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Medicine and Health Sciences Commons

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Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering

Dissertations (1934 -)

2017

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Muscle Coordination Contributes To Function After Stroke; Proprioception Contributes To Control Of Posture, Movement, Maria Bengtson Oct 2017

Muscle Coordination Contributes To Function After Stroke; Proprioception Contributes To Control Of Posture, Movement, Maria Bengtson

Dissertations (1934 -)

More than half of stroke survivors experience persistent upper extremity motor impairments that can negatively impact quality of life and independence. Effective use of the upper extremity requires coordination of agonist/antagonist muscle pairs, as well as coordination of multiple control actions for stabilizing and moving the arm. In this dissertation, I present three studies in which I recorded isometric torque production, single joint movement and stabilization, and clinical measures of function and impairments after stroke to evaluate the extent to which changes in coordination of agonist/antagonist muscles and of sequential control actions contribute to deficits after stroke. In Aim 1, …


Motion Artifact Evaluation Of Coronary Ct Angiography Images, Hongfeng Ma Oct 2017

Motion Artifact Evaluation Of Coronary Ct Angiography Images, Hongfeng Ma

Dissertations (1934 -)

The objective of this dissertation was to develop and validate an automated algorithm to quantify motion artifact level on coronary CT angiography (CCTA) images. Unlike existing motion artifact reduction techniques that evaluate the relative level of motion artifacts within one exam, this dissertation aims to quantify the absolute level of motion artifacts across exams from varying patients. The ability to quantify absolute motion artifact level enables several potential applications, for example, assessing and comparing two motion artifact reduction techniques. This dissertation includes three specific aims. Aim 1 investigated the absolute motion artifact quantification effectiveness of six motion artifact metrics using …


Markerless Kinematics Of Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Mobility, Jacob Robert Rammer Jul 2017

Markerless Kinematics Of Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Mobility, Jacob Robert Rammer

Dissertations (1934 -)

Pediatric manual wheelchair users face substantial risk of orthopaedic injury to the upper extremities, particularly the shoulders, during transition to wheelchair use and during growth and development. Propulsion strategy can influence mobility efficiency, activity participation, and quality of life. The current forefront of wheelchair biomechanics research includes translating findings from adult to pediatric populations, improving the quality and efficiency of care under constrained clinical funding, and understanding injury mechanisms and risk factors. Typically, clinicians evaluate wheelchair mobility using marker-based motion capture and instrumentation systems that are precise and accurate but also time-consuming, inconvenient, and expensive for repeated assessments. There is …