Biomedical Commons^™

The Resistive Barrier Discharge: A Brief Review Of The Device And Its Biomedical Applications, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper reviews the principles behind the design and operation of the resistive barrier discharge, a low temperature plasma source that operates at atmospheric pressure. One of the advantages of this plasma source is that it can be operated using either DC or AC high voltages. Plasma generated by the resistive barrier discharge has been used to efficiently inactivate pathogenic microorganisms and to destroy cancer cells. These biomedical applications of low temperature plasma are of great interest because in recent times bacteria developed increased resistance to antibiotics and because present cancer therapies often are accompanied by serious side effects. Low …

1995-2005: A Decade Of Innovation In Low Temperature Plasma And Its Applications, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Scientific breakthroughs tend to come in spurts when unique societal, economical, and political circumstances conspire (knowingly or unknowingly) and create an environment ripe for creativity. The field of low temperature plasma (LTP) recently experienced such an upheaval, which this paper attempts to relate in some details. There have been “roadmap” papers published before, which look towards the future of the field, but all roads start somewhere and even “new” roads are often paved over older roads that were discovered and traveled by early pioneers. With the sharp decrease in funding for fusion research in the USA in the early 1990s …

Generation Of Bipolar Nanosecond Pulses, Sambasiva Rao Rajulapati

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Bipolar pulse generation has been studied using transmission line technology, which was mainly used for monopolar pulse generation. In this thesis, low impedance, high current, nanosecond pulse generators were designed, constructed and tested. Five transmission lines were connected in parallel, so the impedance was 10 n. The transmission lines were switched by a spark gap switch operated in air. The closing of the switch creates a matched condition on one side of the transmission lines and a short circuit on the other side of the transmission lines. When the transmission lines are precharged, one of the two waves in opposite …

Subnanosecond Exposure Systems For Biological Studies, Jongbong Nah

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The research of bioelectrics has expanded to subnanosecond pulse region and entered a new domain of biophysics of cell interaction with ultra-short and intense electric fields. As subnanosecond pulses may be delivered by antennas to the human body and is very attractive to the medical community, the study of subnanosecond pulse effects calls for exposure systems for both cells and tissues. Two systems were designed in the scope of this thesis, used for cells and tissues respectively. The exposure system designed for cell exposure is a cuvette consisting of two parallel aluminum gaps. This cuvette is placed in a coaxial …

Scaffold Based In-Vitro Osteodistraction For Bone Tissue Engineering, Cesar Adrian Terrazas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Engineering of hard tissues such as bone is a challenge because of the limited ability of the body to heal large defects. Current treatment options, such as employing bone sections from the patient or a deceased donor have been utilized for some time now with various degrees of success. However, these methods still exhibit many limitations such as limited supply and the possibility of transmission of disease.

To address the many limitations of bone grafts, synthetic engineered substitutes have been developed and widely researched for nearly three decades. Generally termed scaffolds, these are matrices that serve the purpose of temporary …

Microfabrication Of An Optical Chamber For Exposing Living Cells To Pulsed Electric Fields, Saleh Sheikh

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

I have fabricated a chamber which enables the application of Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields (nsPEFs) to living cells while monitoring their real time fluorescence with an inverted microscope. The No. I thickness (150µm nominal) coverslip glass substrate used for fabrication allows the use of high numerical aperture oil immersion objectives for imaging intracellular organelles. Electrodes are fabricated by first evaporating a chromium adhesion layer, followed by a nickel seed layer. Subsequently, an ultra-thick positive photoresist is applied and patterned to create a 30µm thick electroplating mold. The electrodes are then electrodeposited into the mold from a nickel sulfamate plating bath. …

Time Domain Dielectric Spectroscopy Analysis Of Hl-60 Cell Suspensions After Microsecond And Submicrosecond Pulsed Electric Fields, Allen Laurence Garner

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Pulsed electric fields (PEF's) above a certain voltage threshold cause electroporation for microsecond pulses and intracellular effects for submicrosecond pulses. Models describing these effects often depend on the electrical properties of the cell, which are altered by the PEF. Time domain dielectric spectroscopy was used to provide data for these models and to measure changes in the conductivity of HL-60 cell suspensions due to single 50 μs and 10 ns PEF's of the same energy. For 1.1 kV/cm, 50 μs pulses, the conductivity rose within a minute after the pulse and dropped dramatically approximately forty minutes after the pulse. For …