Second harmonic magnetoacoustic responses of magnetic nanoparticles in magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction

Due to the unique magnetic, mechanical and thermal properties, magnetic nanoparticles(MNPs) have comprehensive applications as the contrast and therapeutic agents in biomedical imaging and magnetic hyperthermia. The linear and nonlinear magnetoacoustic responses determined by the magnetic properties of MNPs have attracted more and more attention in biomedical engineering. By considering the relaxation time of MNPs, we derive the formulae of second harmonic magnetoacoustic responses(2H-MARs) for a cylindrical MNP solution model based on the mechanical oscillations of MNPs in magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction(MAT-MI). It is proved that only the second harmonic magnetoacoustic oscillations can be generated by MNPs under an alternating magnetic excitation. The acoustic pressure of the 2H-MAR is proportional to the square of the magnetic field intensity and exhibits a linear increase with the concentration of MNPs. Numerical simulations of the 2H-MAR are confirmed by the experimental measurements for various magnetic field intensities and solution concentrations using a laser vibrometer. The favorable results demonstrate the feasibility of the harmonic measurements without the fundamental interference of the electromagnetic excitation, and suggest a new harmonic imaging strategy of MAT-MI for MNPs with enhanced spatial resolution and improved signal-to-noise ratio in biomedical applications.     

Boundary normal pressure-based electrical conductivity reconstruction for magneto–acoustic tomography with magnetic induction

As a kind of multi-physics imaging approach integrating the advantages of electrical impedance tomography and ultrasound imaging with the improved spatial resolution and image contrast, magneto–acoustic tomography with magnetic induction(MAT-MI) is demonstrated to have the capability of electrical impedance contrast imaging for biological tissues with conductivity differences. By being detected with a strong directional transducer, abrupt pressure change is proved to be generated by the gradient of the induced Lorentz force along the force direction at conductivity boundary. A simplified boundary normal pressure(BNP)-based conductivity reconstruction algorithm is proposed and the formula for conductivity distribution inside the object with the clear physical meaning of pressure derivative, is derived. Numerical simulations of acoustic pressure and conductivity reconstruction are conducted based on a 2-layer eccentric cylindrical phantom model using Hilbert transform. The reconstructed two-dimensional conductivity images accord well with the model, thus successfully making up the deficiency of only imaging conductivity boundary in traditional MAT-MI. The proposed method is also demonstrated to have a spatial resolution of one wavelength. This study provides a new method of reconstructing accurate electrical conductivity and suggests the potential applications of MAT-MI in imaging biological tissues with conductivity difference.     

Multiple off-axis acoustic vortices generated by dual coaxial vortex beams

As a kind of special acoustic field, the helical wavefront of an acoustic vortex(AV) beam is demonstrated to have a pressure zero with phase singularity at the center in the transverse plane. The orbital angular momentum of AVs can be applied to the field of particle manipulation, which attracts more and more attention in acoustic researches. In this paper,by using the simplified circular array of point sources, dual coaxial AV beams are excited by the even-and odd-numbered sources with the topological charges of l_E and l_O based on the phase-coded approach, and the composite acoustic field with an on-axis center-AV and multiple off-axis sub-AVs can be generated by the superimposition of the AV beams for|l_E| ≠ |l_O|. The generation of edge phase dislocation is theoretically derived and numerically analyzed for l_E=-l_O. The numbers and the topological charges as well as the locations of the center-AV and sub-AVs are demonstrated, which are proved to be determined by the topological charges of the coaxial AV beams. The proposed approach breaks through the limit of only one on-axis AV with a single topological charge along the beam axis, and also provides the feasibility of off-axis particle trapping with multiple AVs in object manipulation.     

微孔聚乳酸支架材料的热稳定性与动态热机械特性

采用无溶剂二氧化碳固态发泡技术,在2.5、3.5、4.0和5.0 MPa饱和压力下制备了泡孔孔径为350-20μm的聚乳酸支架材料.利用热重分析技术、动态热机械分析技术和扫描电子显微镜技术,测定了材料的起始分解温度、分解速率、储存/损耗模量和损耗因子等参数,并利用Kissinger、Ozawa-Doyle和Vyazovkin方程进行了热分解动力学计算,推算了氮气环境下材料的降解时间和使用寿命.结果表明,随着发泡压力的减小,支架材料的泡孔孔径增大,材料的柔韧性增强,表观活化能降低,降解时间缩短.     

