Sharif Digital Repository

A Lab-On-a-Chip (LOC) is a device which can integrate one or many laboratory functions on a small chip with millimeters to few square centimeters in size. LOC is a subset of MEMS devices and known as “Micro Total Analysis Systems” (µTAS) as well. LOC technology is closely related to microfluidics which primarily describes the physics, manipulation and study of minute amount of fluids.In this research we tried to simulate the performance of a microfluidic device for counting blood cells to find main factors of it for design and manufacturing. This research has two main sections, hydrodynamics of fluid inside the microchannels and finding electrical performance of designed Coulter counter for... 

Hypertension precvalence is 24 and 20.5 percent in men and women, respectively. Continuous Blood Pressure monitoring can provide invaluable information about individuals’ health conditions. However, BP is conventionally measured using inconvenient cuff-based instruments, which prevents continuous BP monitoring. This work presents an efficient algorithm, based on the Pulse Arrival Time (PAT), extracted from Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Photopletysmograph (PPG), for the continuous and cuff-less estimation of the Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), and Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) values. Methods: The proposed framework estimates the BP values through processing vital... 

Continuous Blood Pressure monitoring can provide invaluable information about individuals’ health conditions. However, BP is conventionally measured using inconvenient cuff-based instruments, which prevents continuous BP monitoring. This work presents an efficient algorithm, based on the Pulse Arrival Time (PAT), for the continuous and cuff-less estimation of the Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), and Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) values. The proposed framework estimates the BP values through processing vital signals and extracting two types of features, which are based on either physiological parameters or whole-based representation of vital signals. Finally, the... 

Mathematical models are used for describing physical systems to make it possible to study and investigate the behavior of these systems and compare their performance and improve them. For this reason, a mathematical model for cardiovascular system and respiratory system is used to study how these two systems interact. The cardiovascular system model and the respiratory system model comprise four and two compartments, respectively. In fact, the combined model contains the left and right ventricles, body tissue, lung, systemic blood circulation, and pulmonary compartments. Heart rate and alveolar ventilation are assumed to be the quantities through them the central nervous system controls the... 

Trombosis formation in blood flow is a complex biochemical and very important process for body health which impedes blood loss by creating obstacles in the path of injured wall vessels. Although this phenomenon plays a very significant role in healthy body function, unfortunately it has been observed that it could cause diseases or even stroke. The reason is that thrombosis formation in blood and its detachment from the vessel wall can result in block body capillaries and lead a catastrophic event for the body. One of the factors which motivates blood for forming unnatural thrombosis is the vessel stenosis. It would ange in normal blood flow path and cause thrombosis formation as time is... 

This thesis activities, consists of three main parts. The first part is, manufacturing and optimization of the electrical part of blood glucose measurement devices, based on electrochemical sensors. In this part, design of blood glucose measurement systems based on two and three electrode electrochemical sensors are proceeded and the accuracy of the electrical block, is increased up to 1mg/dl according to sensor current range. The second part, is related to the design of different probes for blood electrical characteristics (impedance magnitude) measurements, at low frequencies. Measurements with these probes show, first the blood impedance magnitude range at low frequencies and moreover,... 

Human blood is a valuable and scarce product which is only produced by human body. There is no replaceable material for our blood and there has always been a constant need to donors and blood products in societies. Like every other product, blood has to be transfused to patients after it is donated and this process requires a complete and effective blood supply chain. Considering all properties, complexities and uncertainties of a blood supply chain, we need to develop stable methodologies in order to simplify decision making in blood supply chain. In this research, we develop a novel blood distribution system from a regional blood center (RBC) to its nearby hospitals. It helps RBCs plan the... 

Atherosclerosis is one of the most important and common causes of death in the world. Atherosclerosis typically affects medium and large arteries in the body and it leads to plaque formation in arterial wall. The first stage of plaque formation has been related to accumulation of low density lipoproteins in arterial wall.
The purpose of this research is presenting a four-layer model to describe the LDL transport in the arterial wall. The endothelium, intima, internal elastic lamina (IEL) and media are all treated as macroscopically homogeneous porous media and the volume-averaged porous media equations are employed to model various layers. The physiological parameters within the various... 

In medical science, preparing a high purity sample of certain kinds of cells plays an important role in studying the characteristics and functionality of cells, detecting in vitro harmful pathogens and helping to find ways of preventing and treating diseases that cause cellular disorders in the human body. The goal of this research is to improve the spiral microchannel with stair-like cross section in order to separate white blood cells from whole blood. First, the efficiency of this method was evaluated numerically, using a developed finite element model. Then, the desired microchannel mold was made using the micromiling method, and we fabricated the chip using soft lithography and pasting... 

Atherosclerosis, due to the penetration of low-density lipoprotein particles (LDL) into the arterial wall, is one of the most common and death-leading diseases in today's world. Due to its importance, extensive research has been conducted on the factors that affect this disease. In this thesis, a numerical study of the effects of Wall Shear Stress (WSS), non-Newtonian behavior of blood, different hematocrit values, and blood pressure on LDL permeation through the artery wall layers are investigated in a 4-layer wall model of a coronary bifurcation. To obtain the velocity and concentration fields in the domain, momentum, Brinkman, and mass transport equations are solved in the lumen and wall... 

