Bioimaging and Biomedical Optics Commons^™

A Device For Measuring Acoustic Output Intensity Of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Transducers For Comparison With Fda Regulations, Sarah Altman, Gregory Bashford, Benjamin Hage

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography (TCD) is a non-invasive methodology which can evaluate cerebral blood flow velocity in real time. Single-element focused circular transducers placed on the scalp produce ultrasound waves capable of penetrating the skull with minimal aberration, enabling measurement of the Doppler shift. As such, TCD can measure blood flow velocity in the internal carotid and vertebral arteries, as well as the arteries of the Circle of Willis: the Anterior Cerebral (ACA), Posterior Cerebral (PCA), and Middle Cerebral Arteries (MCA). Intracranial aneurysm and ischemic stroke are serious conditions in which ballooning or occlusion of cerebral vessels cause insufficient perfusion, leading …

Brain Activity Associated With Taste Stimulation: A Mechanism For Neuroplastic Change?, Angela M. Dietsch, Ross M. Westemeyer, Douglas H. Schultz

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Neuroplasticity may be enhanced by increasing brain activation and bloodflow in neural regions relevant to the target behavior.We administered precisely formulated and dosed taste stimuli to determine whether the associated brain activity patterns included areas that underlie swallowing control.

Methods: Five taste stimuli (unflavored, sour, sweet-sour, lemon, and orange suspensions) were administered in timing-regulated and temperature-controlled 3 mL doses via a customized pump/tubing system to 21 healthy adults during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Whole-brain analyses of fMRI data assessed main effects of taste stimulation as well as differential effects of taste profile.

Results: Differences in …

Mango Surface Color Features Measurement Using Digital Image Processing, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Goutom Kumar, Md Abdul Momin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Summary

Postharvest processing of agricultural produce is still done the conventional way in Bangladesh. Manual grading of agricultural produce, especially fruits and vegetables, is laborious and costly due to acute shortage of labor during the peak season, as well as difficulty maintaining the product quality. Machine vision system (MVS) applications are widely used nowadays as a non-destructive and cost-effective technology for automatically grading and sorting large volumes of produce in the packing house according to size, shape, color, texture, and surface defects. In this study, a simple MVS was constructed measuring different color features of mango fruit surface as a …

Preclinical Development Of Single Walled Carbon Nanotube-Based Optical Biosensors, Eric M. Hofferber

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High resolution, long-term monitoring of key biological analytes would improve patient outcomes by providing earlier detection of disease states and improved efficacy of treatment. One class of biosensors that have gained much attention in recent years are optical biosensors. Optical probes are attractive biosensors due to their noninvasive nature of detection, as certain light can pass through tissue, water, and blood. Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are a specific type of optical biosensor that fluoresce in the near infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and offer unparalleled spatial and temporal resolution. SWNT have been applied as biosensors in vitro, …

Pilot Study To Assess Breathing During Sight-Read Stringed Instrument Performance, Collin T. Erickson, Clark Potter, Gregory Bashford

UCARE: Research Products

For many musicians, one common occurrence during a performance is the presence of stage fright. Stage fright, though not always expressed can influence the confidence and self-esteem of a performer, and thus can affect the quality of the performance. Every day musicians are affected by stage fright, and there has been no exact solution as to how to lessen the feeling of anxiety musicians feel before performing. No data has been collected to find the correlation between the regularity of breathing and the level of stage fright that a person feels during their performance. A way to quantify regularity of …

Circle Of Willis Model For Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Training, Conner J. Beyersdorf, Ben Hage, Greg Bashford

UCARE: Research Products

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound is a technique involving the use of high frequency transmitters to measure intracranial blood flow. The brain is supplied by blood in an arterial anastomosis called the Circle of Willis. Using TCD ultrasound on the circle is difficult and requires practice and teaching. A functional model of the Circle of Willis could prove to be a valuable teaching tool. Through the use of AutoCAD and 3D printing software, an anatomically accurate model was created and set in gelatin phantom inside of a plastic skull. Milk was pumped through the model with a peristaltic pump to simulate …

Cerebrovascular Reactivity Change With Increased Intracranial Pressure, Madison Burger, M. Alwatban, Allison Porter, Ben Hage, Greg Bashford

UCARE: Research Products

Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is an important regulatory factor of the brain. The parameter controls the dilation and constriction of blood vessels in the brain in response to certain stimuli, such as carbon dioxide. Abnormal CVR values could potentially be indicators of poorly functioning regulatory systems. Testing of CVR is one method of assessing the brain's regulatory capabilities. The purpose of this study was to test for a relationship between CVR and intracranial pressure (ICP).

In this study, increased intracranial pressure was created in 4 female subjects through head down tilt, using an inversion table. Subjects were lowered in the table …

Analysis Of Breath-Holding Index As An Assessment Of Cerebrovascular Reactivity, Allison P. Porter, Madison Burger, Mohammed Alwatban, Benjamin Hage, Greg Bashford

UCARE: Research Products

Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is a key factor in regulating blood flow into the brain, and a marker for vascular disease. If the brain's regulatory system is not working, a patient may be in serious trouble. Testing of CVR is one method of assessing the brain's regulatory capabilities. Transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) is one tool to measure CVR. In this method, carbon dioxide in the blood is transiently increased (such as with the holding of breath), and the resulting blood flow in the brain is measured. In this study, we are going to measure the variability of the breathholding index.

