Filtering by
- All Subjects: Biomedical
- All Subjects: Health
- Creators: Harrington Bioengineering Program
- Resource Type: Text
This thesis presents a preliminary determination and design of a control algorithm for an assistive ankle device developed by the ASU RISE Laboratory. The assistive ankle device functions by compressing a spring upon heel strike during gait, remaining compressed during mid-stance and then releasing upon initiation of heel-off. The relationship between surface electromyography and ground reactions forces were used for identification of user-initiated heel-off. The muscle activation of the tibialis anterior combined with the ground reaction forces of the heel pressure sensor generated potential features that will be utilized in the revised control algorithm for the assistive ankle device. Work on this project must proceed in order to test and validate the revised control algorithm to determine its accuracy and precision.
The project was aimed towards middle school and high school students, as this is the estimated level where they learn biology and chemistry—key subject material in biomedical engineering. The high school students were given presentations and activities related to biomedical engineering. Additionally, within classrooms, posters were presented to middle school students. The content of the posters were students of the biomedical engineering program at ASU, coming from different ethnic backgrounds to try and evoke within the middle school students a sense of their own identity as a biomedical engineer. To evaluate the impact these materials had on the students, a survey was distributed before the students’ exposure to the materials and after that assesses the students’ understanding of engineering at two different time points. A statistical analysis was conducted with Microsoft Excel to assess the influence of the activity and/or presentation on the students’ understanding of engineering.
Protein and gene circuit level synthetic bioengineering can require years to develop a single target. Phage assisted continuous evolution (PACE) is a powerful new tool for rapidly engineering new genes and proteins, but the method requires an automated cell culture system, making it inaccessible to non industrial research programs. Complex protein functions, like specific binding, require similarly dynamic PACE selection that can be alternatively induced or suppressed, with heat labile chemicals like tetracycline. Selection conditions must be controlled continuously over days, with adjustments made every few minutes. To make PACE experiments accessible to the broader community, we designed dedicated cell culture hardware and integrated optogenetically controlled plasmids. The low cost and open source platform allows a user to conduct PACE with continuous monitoring and precise control of evolution using light.
This study seeks to answer the research questions: What are the major risk factors associated with the lack of prenatal and neonatal healthcare in developing countries? What are potential routes of intervention (ROI) to help these countries? The goal is to analyze the risk factors and determine if there are any ROIs available to minimize potential incidents or accidents associated with complications of preterm birth.
A few potential risk factors include: poverty, a mother’s lack of education, a lack of professional visitation during pregnancy, having a short cervix, and routine use of Ultrasound. This research paper has identified that keeping ultrasound diagnostics to a minimum, seeking professional help during pregnancy, incorporating corticosteroids for preterm births, implementing Kangaroo Mother Care, and Cervical Cerclage are interventions that can reduce preterm births and the associated complications that come with it. We believe that further research, regarding compliance of each of these interventions, would show reduction of preterm births and low birth weight in developing countries.