Machine Anaylsis Diagram Part 2 / Paper

Hey!
So after meeting with my TA today, I realized that my diagram for the AbioCor replacement heart was actually not as bad as I thought it was! I was told to put more properties about what is being transferred to each component and what controls the transfers; this was only about two or three items though. On my own, however, I realized that I made a mistake in my diagram. For some reason, I did not connect a power source to a component, which is very important if I say so myself, and I did not realize that there were actually two external sources of power instead of one (a portable source as well as a stationary source). Luckily, I had some free time today to fix my diagram. The only main thing left to do with it is color code it; I want to color code it to show that
1) the internal battery works only when no external power source is used
2) only the patient-carried electronics (PCE), the portable power source, OR the console, the stationary power source, powers the replacement heart system at a time.

Although I did initially fear making this diagram, I feel that it has greatly improved my understanding of the replacement heart system; I now feel better prepared to write a paper about how the replacement heart works than I did even only a week ago. I know that was the point of the assignment, but only now do I see how truly valuable it is; by making the diagram, I was able to wrap my head around a daunting and interconnected system in order to simplify it.

Writing the research paper, now, does not look as foreboding as it once did; if I follow the diagram in a logical sequence, I should not encounter any major problems. Writing should flow naturally since I already have a pretty solid idea of the workings of the heart among the individual components. The one challenge that I do foresee is actually trying to convey my understanding of the heart to my audience; for some reason, I have a hard time trying to explain things to people, whether it be calculus or even a joke. My mom always tells me I could not be a teacher because I have no clue how to even begin presenting a topic. Hopefully this flaw does not pervade into my paper; I simply need to pay careful attention to make sure to explain everything and not leave questions or holes in my paper.

Research paper status is soon to come!

Machine Diagram

Hey!
So I started to make my machine diagram for the AbioCor Replacement Heart, I realized that there were more than just four components of the machine; I think the number four stuck in my head because I saw a diagram of the device implanted in the body, and only four components were visible. The diagram I remember seeing is the one below from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School website.Before I made my diagram, I had to use some of my resources to find out exactly how each component interacted; that is also when I found out that more components existed. So the components of this replacement heart include:
- thoracic unit
- implanted TET (transcutaneious energy transfer)
- implanted battery
- implanted controller
as well as
- external TET (transcutaneious energy transfer)
- external console with monitor
- patient-carried electronics (PCE),
which are not pictured in the diagram.

The trouble that I am encountering while making this diagram is that most of my components transfer energy in the form of electricity. Also, this device is unique in that no wires pierce the skin; this means that power is transferred across skin. Another potential problem is that the internal battery only runs when the external battery does not; I do not know exactly how to indicate that on my diagram.

It is time for me to go and work out the minor details of this diagram, which is already looking very complex and congested simply because of all the electricity transfer between components. I just need to keep tweaking with it to make it sure it is easy to follow!

Research!!

Hey!
So last week I found many journal articles about the AbioCor Replacement Heart; these journal articles talked about a variety of aspects of the heart including how it functions, what its main components are, and how successful this heart is in the human body. I found these sources using Penn library resources; it was actually very helpful to be able to read journal articles without paying for them since Penn already purchased them for students to use. I especially found it helpful that I could still google (I used google scholar) and still know that my sources are reliable; I knew what sources were reliable because the link "Penn Text" would appear next to any search result that was reliable. Even with this feature, I still had to be careful when choosing sources; for example, I did not want to solely have information provided by the manufacturer of the heart. Also, when finding sources, I made it a point to check if that article cited any sources and where they came from; not only does this help show that the article is reliable, it is also helpful to follow those sources. By following those sources, I can see exactly how the author of the journal article was interpreting the information.

Some sources of information for my research paper came from the following places:
- The AbioMed website (manufacturer website)
- ASAIO Journal
- Scientific American
- Texas Heart Institute Journal
- The Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing

Since I am researching a biomedical device, the minimum number of sources that I need for the research paper are five journal articles and one article from the manufacturer. This is simply the minimum; it is always better to have a lot of information. I can also use magazines as sources, but they do not count as one of my journal articles obviously.

The hardest part of writing a research paper, in my opinion, is making sense of all the information gathered; I find it difficult to make sense of all the statistics and different opinions about a topic that are available. In order for me to write a good research paper, I need to organize my sources and glean what is the most important idea or message from each one.

