher, Vishwas Talwalkar

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Patents

The present invention relates to an injectable system combining a hydrogel, a bioceramic and a degradable matrix that provides for sustained drug delivery and structural support to recovering tissue, such as bone and the periodontium.

Study And Characterization Of Conductive Elastomers For Biomedical Applications, Hadis Gharacheh

Theses and Dissertations

Health issues have always been one of humankind's biggest challenges. Over the last century, there has been significant and monumental progress in health and biomedical science, with the end goal of alleviating and eliminating illnesses and ailments. For developing biomedical devices, polymers and elastomers group among other types of biomaterials have been highlighted to be used due to high flexibility, stability, biocompatibility, and mechanical and rheological characteristics. In this work, the characterization of acrylated poly glycerol_sebacate (PGSA) polymer conjugated with bio ionic liquid (BIL) was investigated. Results showed high biocompatibility, high printability with tunable mechanical, adhesive, and conductivity properties. For …

Optimal Reactor Configuration Of A Microbial Fuel Cell Containing Bacteria Genetically Engineered To Degrade Urea, Ann Mcmonigal, Sarah Khoilian, David Bengford

Bioengineering Senior Theses

The original specific aim of this project was to use a microbial fuel cell (MFC) fueled by the catabolism of E. coli DH5α (pKAU17) bacteria in order generate current as a result of urea degradation. The initial design plan was to test the bacteria outside of the MFC, obtain power measurements,, and finally, construct an electrochemical model that would be compared to an existing theoretical model developed at SCU. Using a 0.25 L anode chamber, graphite electrodes and a sulfonated tetrafluoroethylene based fluoropolymercopolymer proton exchange membrane the galvanic cell was constructed. In response to constraints, the design plan was modified …

A Convolutional Neural Network For Fast Fluence Estimation In Complex Tissues, Nicholas Blasey, Geoffrey P. Luke

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a non-invasive diagnostic imaging technique that gives images of photoabsorbers based on their absorption of optical energy. These optical absorption properties can then be linked to important tissue properties. For the method to be quantitative, however, it is necessary to have an accurate estimation of the light fluence in the tissue. The current gold standard in addressing the fluence estimation problem, a Monte Carlo Simulation, is costly in time and computation. In this work, we developed a deep neural network to quickly and accurately estimate light fluence in arbitrary tissue types and geometries. The network was …

Bio Circuits For Evolutionary Biotech, Camilo Toruno

ENGS 86 Independent Projects (AB Students)

The field of bioengineering has much promise for renewable chemical production, bioremediation, and of course medical applications. Developing new useful microorganisms is extremely time and capital intensive, typically taking 50 million USD and eight years. This is due in large part to the low throughput techniques that are characteristic of the field of metabolic engineering. Here we describe the modification of an existing synthetic biosensor to measure the pharmaceutical dopamine, and the use of a circuit simulator Cadence to predict improvements to the biosensor. This biosensor paired with directed evolution techniques could reach throughputs of 5 million cells per day …

Toward Precision Medicine With Nanopore Technology, Trang Andrea Vu

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, when patients are diagnosed with cancer, they often receive a treatment based on the type and stage of the tumor. However, different patients may respond to the same treatment differently, due to the variation in their genomic alteration profile. Thus, it is essential to understand the effect of genomic alterations on cancer drug efficiency and engineer devices to monitor these changes for therapeutic response prediction. Nanopore-based detection technology features devices containing a nanometer-scale pore embedded in a thin membrane that can be utilized for DNA sequencing, biosensing, and detection of biological or chemical modifications on single molecules. Overall, this …

Cancer Biomarker Detection In Human Plasma By Integrating Surface Acoustic Wave And Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence, Yuqi Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes data and discussion about the technique of metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) to lower the detection limit of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). The detection limit goes down to 100pg/mL level when using MEF substrate made by rapid thermally annealed silver film covered by silica, which has great promise in diagnosing certain types of cancer that uses CEA as detection biomarker, such as pancreatic cancer and colon cancer. To further address the issue of background noises from non-specifically bound proteins (NSB) in complex media, such as plasma, serum, urine and blood, MEF is integrated with surface acoustic wave (SAW) streaming in …

Utilizing Neural Networks And Wearables To Quantify Hip Joint Angles And Moments During Walking And Stair Ascent, Megan V. Mccabe

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Wearable sensors were leveraged to develop two methods for computing hip joint angles and moments during walking and stair ascent that are more portable than the gold standard. The Insole-Standard (I-S) approach replaced force plates with force-measuring insoles and achieved results that match the curvature of results from similar studies. Peaks in I-S kinetic results are high due to error induced by applying the ground reaction force to the talus. The Wearable-ANN (W-A) approach combines wearables with artificial neural networks to compute the same results. Compared against the I-S, the W-A approach performs well (average rRMSE = 18%, R^{2 …}

Faculty Perspectives On The Impact Of Virtual Office Hours In Engineering Courses, Brooke-Lynn Caprice Andrade, Krishna Pakala, Diana Bairaktarova, Douglas Hagemeier, Harish Subbaraman

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Instructor-student interaction is an important element of a course design, but office hours can be challenging to attend based on students’ commitments. They have time and space limitations that prevent students from getting the help they need and often garner poor attendance. Virtual office hours can address issues related to low attendance and provide a low stakes environment where unhindered learning can happen. Virtual office hours are flexible, yield productive interactions, and all enrolled students can participate. This study reports on three engineering instructors’ perspectives on the efficacy of virtual office hours compared to the traditional face-to-face interactions with the …

Simulation Of Cu Precipitation In Fe-Cu Dilute Alloys With Cluster Mobility, Senlin Cui, Mahmood Mamivand, Dane Morgan

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cu-rich precipitates formation is associated with the precipitation hardening of Fe-Cu based steels and the embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steels under neutron irradiation. The accurate modeling of the time evolution of Cu-rich precipitates is therefore of fundamental importance for the design of Fe-Cu based steels and the prediction of the irradiation induced shift of the ductile to brittle transition temperature of reactor pressure vessels. This work applies cluster dynamics with mobile Cu monomers and clusters to model Cu precipitation in dilute Fe-Cu alloys at several temperatures. Optimized model parameters can be used to simulate the mean radius, number density, …

Heating Performance Analysis For Short-Term Energy Monitoring And Prediction Using Multi-Family Residential Energy Consumption Data, Sukjoon Oh, Chul Kim, Joonghyeok Heo, Sung Lok Do, Kee Han Kim

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many smart apartments and renovated residential buildings have installed Smart Meters (SMs), which collect interval data to accelerate more efficient energy management in multi-family residential buildings. SMs are widely used for electricity, but many utility companies have been working on systems for natural gas and water monitoring to be included in SMs. In this study, we analyze heating energy use data obtained from SMs for short-term monitoring and annual predictions using change-point models for the coefficient checking method. It was found that 9-month periods were required to search the best short-term heating energy monitoring periods when non-weather-related and weather-related heating …

Novel Cancer Treatment Using Engineered Exosomes To Disrupt Cancer’S Immune Escape, Abena Boateng, Carley Fowler, Maritza Soria

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the United States¹. This disease has impacted billions worldwide and has led to an ever-increasing burden on the healthcare system. Over the last couple of years, researchers have improved upon conventional cancer therapy that includes chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. One novel approach is immunotherapy, which shows great potential because it has the ability to directly target cancerous cells². This is a viable treatment because most cancers develop the ability to block immune pathways and evade the killer immune cells in what is known as cancer immune …