Rapid development of wireless communications has led to the excessive use of wireless equipments. The purpose of communication is achieved through the transmission and reception of electromagnetic waves by the wireless equipments. Living in the environment of massive electromagnetic exposure coming from these wireless equipments, the health issue is a growing concern among the people who use the equipments and also the general public. The GSM communication system is the most widely used segment of wireless communications currently in Taiwan. The user of the mobile terminal (handset) is in close proximity to the radiating antenna. Most of the EM radiation emitting from the antenna will pass through the body of the user and be absorbed by the human tissue. It is therefore important to consider possible health hazards due to this type of EM exposure. Among all the possible biological effects caused by EM exposure, the heating effect is the most significant and its influence on biological tissues is proven. Currently most countries require the handsets to be tested for SAR values before the handsets are ready for purchasing on the markets. SAR tests require the utilization of expensive measurement facilities. Moreover, even though the phantom used for SAR measurement is prepared according to standards, theoretically the phantom is still not identical to the anatomical constituents of the human head. Henceforth, it is necessary to investigate the field distribution inside the human head, using an anatomical model, due to the exposure of radiation coming from the handset antennas from the theoretical point of view. The whole human body is an inhomogeneous lossy dielectrics as far as EM wave propagation is concerned. This feature renders the problem easy to tackle using the FDTD numerical method. This thesis presents a method to build up a numerical human head model suitable for the FDTD analysis using data set from the ¡§visible human¡¨ project readily available from the internet. The thesis then investigates the field distribution inside the human head, under the exposure of the quarter-wavelength monopole antenna on a dielectric covered metal box. Temperature increases due to the absorption of EM energy by the human head will then be deducted from the bioheat equation.

In treating cancer, a primary consideration is the target specificity of the treatment. This is a measure of the treatment dose that the cancerous (target) tissue receives compared to the dose that healthy tissue receives. Nanoparticle (NP) based treatments offer many advantages for target specificity compared to other forms of treatment due to their ability to selectively target tumors. One benefit of using magnetic NPs is their ability to release heat, which can both sensitize tumors to other forms of treatment as well as damage the tumor. The work here aims to incorporate a broad range of relevant physics into a comprehensive model. NP aggregation is known to be a large source of uncertainty in these treatments, thus a framework has been developed that can incorporate the effects of aggregation on NP diffusion, NP heat release, temperature rise, and overall thermal damage. To quanitify thermal damage in both healthy tissue and tumor tissue, the Cumulative Equivalent Minutes at 43 textcelsius~model is used. The Pennes bioheat equation is used as the governing equation for the temperature rise and included in it is a source heating term due to the NPs. NP diffusion and aggregation are simulated via a random walk process, with a probability of aggregation determining if nearest neighbor particles aggregate at each time step. Additionally, models are developed that attempt to incorporate aggregation effects into NP heat dissipation, though each proves to only be accurate when there is little aggregation occurring. In this work, verification analyses are done for each of the above areas and, at minimum, qualitatively accurate results have been achieved. Verification results of this work show that aggregation can be neglected at concentrations on the order of $100~nM$ or less. This however only serves as a rough estimation and further work is needed to gain a better quantitative understanding of the effects of NP concentration on aggregation. Using this concentration as a limitation, results are presented for a variety of tumor sizes and concentration distributions. Because this work incorporates a variety of physics and numerical methods into a single encompassing model, depth and physical accuracy in each area (bio-heat transfer, diffusion via random walk, NP energy dissipation, and aggregation) have been somewhat limited. This does however provide a framework in which each of the above areas can be further developed and their effects examined in the overall course of treatment. / Master of Science