Continuous and non-invasive blood pressure (BP) measurement systems generally utilize applanation tonometry and vascular unloading. Some of them satisfies the AAMI standards (|mean|<5, |SD|<8). Unfortunately they are hardly to be widely affordable due to the complicated mechanical structure and high production cost. Till now those devices are seldom being used in operation room and generally used in clinical researches. In 2000, a linear model using pulse transit time (PTT) to continuous and non-invasive blood pressure (BP) measurement was proposed. Due to the nonlinear performance parameters of the arteries, researchers have used nonlinear models to promote this method. Although the... 

Patients with a single ventricle disease who have undergone Fontan surgery have always had long-term complications. These complications include pulmonary artery stiffness and decreased ability to exercise. In fact, due to removal of the right ventricle from the circulatory system, blood pressure and pulsatility inflow to total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC) are reduced following this surgery. Creating waves (radial displacement) on the IVC (Inferior Vena Cava) wall can increase pulmonary flow pulsations. The Objective of this study is to test the effect of induced wave amplitude on the pulmonary flow pulsations at the rest condition. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations were... 

This research is focused on inventory management of a blood banking system by assuming deterministic demand and supply with the objective function of minimizing the summation of shortage and wastage. In this research, two integer programming models are developed to solve the problem. In the first model, it is assumed that the blood groups are independent, but in the second one, the transactions between different blood groups are allowed, as it is in reality. Then, to be more efficient and practical, a dynamic heuristic algorithm is developed. In addition, we compared the solution of heuristic algorithm with the exact solutions derived from integer programming models. The data used in this... 

This study proposes a deep reinforcement learning approach to solve a perishable inventory allocation problem in a two-echelon supply chain. The inventory allocation problem is studied considering the stochastic nature of demand and supply. The examined supply chain includes two retailers and one distribution center (DC) under a vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system. This research aims to minimize the wastages and shortages occurring at the retailer's sites in the examined supply chain. With regard to continuous action space in the considered inventory allocation problem, the Advantage Actor-Critic algorithm is implemented to solve the problem. Numerical experiments are implemented on... 

Blood is one of the most important biological organs. Red blood cell (RBC), as the most abundant cell of blood, plays an important role at life of the living bodies. Unique mechanical properties of RBCs enable them to pass through very narrow vessels. Any abnormality in these mechanical properties will disorder the function of the cell and many diseases affect these properties too. Studying the mechanical properties of RBCs is very importantin that it could result in a disease diagnostic method in a single-cell level. In this thesis we have tried to measure the viscoelastic properties of a single RBC by an optical trap through a passive method. This measurement is made through studying the... 

Blood is one of the most important fluids in the human body, consisting of three parts: red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. The mechanical properties of red blood cells are important in many diseases. The study of viscosity and other mechanical properties of red blood cells in recent years has attracted the attention of scientists in this field. The mechanical properties of red blood cells are related to the outer membrane and its cytoskeleton, and the study of these components can predict the behavior of red blood cells in diseases. The thyroid gland is located in front of the neck and secretes hormones that control many chemical processes in different parts of the body.... 

Since coronary artery diseases are increasing every day, simulation of blood flow in blood vessels and their stenosis is one of the most important topics nowadays. Many efforts have been made to achieve numerical simulations using different methods such as Finite-Difference. In this thesis, an SPH method is used to simulate pulsatile blood flow in arteries. The weakly compressible algorithm consists of two steps of prediction and correction. In the prediction step, the velocity field is integrated forward in time without enforcing incompressibility. The correction step consists of enforcing incompressibility by solving the pressure Poisson equation which creates a trade-off between the... 

Red blood cells are one of the most important parts of blood and their mechanical properties are so important in some diseases. Red blood cell is mostly consisted of membrane, cell skeleton, and cytoplasm which contains hemoglobin proteins. Studying these properties separately not only could give us pieces of information about cell mechanics, but also reveals a way to predict their behavior after illnesses. Optical tweezers as a tool, which can produce and measure Piconewton to Nanonewton forces, has been interesting in red blood cell parts' studying. In this thesis, at first hemoglobin is taken out gradually by using Saponin (which is enable to make some pores in the membrane) and the... 

Constant drilling in the shale formation causes many problems such as shale swelling and well instability. Annually many costs are spent dealing with these problems in the drilling industry. Many factors can affect this issue. The most important factor is the type of drilling fluid and its additives. The use of oil-based mud is the best option to deal with the clays instability but, due to environmental problems resulting from OBM, their use has been banned in most parts of the world. Therefore, the water-based mud is the only option for the oil industry that can modify its property by use of additives. In this study, the muds contain Nano silica have been introduced. Silicate as shale... 

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction, as one of the most important steps in modern molecular diagnostics, is the process by which DNA is separated from intracellular materials like proteins, membranes, and other materials contained in the cell. Microfluidic technology enables sophisticated, time-consuming and costly experiments with minimal use of raw materials, time and cost and acceptable accuracy. The predominant advantages of centrifugal microfluidic systems are utilizing centrifugal force to generate propulsion without the need for a pump, and eliminating the need for experts to run the system. Various fluidic operations such as valving, mixing, metering, heating, and sample...