The hardest part of this assignment, in my opinion, is making the machine diagram for my device. My device has multiple parts, multiple systems, and multiple functions, which makes making my diagram a bit of a challenge for me!

Diagram information is soon to come!

Artificial Heart

Hey!
So after some thinking, I have decided to write my research paper and create my diagram for the entire system for the artificial heart, not just the heart portion of the system. The AbioCor Replacement Heart is made up of many components, such as the battery pack. I decided to focus on the entire system of the replacement heart, not simply the heart component, because every component of the system is needed in order for the system to function the way in which it is intended. For example, without the battery pack, the heart component would not be able to pump blood.

My main question to be answered in my research paper is going to be "How does the AbioCor Replacement Heart function in the human body?"

Since I finally picked a research topic and decided on the research question, it is now time to narrow down the research materials and sources that I currently have and possibly find more; the more research I have, the better my research paper will be!

New Research Topic

Hey!
So after thinking about my research topic some more, I realized trying to make a machine diagram of a artificial sweetener molecule would be a little challenging and involve a lot of biochemistry. After talking to a friend from Atlanta whose girlfriend is a bioengineer at Northwestern, I am changing my research topic to artificial hearts. More specifically, I am focusing on the newest artificial heart, AbioCor Replacement Heart manufactured by Abiomed. I started becoming interested in this topic after my friend started talking about it for an hour; I honestly don't remember what he said, but I do remember that it was interesting.

Tomorrow, I have to meet with my TA to talk about my focus for the research paper as well as present to him reliable sources that I am going to use in my paper. We need at least 6 sources from scientific journal and one of those sources could be a manufacture website if our topic is a medical device. After I find some reliable sources, I will post them here; I also should start to think about in what direction I am going to create my engineering diagram.

Research Topic

Hey!
Soon, we are going to have to write a research paper answering a scientific question that we have; we are not to write about a medical device or how one works. For example, we cannot write a paper answering the question "how does a artificial heart work?" Within the first ten seconds of being told this assignment, I immediately thought of artificial sweeteners and their danger. The reason that this was the first topic that popped into my mind was because I am constantly told (almost every day, if not twice a day) that artificial sweeteners, such as Splenda, are bad for you. I really want to know what exactly is the danger involved with them and why this danger exists; I hate simply being told that is something is "bad" or "good" without an explanation. I will honestly admit to not bothering to take a few minutes and actually google this topic; I felt like it wasn't the most effective use of my time especially when I had hours upon hours of physics, math, and chemistry homework piling up. This is now the perfect opportunity to learn something new about artificial sweeteners, which I am very interested in learning about. So, as of today, my question for my research topic is (or something along the lines of):

"If artificial sweeteners are dangerous, what chemical components of them make them dangerous? Are certain artificial sweeteners more dangerous than others?"

Well that question/questions obviously needs a little bit of tweaking, but this is the direction that I am currently heading in terms of research paper topics :)

"Thing" Presentation

Hey!
So on Thursday in recitation, each student presented a short 2-minute presentation describing his or her "thing," three length scales, and comparisons to other objects. It's hard giving a two-minute presentation; I was so caught up in making sure that I remembered to say everything that I wanted to that I didn't even notice my 30-second warning! As I was writing my presentation, I came up with new comparisons for comparing my bookstore to the brain; I'll post what I said during my 2-minute presentation (give or take a few phrases).

"I chose to analyze the Penn bookstore. I chose it mainly because of the way in which its primary functions compare to the functions of the brain, rather than because its substructures look like something else (it's physical structures are not that interesting). To break the bookstore down, I chose three lengths: the meter, the centimeter, and the millimeters. Compared to the structure of the brain, the wall (measured in meters), is like the skull - it protects all the information and valuables on the inside of it. The book (measured in centimeters), is like a section of the brain. For example, if wanted to learn about American history, you would find an American history book just like when you want to remember something, the place were memories are stored in the brain is needed. The word (measured in millimeters), can be compared to a neuron in the brain; it is a very specific piece of information which carries that piece of information from one thing to another. For example, a word can carry the author's name from the front of the book to the reader. Another similarity between the bookstore and the brain is that both structures are sometimes taken for granted. For example, it would be really annoying if the bookstore wasn't there to get Penn apparel, course books, or Starbucks coffee. Also, think about how different life would be if you had a different brain; we all should learn to never take things for granted no matter how simple they may seem. So even though the bookstore may be just a building enclosing books you don't want to read, it is the "brain" of campus unique to Penn. Next time you enter it, think "I'm in a brain" - but don't say that out loud!"