Hypothermia has been shown to provide protective benefits to the brain after head trauma. Current treatment methods employ full body hypothermia which can lead to further associated complications, such as a compromised immune system. Alternatively, cooling the brain individually can provide the same benefits whilst minimising the risks associated. Unfortunately, the feasibility of this is still uncertain due to the invasiveness of measuring cerebral temperatures directly and the unavailability of brain temperature maps. Mathematical modelling provides an important alternative avenue for predicting the outcome of hypothermic procedures, such as scalp cooling. However, these tend to rely on Pennes Bioheat Equation which simplifies the blood flow within the system as a single perfusion term. This removes any directional thermal advection which could play an important part in biological heat transfer. In this thesis, an alternative method is developed, tested, and proposed where the full cerebral circulatory system is modelled using vascular channels embedded in a porous tissue simulating the blood vessels and capillaries, respectively. This is dubbed the vascular porous (VaPor) method. This dissertation tests and discusses the feasibility of inducing hypothermia by cooling the scalp using the VaPor model. Initially, the blood vessels were modelled in 3D to fully capture the effects of flow, however, this was deemed computationally inefficient and difficult to manipulate so was subsequently replaced with a system of 1-Dimensional line segments. Temperatures produced from this method conform to expected ranges of values and agree with available data from studies in rat brains. It was observed that core brain temperatures can be impacted by scalp cooling but only with a large number of generated vessels. This is due to the tortuous nature of the vasculature which is not captured by the porous media alone. Various input parameters are also tested to ensure the validity of results from this model. One tested parameter that did not agree with in-vivo results was the measurement of tissue perfusion which appeared to be grossly exaggerated by the VaPor model, although conservation of mass was conserved at each stage. This was investigated further by simulating tracer transport in the cerebral domain in the same manner that in-vivo measurements use. While in-vivo measurements and the predictions by tracer transport produce perfusion values of the same order of magnitude, a full quantitative match cannot be expected because of the differences in the measurement techniques used. Various approximations that can be imposed to resolve this are discussed. The versatility of the VaPor model was explored by simulating a variety of applications relevant to cerebral cooling. The inclusion of counter-current flow within the porous domain showed similar results to trials performed with dense vascular trees. Trials on the scale of a neonatal brain showed that hypothermia could be achieved from scalp cooling alone contrary to previous models. The transient response of scalp cooling was explored as well as the thermal response after simulating an ischemic stroke. All results demonstrated that, due to the inclusion of directional flow, scalp cooling has a larger impact on cerebral temperatures than seen with previous bioheat models.

No description available.

The primary purpose of this work was to evaluate the capability of nanoparticles to transform electromagnetic energy at microwave frequencies into therapeutic heating. Targeted nanoparticles, in conjunction with microwave irradiation, can increase the temperatures of the targeted area over the peripheral region. Therefore, to become clinically viable, microwave absorbing nanoparticles must first be identified, and a system to monitor the treatment must be developed. In this study, ultrasound temperature imaging was used to monitor the temperature of deep lying structures. First, a material-dependent quantity to correlate the temperature induced changes in ultrasound images (i.e. apparent time shifts) to differential temperatures was gathered for a tissue-mimicking phantom, porcine longissimus dorsi muscle, and porcine fat. Then microwave nanoabsorbers were identified using an infrared radiometer. The determined nanoabsorbers were then injected into ex-vivo porcine longissimus dorsi muscle tissue. Ultrasound imaging frames were gathered during microwave treatment of the inoculated tissue. Finally, the ultrasound frames were analyzed using the correlation between temperature and apparent shifts in ultrasound for porcine muscle tissue. The outcome was depth-resolved temperature profiles of the ex-vivo porcine muscle during treatment. The results of this study show that magnetite is a microwave nanoabsorber that increases the targeted temperature of microwave hyperthermia treatments. Overall, there is clinical potential to use microwave nanoabsorbers to increase the efficiency of microwave hyperthermia treatments. / text

