Additional information
by Douglas Christensen (Author)
Intended as an introduction to the field of biomedical engineering, this book covers the topics of biomechanics (Part I) and bioelectricity (Part II). Each chapter emphasizes a fundamental principle or law, such as Darcy's Law, Poiseuille's Law, Hooke's Law, Starling's Law, levers, and work in the area of fluid, solid, and cardiovascular biomechanics. In addition, electrical laws and analysis tools are introduced, including Ohm's Law, Kirchhoff's Laws, Coulomb's Law, capacitors and the fluid/electrical analogy. Culminating the electrical portion are chapters covering Nernst and membrane potentials and Fourier transforms. Examples are solved throughout the book and problems with answers are given at the end of each chapter. A semester-long Major Project that models the human systemic cardiovascular system, utilizing both a Matlab numerical simulation and an electrical analog circuit, ties many of the book's concepts together. Table of Contents: Basic Concepts / Darcy's Law / Poiseuille's Law: Pressure-Driven Flow Through Tubes / Hooke's Law: Elasticity of Tissues and Compliant Vessels / Starling's Law of the Heart, Windkessel Elements and Volume / Euler's Method and First-Order Time Constants / Muscle, Leverage, Work, Energy and Power
Author Biography
Douglas A. Christensen received the B.S.E.E. degree from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, in 1962, the M.S. degree from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1963, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in 1967. From 1972 to 1974, he held a special National Institute of Health (NIH) Postdoctorate position in biomedical engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has been a Faculty Member at the University of Utah since 1971. He currently holds a joint appointment as Professor of bioengineering and Professor of electrical engineering. He is the author of Ultrasonic Bioinstrumentation (New York: Wiley, 1988) and coauthored Basic Introduction to Bioelectromagnetics (Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 1999). His major research interests are in the area of waves in biological sensing, including optical biosensors, fluorescent waveguiding immunosensors, numerical modeling of optical waveguides and near-field optical effects, and ultrasonic bioinstrumentation.