Within …

Feasibility Of Using Raman-Based Techniques For Breast Cancer Detection, Sara Mollamohammada

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Breast cancer is one of the common types of cancer among women all over the world. Early diagnosis is an effective way that improve the treatment process and gives the patients a better chance of survival. Many of the patients infected by breast cancer choose breast conservation surgery (BCS). However, some of those will be subjected to mastectomy, and many will have tumor recurrence as there is no precise technique to show the tumor margins. Raman-based methods are powerful techniques with potential to rapidly differentiate normal from tumor tissues and provides a solution to detect tumor margin. This is because …

Applications Of Novel Mri Technologies In Tissue Engineering And Disease Diagnosis, Vahid Khalilzad-Sharghi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) are increasingly under investigation to explore their potential role in establishing effective evaluation methods for the procedure of tissue regeneration carried out in vitro, in vivo, and in disease diagnosis. To this end, there is a continuous pursuit of novel tools both in vitro and in vivo. For instance, there is a great need for the development and evaluation of an MR-compatible incubation system that enables simultaneous monitoring and culturing of cell and tissue constructs using MRI techniques. Such an imagingcompatible incubation system eliminates exposing the culture to the risks of …

Fluid Powered Miniature In Vivo Robots For Minimally Invasive Surgery (Mis), Abolfazl Pourghodrat

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Minimizing the invasiveness of surgery is believed to improve patient outcomes. Bleeding, infection, and pain are major concerns in surgery afflicting patients for decades. Minimally invasive techniques have come into play to reduce these concerns and smooth the evolution of abdominal surgery to a scarless process where nearly all surgeries can be performed without a skin incision. Technology continually advances the frontier of development of novel surgical devices to implement less invasive surgical techniques.

Fusion of robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has created new opportunities to develop diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Surgical robotics is advancing from externally actuated systems …

Application Of Limited Mixing In The Hele–Shaw Geometry In Fabrication Of Janus Hydrogels, Md Mahmudur Rahman

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

It is widely accepted that cells behave differently responding to the stiffness of their extracellular matrix (ECM). Such observations were made by culturing cells on hydrogel substrates of tunable stiffness. However, it was recently proposed that cells may sense how strongly they are tethered to ECM, not the local stiffness of ECM. To investigate both hypotheses, we developed a method to fabricate Janus polyacrylamide (PAAM) gels. We squeeze two drops of different concentrations in the Hele-Shaw geometry to generate radial Stokes flow. When the drops coalesce, limited mixing occurs at the interface due to the narrow confinement, and diffusion normal …

Implementation Of Magnetic Resonance Elastography For The Investigation Of Traumatic Brain Injuries, Thomas Boulet

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a potentially transformative imaging modality allowing local and non-invasive measurement of biological tissue mechanical properties. It uses a specific phase contrast MR pulse sequence to measure induced vibratory motion in soft material, from which material properties can be estimated. Compared to other imaging techniques, MRE is able to detect tissue pathology at early stages by quantifying the changes in tissue stiffness associated with diseases. In an effort to develop the technique and improve its capabilities, two inversion algorithms were written to evaluate viscoelastic properties from the measured displacements fields. The first one was based on …

Morphometric, Biochemical, And Raman Spctral Analyses Of Muscle Damage In Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease: Provising Objective Criteria For Diagnosis And Treatment Monitoring, Kim Cluff

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which affects approximately 10 million Americans, is characterized by atherosclerosis of the non-coronary arteries. PAD produces a progressive accumulation of ischemic injury to the limbs that is reflected in a gradual worsening in the myofiber morphology and oxidative damage in the gastrocnemius muscle. In this study, we evaluated the hypothesis that quantitative morphological and biochemical parameters of gastrocnemius myofibers change in a consistent manner during the progression of PAD, provide an objective grading of muscle degeneration in the ischemic limb, and correlate to clinical stage of PAD. Myofiber morphometrics were determined precisely with mathematical equations that …

Two-Dimensional Blood Flow Velocity Estimation Using Ultrasound Speckle Pattern Dependence On Scan Direction And Velocity, Tiantian Xu

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause death in the United States. Although emergency surgery and medicine can be used for cardiovascular disease treatment, the survivors will suffer for it afterwards. Ultrasound blood flow measurement provides a noninvasive way for cardiovascular diseases diagnosis. In this dissertation, three algorithms for blood flow velocity measurements were investigated and optimized. Feature tracking has been previously proposed for vector velocity measurement. In Chapter 3, the optimal amplitude and time thresholds for feature extraction were investigated to minimize flow estimate variance while providing sufficient spatial and temporal coverage of flow area. A new method of lateral …

Ultrasound Transient Shear Wave Elasticity Imaging For Tendon Tissue, Pengfei Song

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Degeneration of tendon tissue is a common cause of tendon dysfunction with the symptoms of repeated episodes of pain and palpable increase of tendon thickness. Tendon mechanical properties are directly related to its physiological composition and the structural organization of the interior collagen fibers which could be altered by tendon degeneration due to overuse or injury. Thus, measuring mechanical properties of tendon tissue may represent a quantitative measurement of pain, reduced function, and tissue health. Ultrasound elasticity imaging has been developed in the last two decades and has proved to be a promising tool for tissue elasticity imaging. To date, …