Scientific research in areas of physics, chemistry, and biology traditionally depends purely on experimental and theoretical methods. Recently numerical simulation is emerging as the third way of science discovery beyond the experimental and theoretical approaches. This work describes some general procedures in numerical computation, and presents several applications of numerical modeling in bioheat transfer and biomechanics, jet diffusion flame, and bio-molecular interactions of proteins in blood circulation. A three-dimensional (3D) multilayer model based on the skin physical structure is developed to investigate the transient thermal response of human skin subject to external heating. The temperature distribution of the skin is modeled by a bioheat transfer equation. Different from existing models, the current model includes water evaporation and diffusion, where the rate of water evaporation is determined based on the theory of laminar boundary layer. The time-dependent equation is discretized using the Crank-Nicolson scheme. The large sparse linear system resulted from discretizing the governing partial differential equation is solved by GMRES solver. The jet diffusion flame is simulated by fluid flow and chemical reaction. The second-order backward Euler scheme is applied for the time dependent Navier-Stokes equation. Central difference is used for diffusion terms to achieve better accuracy, and a monotonicity-preserving upwind difference is used for convective ones. The coupled nonlinear system is solved via the damped Newton's method. The Newton Jacobian matrix is formed numerically, and resulting linear system is ill-conditioned and is solved by Bi-CGSTAB with the Gauss-Seidel preconditioner. A novel convection-diffusion-reaction model is introduced to simulate fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) binding to cell surface molecules of receptor and heparan sulfate proteoglycan and MAP kinase signaling under flow condition. The model includes three parts: the flow of media using compressible Navier-Stokes equation, the transport of FGF-2 using convection-diffusion transport equation, and the local binding and signaling by chemical kinetics. The whole model consists of a set of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) and a set of coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). To solve the time-dependent PDE system we use second order implicit Euler method by finite volume discretization. The ODE system is stiff and is solved by an ODE solver VODE using backward differencing formulation (BDF). Findings from this study have implications with regard to regulation of heparin-binding growth factors in circulation.

O objetivo deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de um modelo matemático dos sistemas térmico e respiratório humanos que permita, a partir das condições do ambiente e do nível de atividade física, determinar a distribuição da temperatura e das concentrações de oxigênio e dióxido de carbono ao longo do corpo. No modelo representou-se o corpo humano dividido em quinze segmentos: cabeça, pescoço, tronco, braços, antebraços, mãos, coxas, pernas e pés. Cada segmento contém um compartimento arterial e um compartimento venoso, os quais representam os grandes vasos. O sangue nos pequenos vasos foi considerado juntamente com os tecidos músculo, gordura, pele, osso, cérebro, pulmão, coração e vísceras. Os gases O2 e CO2 são transportados pelo sangue e armazenados nos tecidos, dissolvidos e reagidos quimicamente. Nos tecidos ocorre metabolismo, que consome oxigênio e produz dióxido de carbono e calor. A pele troca calor com o ambiente por condução, convecção, radiação e evaporação. O trato respiratório o faz pela ventilação, por convecção e evaporação. Nos pulmões ocorre transferência de massa, por difusão entre um compartimento alveolar e diversos compartimentos capilares pulmonares. Para modelar o transporte de massa e o transporte de calor nos tecidos foram usadas duas formas distintas. No caso da transferência de massa, os tecidos foram representados por compartimentos nos segmentos modelados. No caso da transferência