The Penn Bookstore

Hey!
So, as promised, I am going to describe my structure, the Penn bookstore.

The Penn Bookstore
The Pen bookstore is located off Walnut and 36th Streets in the University City section of Philadelphia. It serves as the main place for students to purchase course books, recreational reads, and Penn apparel. Students can also purchase school supplies, things for their dorms, and music and computer accessories; with the exception of the computers themselves, everything else is a little expensive (I guess we are paying for convenience). Almost every person at Penn has been in the book store or at least passed by it at some point; it is almost something we take for granted in having. For example, if we did not have this bookstore on campus, it would be very time consuming and unpleasant to go to buy our required books at some other store in Philadelphia. I chose to analyze the bookstore for exactly this reason; the bookstore is an everyday object, in a sense, but it make everyone's live easier whether he or she realizes it or not.

Just like I said in an older post, I chose to analyze the bookstore over three length scales: the meter, the centimeter, and the the millimeter. However, I have changed my mind over what substructures I am analyzing; I analyzed the length of the bookstore, the length of one book in the book in the window, and the length of one word on the book. I chose to change my substructures because it better reflects the three different length scales and it was easier to compare the bookstore to other structures. (I also should mention that I really chose the bookstore because of the way it's functions can compare to the functions of other structures; I really didn't think it would physically look like anything else in particular before I started doing this assignment).

Meter: I did not actually measure the length of the bookstore, but I estimated the length of one of the outside walls (the one facing Walnut street). I estimated the length of the wall to be about 30 meters.
Centimeter: I measured the length of the book in the window to be about 28 centimeters.
Millimeter: I measure the length of a randomly chosen word on the cover to be about 25 millimeters.
(these measurements are not very accurate, they are more like estimates to show the different scales of length!)

After measuring each substructure of my overall structure, I started to think about how each substructure related to another structure in the world around us.
1) For the wall, I thought it was similar to the structure of other walls on other buildings around campus and in the city; if one only saw a picture of the wall (without any banners or signs), he or she would find it find it very difficult to pinpoint exactly what building that wall is a part of. All the walls of buildings (for the most part - there is some interesting architecture out there) are perpendicular to the ground, are as tall as the height of the building, and are strong enough to prevent people from breaking into the them. Also, all walls have to be strong enough to support the massive weight of the building. Looking at it from a different perspective, the wall, with windows, sort of looks like those little square pretzels with holes; the windows are the holes in the pretzels. Also, the wall sort of looks like a railroad line turned on its side; the spaces in the railroad line are like the windows.
2) For the book, I thought it was similar to the structure of a cereal box; if one did not know that a book opened, it would look very similar to a cereal box in shape. I feel this is a little exaggerated, but I feel it can apply to engineers figuring out structures of complicated, unknown objects. For example, if an engineer saw a picture something that looked like ball, for example, he or she would assume that it functioned just like any ordinary ball - it would bounce and keep its shape. Without further examination, this engineer would know learn that this structure does not, in fact, function as a normal ball, but, for example, more of a dense block that is hard to move let alone bounce.
3) For the word, I thought it was similar to a parasite; it needs the book to "survive" or else it would be a blotch of ink lost in the world. The word is also similar to a parasite because it does not harm the book; both objects are in a sort of symbiotic relationship with each other. The book needs the word in order for people to know what type of book it, and the word needs the book or else it could not a word anymore. I also thought that the word was similar to the letters in an alphabet soup; if one did not know that the structure was unchanging, he or she would think that the word was fluid in the book and that the position of the letters could change over time.

