Purpose:
Current treatment of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) involves cerebral shunt placement or an invasive brain surgery. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) applied to the ...brains of pediatric patients presents an opportunity to treat IVH in a noninvasive manner, termed “incision-less surgery.” Current clinical and research focused ultrasound systems lack the capability to perform neonatal transcranial surgeries due to either range of motion or dexterity requirements. A novel robotic system is proposed to position a focused ultrasound transducer accurately above the head of a neonatal patient inside an MRI machine to deliver the therapy.
Methods:
A clinical Philips Sonalleve MRgFUS system was expanded to perform transcranial treatment. A five degree-of-freedom MR-conditional robot was designed and manufactured using MR compatible materials. The robot electronics and control were integrated into existing Philips electronics and software interfaces. The user commands the position of the robot with a graphical user interface, and is presented with real-time MR imaging of the patient throughout the surgery. The robot is validated through a series of experiments that characterize accuracy, signal-to-noise ratio degeneration of an MR image as a result of the robot, MR imaging artifacts generated by the robot, and the robot’s ability to operate in a representative surgical environment inside an MR machine.
Results:
Experimental results show the robot responds reliably within an MR environment, has achieved 0.59 ± 0.25 mm accuracy, does not produce severe MR-imaging artifacts, has a workspace providing sufficient coverage of a neonatal brain, and can manipulate a 5 kg payload. A full system demonstration shows these characteristics apply in an application environment.
Conclusions:
This paper presents a comprehensive look at the process of designing and validating a new robot from concept to implementation for use in an MR environment. An MR conditional robot has been designed and manufactured to design specifications. The system has demonstrated its feasibility as a platform for MRgFUS interventions for neonatal patients. The success of the system in experimental trials suggests that it is ready to be used for validation of the transcranial intervention in animal studies.
During courtship males attract females with elaborate behaviors. In mice, these displays include ultrasonic vocalizations. Ultrasonic courtship vocalizations were previously attributed to the ...courting male, despite evidence that both sexes produce virtually indistinguishable vocalizations. Because of this similarity, and the difficulty of assigning vocalizations to individuals, the vocal contribution of each individual during courtship is unknown. To address this question, we developed a microphone array system to localize vocalizations from socially interacting, individual adult mice. With this system, we show that female mice vocally interact with males during courtship. Males and females jointly increased their vocalization rates during chases. Furthermore, a female's participation in these vocal interactions may function as a signal that indicates a state of increased receptivity. Our results reveal a novel form of vocal communication during mouse courtship, and lay the groundwork for a mechanistic dissection of communication during social behavior.
This article presents a review of air-coupled ultrasonics employed in the characterization or nondestructive inspection of industrial materials. Developments in air-coupled transduction and ...electronics are briefly treated, although the emphasis here is on methods of characterization and inspection, and in overcoming limitations inherent in the use of such a tenuous sound coupling medium as air. The role of Lamb waves in plate characterization is covered, including the use of air-coupled acoustic beams to measure the elastic and/or viscoelastic properties of a material. Air-coupled acoustic detection, when other methods are employed to generate high-amplitude sound beams is also reviewed. Applications to civil engineering, acoustic tomography, and the characterization of both paper and wood are dealt with here. A brief summary of developments in air-coupled acoustic arrays and the application of air-coupled methods in nonlinear ultrasonics complete the review. In particular, the work of Professor Bernard Hosten and his collaborators at Bordeaux is carefully examined.
The Schrödinger equation is a fundamental equation to describe the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. The similar forms between the Schrödinger equation and the paraxial wave equation ...allow a paradigm shift from the quantum mechanics to classical fields, opening up a plethora of interesting phenomena including the optical super-oscillatory behavior. Here, we propose an ultrasonic meta-lens for generating super-oscillation acoustic wave-packets with different spatial momenta and then superimposing them to a diffraction-limit-broken spot, visually represented by the ring-shaped trapping of tiny particles. Moreover, based on the focused super-oscillation packets, we experimentally verify proof-of-concept super-resolution ultrasound imaging, opening up the arena of super-oscillation ultrasonics for advanced acoustic imaging, biomedical applications, and versatile far-field ultrasound control.
Purpose:
In transcranial magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (tcMRgFUS) treatments, the acoustic and spatial heterogeneity of the skull cause reflection, absorption, and scattering of the ...acoustic beams. These effects depend on skull-specific parameters and can lead to patient-specific thermal responses to the same transducer power. In this work, the authors develop a simulation tool to help predict these different experimental responses using 3D heterogeneous tissue models based on the subject CT images. The authors then validate and compare the predicted skull efficiencies to an experimental metric based on the subject thermal responses during tcMRgFUS treatments in a dataset of seventeen human subjects.
Methods:
Seventeen human head CT scans were used to create tissue acoustic models, simulating the effects of reflection, absorption, and scattering of the acoustic beam as it propagates through a heterogeneous skull. The hybrid angular spectrum technique was used to model the acoustic beam propagation of the InSightec ExAblate 4000 head transducer for each subject, yielding maps of the specific absorption rate (SAR). The simulation assumed the transducer was geometrically focused to the thalamus of each subject, and the focal SAR at the target was used as a measure of the simulated skull efficiency. Experimental skull efficiency for each subject was calculated using the thermal temperature maps from the tcMRgFUS treatments. Axial temperature images (with no artifacts) were reconstructed with a single baseline, corrected using a referenceless algorithm. The experimental skull efficiency was calculated by dividing the reconstructed temperature rise 8.8 s after sonication by the applied acoustic power.
Results:
The simulated skull efficiency using individual-specific heterogeneous models predicts well (R
2 = 0.84) the experimental energy efficiency.
Conclusions:
This paper presents a simulation model to predict the variation in thermal responses measured in clinical ctMRGFYS treatments while being computationally feasible.