de calor, foram representados por camadas nos segmentos, sendo que estes ora têm a geometria de um cilindro (seção transversal circular), ora a de um paralelogramo no caso das mãos e dos pés. O sistema regulador do corpo humano foi divido em quatro formas de atuação: metabolismo, circulação, ventilação e sudorese. O metabolismo varia com o calafrio (que depende da temperatura corporal) e a atividade física; a circulação depende da concentração dos gases no corpo, da temperatura e do metabolismo; a ventilação, da concentração dos gases; a sudorese, da temperatura. Para solucionar as equações diferenciais do modelo foram usados métodos numéricos implícitos. As equações diferenciais parciais foram discretizadas pelo método dos volumes finitos. Comparações com trabalhos experimentais encontrados na literatura mostraram que o modelo é adequado para representar variações climáticas, exposições a quantidades reduzidas de oxigênio e elevadas de dióxido de carbono, e situações de exercício físico. Outros resultados gerados pelo modelo demonstraram que acidentes de descompressão tornam-se mais severos quando associados à queda da temperatura ambiente, por causa do aumento do consumo de O2 pelo calafrio. Este também aumenta o risco de uma intoxicação por CO2, devido ao aumento da sua produção. O modelo mostrou-se ainda capaz de prever diversas interações entre os sistemas térmico e respiratório, como a diminuição da temperatura corpórea pelo aumento da ventilação (que depende das concentrações de O2 e CO2), ou a diminuição da pressão parcial dos gases nos segmentos mais extremos, em consequência do efeito da temperatura na capacidade do sangue de transportá-los. / The aim of this work is the development of a mathematical model of the human body respiratory and thermal systems. The model allows the determination of the temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide distributions, depending on the ambient conditions and the physical activity level. The human body was divided into 15 segments: head, neck, trunk, arms, forearms, hands, thighs, legs and feet. Each segment contains an arterial and a venous compartment, representing the large vessels. The blood in the small vessels is considered together with the tissues muscle, fat, skin, bone, brain, lung, heart and viscera. The gases O2 and CO2 are transported by the blood and stored by the tissues dissolved and chemically reacted. Metabolism takes place in the tissues, where oxygen is consumed generating carbon dioxide and heat. The skin exchanges heat with the environment by conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation. The respiratory tract exchanges heat by convection and evaporation. In the lungs, mass transfer happens by diffusion between an alveolar compartment and several pulmonary capillaries compartments. Two different forms were used to model the transport of mass and heat in the tissues. For the mass transfer, the tissues were represented by compartments inside the segments. For the heat transfer, the tissues were represented by layers inside the segments, which have the geometry of a cylinder (circular cross-section) or a parallelogram hands and feet. The regulatory systems were divided into four mechanisms: metabolism, circulation, ventilation and sweating. The metabolism is modified by the shivering (which depends on the body temperature) and the physical activity; the circulation depends on the body gas concentrations, the temperature and the metabolism; the ventilation depends on the gas concentrations; the sweating depends on the temperature. Implicit methods were used to solve the differential equations. The discretization of the partial differential equations was obtained applying the finite volume method. Comparisons with experimental works found in literature show that the model is suitable to represent the exposure to cold and warm ambients, to low amounts of oxygen, to carbon dioxide, and physical activity. Other results of the developed model show that decompression accidents become more severe when associated to low ambient temperatures, because of the increase in the O2 consumption by shivering. The shivering also increases the danger of a CO2 intoxication, due to the increase of its production. The model showed as well the capacity to represent the several interactions between the thermal and respiratory systems, as the decrease of the body temperature because of the increase in the ventilation (which depends on the O2 and CO2 concentrations), or the decrease of the O2 and CO2 partial pressures in the more extreme segments, consequence of the temperature effect on their blood transport capacity.