After analyzing the bookstore for similar structures (which was very hard I might add), I though about how its functions are similar to other functions (which was the foremost reason for why I chose to analyze the bookstore in the first place).
The bookstore's functions are similar to the functions of the brain! Both the bookstore and the brain hold A LOT of information, for example. The bookstore holds thousands of books with a variety of information, fascinating novels, and entertainment materials. The brain holds so much information that researchers and scientists still do not know exactly how it is mapped out and interconnected among all its parts. Both the bookstore and the brain are there to help people; neither the brain nor the bookstore is there simply to look pretty or take up space. The bookstore, I feel, is somewhat taken for granted by students and factories just as the brain is; I feel that people do not realize how important something is until they do not have. For example, many students would not stop on a day to day basis and thank someone for giving them the brain that they have unless they saw someone who is struggling with brain damage or another neurological problem. I feel that this is also true of the bookstore on a much smaller scale; people would be very upset, and perhaps angry, if the bookstore closed and moved somewhere because now the distance to get books at the new store would be greatly increased, it would take longer to get something simple (such as chemistry lab manual), and it may not include a Starbucks, which is vital to some people's lives. The bookstore also functions like the candy section in a supermarket - the Penn sweatshirts and T-shirts being the candy. People flock to the bookstore to buy Penn apparel even though the bookstore's main purpose is to sell course books for courses. In a supermarket, some people will flock to the candy and junk food sections even though that is not the reason why the supermarket is opened. The brand new sweatshirts and the crisp notebooks are the chocolate and sugar that draw people into the store - not the idea of spending $300 on a chemistry textbook.

So that is the Penn bookstore compared to (really) random objects that have, in my opinion, similar structures or functions of the store. I feel that this exercise was a good way to begin to think like a engineer; I realized that one cannot look at one snapshot of an object (especially an unknown one) and begin to accurately describe its exact function. That one snapshot is only one second in time and the object could have changed shaped or position because one even begins to even analyze the first picture. This exercise also showed my that thinking like an engineer required out-of-the-box thinking in some respects; this is fine with me, I like being the first one to think of something new or find a brand new and creative way of looking at something that is not new.

Analyzing my "thing"

Hey!
So I think I am going to analyze the bookstore on Penn's campus. I still do not think that I am 100% percent confident in doing this assignment correctly (more like 98%). For this assignment, we are to analyze our "thing" on Penn's campus over three length scales in order for us to take a complicated structure and break it down into smaller structures in order for us to better understand it. This relates to bioengineering because many of the structures that bioengineers work with - cells, muscles, tissues, organs - have complicated structures upon first glance but can be broken down into substructures in order to be understood on a substructure by substructure basis. The second part of this assignment is to find other structures, whether natural or man-made, that are similar to the substructures of our "thing." For example, in lecture, we saw that the structures of tree branches and riverbeds were similar to the structure of blood vessels in the human body; all threes structures were branching and intertwined. The similarities between structures can be in both the physical sense and the functional sense. For example, the picture of the tree branches looked similar to the picture of the blood vessels <-- physical; the tree branches carry nutrients and needed material throughout the tree just like blood vessels carry nutrients and needed materials to the body <--functional.

Structure: Penn Bookstore
Length scales:
meter - dimensions of the store
meter/centimeter - dimensions of a window
centimeter/millimeter - dimensions of a book in the window

That is all I have so far! I'll post more about my process for choosing and analyzing the bookstore (including pictures!) and how my structure can be related to other ones. Hint: brain.

Abstract v. the Concrete

Hey!
So on Thursday, we examined abstract ideas and thinking with concrete ideas and thinking. The way we modeled this was by drawing. To model the concrete, we drew objects with looking at the sheet of paper; my drawing of a water bottle, for example, was very disjointed to say the least. (I will post the pictures of both my water bottle and my notebook shortly, so you can see what I mean).To model the abstract, we were told to make a diagram of all the components that make up a bike; this was more difficult because we had to picture a bike in our head as well as what parts made it up. I thought this activity was very beneficial to me because it gave me a better understanding of how engineers work in the concrete world but yet think in the abstract one; engineers need to imagine how components of an object will work before they can design something to do a specific task. Also, this activity showed me that someone cannot rely only on either the abstract or the concrete; both "worlds" are interconnected by some idea, process, or part. This activity was also a good transition exercise for our next activity in which we are to find something on Penn's campus and analyze its structure over three lengths and compare to some other structure, whether natural or man-made. I will let you know of what my "thing" to be analyzed is going to be after I make up my mind (I am still slightly confused about what sort of "thing" we are to analyze and exactly how we are to analyze it).