Beam alignments based on the spectrum decomposition of orbital angular momentums for acoustic-vortex communications

Given the enhanced channel capacity of wave chirality, acoustic communications based on the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of acoustic-vortex (AV) beams are of significant interest for underwater data transmissions. However, the stringent beam alignment is required for the coaxial arrangement of transceiver arrays to ensure the accuracy and reliability of OAM decoding. To avoid the required multiple measurements of the traditional orthogonality based algorithm, the beam alignment algorithm based on the OAM spectrum decomposition is proposed for AV communications by using simplified ring-arrays. Numerical studies of the single-OAM and OAM-multiplexed AV beams show that the error of the OAM spectrum increases with the translation distance and the deflection angle of the transceiver arrays. To achieve an ideal arrangement, two methods of the single-array translation alignment and the dual-array deflection alignment are developed based on the least standard deviation of the OAM spectrum (SD-OAM). By decreasing the SD-OAM towards zero using transceiver arrays of 16 transmitters and 16 receivers, accurate beam alignments are accomplished by multiple adjustments in three dimensions. The proposed method is also demonstrated by experimental measurements of the OAM dispersion and the SD-OAM for misaligned beams. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the rapid beam alignment based on the OAM spectrum decomposition by using simplified transceiver ring-arrays, and suggest more application potentials for acoustic communications.     

共轴双涡旋声束形成离轴多涡旋的定位

涡旋声束具有螺旋的相位波前,中轴线上形成声强为零的相位奇点,其所携带的轨道角动量在粒子操控领域有着广阔的应用前景。传统声涡旋只在传播轴线上形成一个拓扑荷可控的涡旋波束,这限制了声涡旋的应用灵活性。基于环形点声源阵列和相位编码技术,利用奇偶声源分别产生共轴双涡旋声束的声场叠加,在传播截面上形成了具有中心涡旋和子涡旋的离轴多涡旋声场;研究了双涡旋拓扑参数对离轴涡旋的个数、位置及拓扑荷的影响,基于声涡旋的径向声压和相位分布,确定了离轴涡旋的离轴半径,并结合声源位置推导子涡旋中心方位角的计算公式,实现离轴涡旋的精确定位。本研究突破了沿轴分布的涡旋声场只能形成单点涡旋势阱的操控局限,为利用离轴多涡旋实现多点粒子捕获提供了理论依据,促进涡旋声场在精确粒子操控和传输方面的高效应用。      

Sinusoid-Golay编码单脉冲激励提升磁声电成像精度

针对低电导率生物组织的成像需求,利用Sinusoid-Golay编码单脉冲激励提高磁声电信号的信噪比和定位精度,实现了高精度的磁声电成像。首先,在考虑换能器指向性的基础上,推导了Sinusoid-Golay编码单脉冲激励的磁声电理论公式,并引入激励转换因子和自相关计算,实现磁声电信号测量和解码重建,理论证明了N位Sinusoid-Golay编码可以将磁声电信号的主瓣幅度提高2N倍,并具有良好的脉冲压缩和噪声抑制能力。然后,在5 dB信噪比条件下,模拟了16位SinusoidGolay编码单脉冲激励层状组织模型所产生的磁声电信号,通过匹配滤波解码和叠加增强了磁声电信号的主瓣,并消除了其旁瓣,实现了组织边界的精确定位和电导率梯度的准确重建。最后,搭建了磁声电检测和线性扫描成像系统,利用正弦单周期和16位Sinusoid-Golay编码单脉冲激励,对三层凝胶仿体进行了磁声电测量和图像重建。Sinusoid-Golay编码单脉冲激励能够提高磁声电信号的信噪比约6.5 dB,并精确重构了组织边界电导率变化的幅值和极性。该研究为基于电学特性差异的组织病变早期检测提供了一种高精度磁声电快速成像方法。     