O objetivo deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de um modelo matemático dos sistemas térmico e respiratório humanos que permita, a partir das condições do ambiente e do nível de atividade física, determinar a distribuição da temperatura e das concentrações de oxigênio e dióxido de carbono ao longo do corpo. No modelo representou-se o corpo humano dividido em quinze segmentos: cabeça, pescoço, tronco, braços, antebraços, mãos, coxas, pernas e pés. Cada segmento contém um compartimento arterial e um compartimento venoso, os quais representam os grandes vasos. O sangue nos pequenos vasos foi considerado juntamente com os tecidos músculo, gordura, pele, osso, cérebro, pulmão, coração e vísceras. Os gases O2 e CO2 são transportados pelo sangue e armazenados nos tecidos, dissolvidos e reagidos quimicamente. Nos tecidos ocorre metabolismo, que consome oxigênio e produz dióxido de carbono e calor. A pele troca calor com o ambiente por condução, convecção, radiação e evaporação. O trato respiratório o faz pela ventilação, por convecção e evaporação. Nos pulmões ocorre transferência de massa, por difusão entre um compartimento alveolar e diversos compartimentos capilares pulmonares. Para modelar o transporte de massa e o transporte de calor nos tecidos foram usadas duas formas distintas. No caso da transferência de massa, os tecidos foram representados por compartimentos nos segmentos modelados. No caso da transferência de calor, foram representados por camadas nos segmentos, sendo que estes ora têm a geometria de um cilindro (seção transversal circular), ora a de um paralelogramo no caso das mãos e dos pés. O sistema regulador do corpo humano foi divido em quatro formas de atuação: metabolismo, circulação, ventilação e sudorese. O metabolismo varia com o calafrio (que depende da temperatura corporal) e a atividade física; a circulação depende da concentração dos gases no corpo, da temperatura e do metabolismo; a ventilação, da concentração dos gases; a sudorese, da temperatura. Para solucionar as equações diferenciais do modelo foram usados métodos numéricos implícitos. As equações diferenciais parciais foram discretizadas pelo método dos volumes finitos. Comparações com trabalhos experimentais encontrados na literatura mostraram que o modelo é adequado para representar variações climáticas, exposições a quantidades reduzidas de oxigênio e elevadas de dióxido de carbono, e situações de exercício físico. Outros resultados gerados pelo modelo demonstraram que acidentes de descompressão tornam-se mais severos quando associados à queda da temperatura ambiente, por causa do aumento do consumo de O2 pelo calafrio. Este também aumenta o risco de uma intoxicação por CO2, devido ao aumento da sua produção. O modelo mostrou-se ainda capaz de prever diversas interações entre os sistemas térmico e respiratório, como a diminuição da temperatura corpórea pelo aumento da ventilação (que depende das concentrações de O2 e CO2), ou a diminuição da pressão parcial dos gases nos segmentos mais extremos, em consequência do efeito da temperatura na capacidade do sangue de transportá-los. / The aim of this work is the development of a mathematical model of the human body respiratory and thermal systems. The model allows the determination of the temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide distributions, depending on the ambient conditions and the physical activity level. The human body was divided into 15 segments: head, neck, trunk, arms, forearms, hands, thighs, legs and feet. Each segment contains an arterial and a venous compartment, representing the large vessels. The blood in the small vessels is considered together with the tissues muscle, fat, skin, bone, brain, lung, heart and viscera. The gases O2 and CO2 are transported by the blood and stored by the tissues dissolved and chemically reacted. Metabolism takes place in the tissues, where oxygen is consumed generating carbon dioxide and heat. The skin exchanges heat with the environment by conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation. The respiratory tract exchanges heat by convection and evaporation. In the lungs, mass transfer happens by diffusion between an alveolar compartment and several pulmonary capillaries compartments. Two different forms were used to model the transport of mass and heat in the tissues. For the mass transfer, the tissues were represented by compartments inside the segments. For the heat transfer, the tissues were represented by layers inside the segments, which have the geometry of a cylinder (circular cross-section) or a parallelogram hands and feet. The regulatory systems were divided into four mechanisms: metabolism, circulation, ventilation and sweating. The metabolism is modified by the shivering (which depends on the body temperature) and the physical activity; the circulation depends on the body gas concentrations, the temperature and the metabolism; the ventilation depends on the gas concentrations; the sweating depends on the temperature. Implicit methods were used to solve the differential equations. The discretization of the partial differential equations was obtained applying the finite volume method. Comparisons with experimental works found in literature show that the model is suitable to represent the exposure to cold and warm ambients, to low amounts of oxygen, to carbon dioxide, and physical activity. Other results of the developed model show that decompression accidents become more severe when associated to low ambient temperatures, because of the increase in the O2 consumption by shivering. The shivering also increases the danger of a CO2 intoxication, due to the increase of its production. The model showed as well the capacity to represent the several interactions between the thermal and respiratory systems, as the decrease of the body temperature because of the increase in the ventilation (which depends on the O2 and CO2 concentrations), or the decrease of the O2 and CO2 partial pressures in the more extreme segments, consequence of the temperature effect on their blood transport capacity.

