Barrett

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Filtering by

Clear all filters

Improving Medical Aerosols: An exploration of nebulous discharge

Description
Improving medical aerosols is the multifaceted objective that is the overarching theme of this work. This thesis is the culmination of many hours of academic research. It details the current mechanical and physiological obstacles of state of the art drug inhalation technology, as well as provides a detailed guide of…

Improving medical aerosols is the multifaceted objective that is the overarching theme of this work. This thesis is the culmination of many hours of academic research. It details the current mechanical and physiological obstacles of state of the art drug inhalation technology, as well as provides a detailed guide of the experimental set up, procedure, analysis and background for the charge neutralization experiments performed by the author. The findings of this research are that inhalation devices need to become personalized; meaning adjustable flow rates, particle sizes, and charge levels. To improve the efficiency of lung deposition they could use MRI to take advantage of 3D modeling software to make transport models of an individual patient's lungs. This model would allow an engineer to calculate the air velocity in each passage of the respiratory system and would account for any pulmonary obstructions that would completely alter the deposition pattern from the average healthy patient. With the velocity profile of the lung a doctor could formulate an aerosol with the perfect attributed for the most targeted delivery. For the experiments performed in this work the following results were obtained. The ionization of air by polonium 210 alpha particles is dependent on the distance from the alpha emitting source and the strength of the electric field. Furthermore discharge of aerosol droplets is possible through volume conduction however the mass of the polonium 210 isotope must be proportional to the ionization current demand.
ContributorsKotin, Matthew Aaron (Author) / Towe, Bruce (Thesis director) / Caplan, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
135698-Thumbnail Image.png

Modeling SDF-1α Chemotactic Gradient Formation After Traumatic Brain Injury

Description
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of injury related death in the United States. The complexity of the injury environment that follows TBI creates an incomplete understanding of all the mechanisms in place to regulate chemotactic responses to TBI. The goal of this project was to develop a…

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of injury related death in the United States. The complexity of the injury environment that follows TBI creates an incomplete understanding of all the mechanisms in place to regulate chemotactic responses to TBI. The goal of this project was to develop a predictive in silco model using diffusion and autocrine/paracrine signaling specific to stromal cell derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) gradient formation after TBI and compare this model with in vivo experimental data. A COMSOL model using Fickian diffusion and autocrine/paracrine reaction terms was generated to predict the gradient formation observed in vivo at three physiologically relevant time points (1, 3, and 7 days). In vivo data was gathered and analyzed via immunohistochemistry and MATLAB. The spatial distribution of SDF-1α concentration in vivo more consistently demonstrated patterns similar to the in silico model dependent on both diffusion and autocrine/paracrine reaction terms rather than diffusion alone. The temporal distribution of these same results demonstrated degradation of SDF-1α at too rapid a rate, compared to the in vivo results. To account for differences in behavior observed in vivo, reaction terms and constants of 1st-order reaction rates must be modulated to better reflect the results observed in vivo. These results from both the in silico model and in vivo data support the hypothesis that SDF-1α gradient formation after TBI depends on more than diffusion alone. Future work will focus on improving the model with constants that are specific to SDF-1α as well as testing methods to better control the degradation of SDF-1α.
ContributorsFreeman, Sabrina Louise (Author) / Stabenfeldt, Sarah (Thesis director) / Caplan, Michael (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05