基于电阻抗层析成像的高强度聚焦超声温度监测技术

作为一种对正常组织无损伤且不易引起癌细胞转移的非入侵肿瘤治疗手段,高强度聚焦超声(HIFU)治疗过程中焦域的温度监测是实现剂量精准控制的关键.本文基于生物组织的温度-电阻抗的关系,将电阻抗层析成像(EIT)和HIFU治疗相结合,提出了一种利用组织焦平面的表面电压实现电阻抗重构的检测技术.建立了HIFU治疗和EIT综合系统模型,在考虑组织的声吸收条件下,对三维Helmholtz方程在柱坐标下的声场计算进行了二维简化,并引入Pennes生物热传导方程来计算HIFU焦域的声压和温升分布特性;引入生物组织的温度-电阻抗关系,基于麦克斯韦电磁场理论,建立了具有温度分布HIFU焦域的电流和电压计算模型,利用恒流注入的边界条件实现电场计算,获得焦平面的表面电压分布.在数值计算中,利用实验聚焦换能器参数,模拟了在固定声功率下组织焦域的声场和温度场分布,以及中心和偏心聚焦条件下不同治疗时刻的电导率分布;然后通过对称电极的循环电流注入,计算了组织模型焦平面内的电流密度和电势分布,获得了焦平面圆周分布的表面电极电压;进一步采用修正的牛顿-拉夫逊算法,利用32×32的表面电极电压实现了焦平面内电导率分布的重建.结果表明,基于温度-电阻抗关系的EIT电导率重建技术不但能准确定位HIFU焦域中心,还能恢复HIFU治疗中焦域的温度分布,证明了EIT用于HIFU治疗中温度监测的可行性,为其疗效评估和剂量控制提供了一种无创电阻抗测量和成像新方法.     

Performance improvement of magneto-acousto-electrical tomography for biological tissues with sinusoid-Barker coded excitation

By combining magnetics, acoustics and electrics, the magneto-acoustic-electrical tomography(MAET) proves to possess the capability of differentiating electrical impedance variation and thus improving the spatial resolution. However,the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of the collected MAET signal is still unsatisfactory for biological tissues with low-level electrical conductivity. In this study, the formula of MAET measurement with sinusoid-Barker coded excitation is derived and simplified for a planar piston transducer. Numerical simulations are conducted for a four-layered gel phantom with the 13-bit sinusoid-Barker coded excitation, and the performances of wave packet recovery with side-lobe suppression are improved by using the mismatched compression filter, which is also demonstrated by experimentally measuring a three-layered gel phantom. It is demonstrated that comparing with the single-cycle sinusoidal excitation, the amplitude of the driving signal can be reduced greatly with an SNR enhancement of 10 dB using the 13-bit sinusoid-Barker coded excitation. The amplitude and polarity of the wave packet filtered from the collected MAET signal can be used to achieve the conductivity derivative at the tissue boundary. In this study, we apply the sinusoid-Barker coded modulation method and the mismatched suppression scheme to MAET measurement to ensure the safety for biological tissues with improved SNR and spatial resolution, and suggest the potential applications in biomedical imaging.     

超声增强藻酸钙凝胶支架材料孔隙率的研究

藻酸钙凝胶具有三维立体多孔结构, 能为细胞生长提供充分的附着空间, 且具有良好的生物相容性和一定的机械强度, 是一种理想的细胞支架材料. 本文研究了藻酸钙三维支架材料的力学特性与氯化钙/藻酸钠的配比的关系, 并提出采用低强度脉冲超声处理藻酸钙凝胶、基于超声空化效应增强藻酸钙凝胶孔隙率的新方法. 实验采用交联合成方法制备藻酸钙凝胶支架材料, 测量力学特性、孔洞的联通性与孔隙率, 并利用绿色荧光蛋白的表达评价细胞的增殖能力. 结果表明, 当氯化钙/藻酸钠的配比为3:5时, 凝胶的机械强度和弹性较好, 力学性能稳定, 为最佳配比参数. 采用声压0.055 MPa的脉冲超声作用20 min, 可以有效提高凝胶支架的孔隙率; 且细胞在该支架中生长状态良好, 呈现团簇状生长趋势.