Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation

Previous studies have investigated the head impact kinematics of purposeful heading in youth soccer; however, less than a third of all head injuries in youth soccer have been found to involve ball contact. The aim of the current study was to identity the head impact kinematics and exposure not associated with purposeful heading of the ball in male youth soccer. Headband-mounted sensors were used to monitor the head kinematics of male junior varsity and middle school teams during games. Video analysis of sensor-recorded events was used to code impact mechanism, surface and site...

Youth football players comprise almost 70% of the football playing population, and the ongoing development of these athletes makes the understanding of concussions and repetitive head impact exposure in this population of particular concern. The objective of this study was to determine how player position and coaching influence head impact exposure in youth football players while controlling for player age. This analysis focused on a cohort of 45 youth football players between the ages of 9 and 14 that had helmets instrumented with accelerometer arrays for at least two seasons...

Idiopathic toe walking is associated with lack of heel strike during the initial contact phase of a gait cycle. Idiopathic toe walking affects 5-12% of healthy children in the US. In the case of idiopathic toe walkers: typically, a child can heel-toe walk, but habitually walk on their toes. A corrective intervention is needed during the early age of a child. In this pilot study, we developed a wearable insole with tactile corrective feedback. A total of five subjects (13±4 years) participated in this study...

Idiopathic toe walking on the balls of the feet is commonly found in children. Many toddlers who are just beginning to walk show signs of toe walking, but when toe walking persists after two years of age, the child's risk of falling increases as well as the risk of other developmental delays. Idiopathic toe-walking is estimated to occur in 7 to 24% of children. In order to address the problem of toe walking and assess improvements due to intervention, one needs to identify heel-toe gait versus toe-toe gait in natural environments of idiopathic toe walkers...

The specific aim of this investigation was to investigate the effects of hydroxyapatite (HA) sintered at different temperatures on the proliferation, morphology, and cellular alterations of Embryonal Lung Fibroblasts (MRC-5) cells in culture. Microcrystals of HA were prepared by following standard laboratory protocols. The calcined HA was then placed on an automatic Tyler sieve stack to select for particles between 1-40 μm in size. The calcined material was sintered at 700, 1000, 1200 and 1300 °c for 24 hours...

Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR) is an important ecosystem in the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The GBNERR may be a potential source for contamination with anthropogenic bacterial pathogens that may play a significant role in the causation of waterborne human diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the interaction of physicochemical and microbiological water quality parameters at the GBNERR, determine quantitative levels and establish the potential for remediation of post-contamination of water and seafood by human fecal pollution from anthropogenic sources at the reserve...

Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR) is an important ecosystem in the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The GBNERR may be a potential source for contamination with anthropogenic bacterial pathogens that may play a significant role in the causation of waterborne human diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the interaction of physicochemical and microbiological water quality parameters at the GBNERR, determine quantitative levels and establish the potential for remediation of post-contamination of water and seafood by human fecal pollution from anthropogenic sources at the reserve...

In order to address concerns about head injury in youth sports, a number of youth football organizations have developed rules and recommendations surrounding the tackling form which should be used in order to reduce unnecessary head impact exposure. Reduction in injury has been suggested with these programs, but association between tackling form and head acceleration magnitude has not been studied previously. To address this knowledge gap, grading criteria were developed from multiple youth organizations' recommendations for a collision...

Static postural control testing is often conducted by clinicians and athletic trainers for use with athletes who have sustained a concussion. Dynamic postural control involves the body's response to perturbation of the center of mass and may offer additional insight that static testing cannot capture. The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and feasibility of a balance protocol consisting of both static and dynamic postural control assessments with a healthy, adult population. Subjects stood in both unipedal and bipedal stances on a force plate to capture quantitative data regarding the center of pressure over time...

Concussions occur in youth football with lower frequency than observed at higher levels of play, though the effect of repetitive subconcussive head impacts resulting from participation in youth football is unknown at this point. One measure shown to be affected by concussions is athlete postural control. The objective of this study was to compare performance on the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) and a force plate protocol at two time points within a cohort of healthy youth football players and healthy non-contact youth track or baseball athletes...

The compositional balance and distribution of trace metals/elements in various body tissues are essential key players in tissue and cellular homeostasis. Low Zn levels as well as overexpression of metalothioneins were implicated in the development and progression of various cancers including the prostate. Nonetheless, wider elemental profiles that relate cancer and normal phenotypes with regards to metal homeostasis were not well elucidated in the literature. Moreover, laboratory animals are currently used as accepted models for studying cancer but the level of their representation of actual cancer tissues was not clear...

Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR) is an important ecosystem in the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The GBNERR may be a potential source for contamination with anthropogenic bacterial pathogens that may play a significant role in the causation of waterborne human diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the interaction of physicochemical and microbiological water quality parameters at the GBNERR to determine quantitative levels and establish the potential for remediation of post-contamination of water and seafood by human fecal pollution from anthropogenic sources at the reserve...

The specific aim of this study was to assess, histopathologically, the seminiferous tubules area and germ layers upon the exposure to sustained delivery of testosterone (TE) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) through tricalcium phosphate lysine devices (TCPL). A total of 140 adult Male rats (280-320 gm) were randomly divided into four equal groups. Groups 1 and 2 animals were implanted with TCPL loaded with 40 mg TE and 40 mg DHT, respectively. Groups 3 and 4 animals served as a sham group (empty devices), and a control group...

Previous studies on lateral stepping gait have demonstrated decreased variability and also decreased involvement of central nervous system's active control in the direction of progression. This study sought to further explore this notion through the variability of stride interval time series (SIT) and signal magnitude difference time series (SMD) while forward and lateral walking using an inertial sensor mounted at the sternum. Additionally, this study also explored the effects of dual-tasking on forward and lateral walking variability...

Performance of secondary task i.e. dual task affects certain aspects of gait, but the relationship between gait variability and dual tasking is not well understood. This study evaluated the effects of the dual-task paradigm on measures of movement variability changes in two healthy age groups. Seven young (age 22.6±2.5 years, height 170.3±9.3 cm and weight 69.6±15.5 Kgs) and seven old participants (age 71.14±6.5 years, height 174.5±10.2 cm and weight 78.5±18.2 Kgs) were recruited for this study. Since cognitive task such as mental arithmetic tasks (for example counting backwards by subtracting three digits) are self-generated, and are performed with selected spontaneous rhythm, so are used as secondary task while walking...

Precise and reproducible feedback is important for studies on motor control, the adaptive responses to exercise training and the limits of human neuromuscular performance. For this purpose, a custom instrumentation array was previously developed to provide human subjects with visual feedback on their contractile durations and limb velocities during knee extension exercise. The array consisted of two columns, each with 14 high-visibility light emitting diodes. One array column provided the subject with the target cadence of position change while the complementary array provided an indication of the actual rate of displacement achieved by the subject...

Discriminating the two subtypes of tremor dominant (TD) and postural instability/gait difficulty (PIGD) in Parkinson's disease (PD) at early stage is highly valuable and crucial for progression treatment of disease for caregivers. However, there is no objective method or a subtype-specific biomarker yet available for identifying these two subtypes. A computational approach in frequency domain could be a good candidate to introduce biomarker since PD tremor had frequency range of 3-7 Hz. By using frequency component of the whole body Center Of Pressure (COP) signal, we propose a ratio between high and low frequency range...

Lower extremity fatigue has been associated with decline in postural stability, alteration of normal walking patterns and increased fall risk. Effects of lower extremity fatigue on amount of movement variability as assessed by linear variability such as standard deviation and root mean square is well known but there is lack of information about how fatigue influences nonlinear temporal structure of variability in healthy human gait. In this study ten subjects (5 males and 5 females) were asked to perform treadmill walking for three minutes with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor affixed at their trunk level, thereafter the participants conducted squatting exercises and fatigue was induced as per standard fatigue protocol...

The role of retinoic acid (All Trans Retinoic Acid; ATRA) in the development of hypervitaminosis A pathophysiology is not well understood or established in the literature. As well, the role of Citral (inhibitor of retinoid function; a non-toxic chemical that exists in two forms (diethyl; C1 or cis-trans dimethyl; C2).) in the reversal of pathophysiological implications is also not ascertained under an in vivo setting. Therefore, it is hypothesized that ovalbumin exposure will sensitize the body to supra-physiologic levels of retinoic acid leading to a negative pathophysiological impact and that Citrals 1 and 2 will reverse or ameliorate the related damage to the body's pathophysiology...

The paradoxical role of retinoic acid (All Trans Retinoic Acid; ATRA) in the development of allergic and/or inflammatory complications in contrast to a therapeutic modality for lung pathology is not well understood or established in the literature. As well, the role of Citral (inhibitor of retinoid function; a non-toxic chemical that exists in two forms (diethyl; C1 or cis-trans dimethyl; C2), in the reversal of retinoic acid, ovalbumin and allergic mold spore pathophysiology is also not well ascertained under an in vivo setting...