Purpose:
In most photoacoustic (PA) tomographic reconstructions, variations in speed-of-sound (SOS) of the subject are neglected under the assumption of acoustic homogeneity. Biological tissue with ...spatially heterogeneous SOS cannot be accurately reconstructed under this assumption. The authors present experimental and image reconstruction methods with which 2D SOS distributions can be accurately acquired and reconstructed, and with which the SOS map can be used subsequently to reconstruct highly accurate PA tomograms.
Methods:
The authors begin with a 2D iterative reconstruction approach in an ultrasound transmission tomography setting, which uses ray refracted paths instead of straight ray paths to recover accurate SOS images of the subject. Subsequently, they use the SOS distribution in a new 2D iterative PA reconstruction approach, where refraction of rays originating from PA sources is accounted for in accurately retrieving the distribution of these sources. Both the SOS reconstruction and SOS-compensated PA reconstruction methods utilize the Eikonal equation to model acoustic wavefront propagation. The equation is solved using a high accuracy fast marching method.
Results:
The authors validated the new reconstruction algorithms using numerical phantoms. For experiments they utilized the recently introduced PER-PACT method which can be used to simultaneously acquire SOS and PA data from subjects.
Conclusions:
It is first confirmed that it is important to take SOS inhomogeneities into account in high resolution PA tomography. The iterative reconstruction algorithms, that model acoustic refractive effects, in reconstructing SOS distributions, and subsequently using these distributions to correct PA tomograms, yield artifact-free highly accurate images. The approach of using the hybrid measurement method and the new reconstruction algorithms is successful in substantially improving the quality of PA images with a minimization of blurring and artifacts.
The softening effect of ultrasonic vibration on pure copper is studied from a new perspective with micro-tensile tests, where the gauge length of the specimen is one order of magnitude smaller than ...the ultrasonic wavelength. With this configuration, the amount of flow stress reduction increases linearly with vibration amplitude whereas the flow stress reduction is insensitive to the studied strain rate ranging from 0.06/s to 1/s. Temperature rise associated with ultrasonic vibration is minimal from infrared thermal imaging. In situ digital image correlation (DIC) analysis shows strain localization near ultrasonic source whereas uniform strain distribution was observed during conventional tensile test. Optical microstructure characterization shows that area fraction of annealing twins in the deformed copper reduced from 3.3% to 1.8% with ultrasonic vibration. This is possibly attributed to enhanced interaction of dislocation between twin boundaries which act as non-regenerative dislocation source. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) results show that ultrasonic vibration promotes preferential grain re-orientation and reduces the misorientation within grains.
Purpose:
Attenuation imaging has a promising role in the detection of tissue abnormalities. The authors have previously compared three different frequency domain ultrasound attenuation estimation ...methods, for accuracy and bias. The mean estimated attenuation value in a region of interest has been the determining factor of how well a method performs; however, the noise level has not been quantified for attenuation estimated using different methods.
Methods:
The authors compare three different frequency domain ultrasound attenuation estimation methods the reference phantom method (RPM), the centroid downshift method (CEN), and the hybrid method (HYB) using the signal to noise ratio (SNR) metric. Both simulated and experimental tissue-mimicking phantoms are used in the performance comparison study, evaluating the impact of the variation in acoustical properties.
Results:
For attenuation estimation in a tissue-mimicking phantom with a known attenuation coefficient of 0.5 dB/cm/MHz, all the three methods estimated the attenuation coefficient to be ≈ 0.49 dB/cm/MHz for a transmit center frequency of 6 MHz, however, the signal to noise ratio obtained was found to be 8.5, 5.7, and 2.2 for the HYB, RPM, and CEN methods, respectively. These results demonstrate the need for the SNR metric in the comparison of different algorithms and to evaluate the impact of varying different ultrasound system and tissue parameters.
Conclusions:
In this paper, the authors demonstrate that although the estimated mean attenuation value with a region of interest may be closely estimated using different methods, the signal to noise ratio obtained of the estimates can vary significantly. The centroid downshift method presented with the lowest signal-to-noise ratio of the methods compared. The hybrid method was the least susceptible to changes in the acoustical properties and provided unbiased attenuation coefficient estimates with the highest signal-to-noise ratios.
•Isopropanol ultrasonic pretreatment and Ca2+ additions enhanced free oil recovery.•Demulsification pretreatments reduced the stability and formation of emulsions.•Oil and solid content in emulsions ...were decreased to reduce emulsion stabilities.•Isopropanol ultrasonic pretreatment greatly extracted saponins and polysaccharides.•Ca2+ combined with proteins, saponins, and polysaccharides to form precipitates.
Emulsification is the practical limitation of aqueous enzymatic extractions of Camellia oils. This study aimed to investigate the influence and demulsification mechanisms of isopropanol ultrasonic pretreatments and Ca2+ additions on aqueous enzymatic extractions of Camellia oils. Combining isopropanol ultrasonic pretreatments with Ca2+ flow additions obtained the highest free oil recovery (78.03 %) and lowest emulsion content (1.5 %). Results indicated that the superior demulsification performance originated from the decrease in emulsion stabilities and formations. First, demulsification pretreatments reduced the oil (14.69 %) and solid (13.21 %) fractions in emulsions to decrease the stability of as-formed emulsions. Meanwhile, isopropanol ultrasonic pretreatments extracted tea saponins (0.38 mg/mL) and polysaccharides (0.23 mg/mL), while Ca2+ combined with protein isolates (5.82 mg/mL), tea saponins (7.48 mg/mL) and polysaccharides (0.78 mg/mL) to form precipitates and reduce emulsion formation. This work could promote the practical application of aqueous enzymatic extractions of Camellia oils and enlighten the rise of advanced demulsification pretreatments.
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