O modelo do sistema térmico do corpo humano consegue representar as respostas térmicas e fisiológicas do corpo a diferentes condições ambientais. Diversos modelos foram propostos por pesquisadores durante algumas décadas. E mesmo os modelos mais utilizados e de pesquisadores conceituados não são robustos o suficiente para apresentar boas respostas para condições ambientais extremas. No presente trabalho, foram introduzidas melhorias no modelo disponível para que este possa melhor representar as reações do corpo em condições de climas tanto rigorosas quanto amenas. Dentre as principais modificações implementadas estão o detalhamento dos membros superiores do corpo, aplicação do efeito q10 e inclusão do modelo de duração da termogênese ativa. Deve-se ressaltar que o modelo é aplicável tanto para climas frios ou quentes. As melhorias devido às modificações aplicadas foram mais notáveis em condições de ambientes frios. As temperaturas das extremidades dos membros superiores tendem a se aproximar da temperatura ambiente. Esse comportamento térmico do corpo também é observado através dos dados experimentais disponíveis na literatura. / The thermal system model of human body is capable to estimate physical and physiological response of body at different environmental conditions. Several models were proposed by some researchers over the last 80 years. Most models are not robust, despite at current developments and studies in the area. In the present work, improvements were applied in the available model, this upgrade allows the human thermal system model respond better at both environmental conditions rigorous and moderate. Detailing the upper limbs vascular system, finger representation, q10 effect on metabolism rate and shivering endurance are among the major changes. The model works well for both environmental conditions, hot and cold. The difference between the proposed model and the available one is most notable at cold environmental condition. The temperature of fingers and hands tend to approach the environment temperature. This thermal behavior of human body is also observable in the experimental data of literature.

O modelo do sistema térmico do corpo humano consegue representar as respostas térmicas e fisiológicas do corpo a diferentes condições ambientais. Diversos modelos foram propostos por pesquisadores durante algumas décadas. E mesmo os modelos mais utilizados e de pesquisadores conceituados não são robustos o suficiente para apresentar boas respostas para condições ambientais extremas. No presente trabalho, foram introduzidas melhorias no modelo disponível para que este possa melhor representar as reações do corpo em condições de climas tanto rigorosas quanto amenas. Dentre as principais modificações implementadas estão o detalhamento dos membros superiores do corpo, aplicação do efeito q10 e inclusão do modelo de duração da termogênese ativa. Deve-se ressaltar que o modelo é aplicável tanto para climas frios ou quentes. As melhorias devido às modificações aplicadas foram mais notáveis em condições de ambientes frios. As temperaturas das extremidades dos membros superiores tendem a se aproximar da temperatura ambiente. Esse comportamento térmico do corpo também é observado através dos dados experimentais disponíveis na literatura. / The thermal system model of human body is capable to estimate physical and physiological response of body at different environmental conditions. Several models were proposed by some researchers over the last 80 years. Most models are not robust, despite at current developments and studies in the area. In the present work, improvements were applied in the available model, this upgrade allows the human thermal system model respond better at both environmental conditions rigorous and moderate. Detailing the upper limbs vascular system, finger representation, q10 effect on metabolism rate and shivering endurance are among the major changes. The model works well for both environmental conditions, hot and cold. The difference between the proposed model and the available one is most notable at cold environmental condition. The temperature of fingers and hands tend to approach the environment temperature. This thermal behavior of human body is also observable in the experimental data of literature.