Assessment of cortical bone fatigue using coded nonlinear ultrasound

Bone fatigue accumulation is a factor leading to bone fracture,which is a progressive process of microdamage deteriorating under long-term and repeated stress.Since the microdamage of the early stage in bone is difficult to be investigated by linear ultrasound,the second harmonic generation method in nonlinear ultrasound technique is employed in this paper,which is proved to be more sensitive to microdamage.To solve the deficiency that the second harmonic component is easily submerged by noise in traditional nonlinear measurement,a weighted chirp coded sinusoidal signal was applied as the ultrasonic excitation,while pulse inversion is implemented at the receiving side.The effectiveness of this combination to improve the signal-to-noise ratio has been demonstrated by in vitro experiment.Progressive fatigue loading experiments were conducted on the cortical bone plate in vitro for microdamage generation.There was a significant increase in the slope of the acoustic nonlinearity parameter with the propagation distance(increased by 8%and 24%respectively)when the bone specimen was at a progressive level of microdamage.These results indicate that the coded nonlinear ultrasonic method might have the potential in diagnosing bone fatigue.

Specific responses of monoamine neurotransmitters to various acute stressors

This study determined the composition of histamine,serotonin and dopamine using high performance liquid chromatography and electrochemical detection,and compared the changes in monoamine levels in plasma,the cortex and midbrain of mice exposed to acute stressors,such as blood-drawing stimulation or restraint.Results demonstrated that plasma histamine levels were markedly increased when mice were exposed to blood-drawing stimulation and restraint stress.However,serotonin levels decreased in plasma of mice treated with restraint stress,and dopamine levels in plasma had no significant response to the two acute stressors.The three monoamines （histamine,serotonin and dopamine） increased at different degrees in restraint mice,but not in brain regions of blood-drawing stressed mice.Results indicated that histaminergic,serotonergic or dopaminergic systems have their own specific response to different acute stressors.

High-resolution bone microstructure imaging based on ultrasonic frequency-domain full-waveform inversion

The main challenge in bone ultrasound imaging is the large acoustic impedance contrast and sound velocity differences between the bone and surrounding soft tissue. It is difficult for conventional pulse-echo modalities to give accurate ultrasound images for irregular bone boundaries and microstructures using uniform sound velocity assumption rather than getting a prior knowledge of sound speed. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposed a frequency-domain fullwaveform inversion(FDFWI) algorithm for bone quantitative imaging utilizing ultrasonic computed tomography(USCT).The forward model was calculated in the frequency domain by solving the full-wave equation. The inverse problem was solved iteratively from low to high discrete frequency components via minimizing a cost function between the modeled and measured data. A quasi-Newton method called the limited-memory Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno algorithm(L-BFGS) was utilized in the optimization process. Then, bone images were obtained based on the estimation of the velocity and density. The performance of the proposed method was verified by numerical examples, from tubular bone phantom to single distal fibula model, and finally with a distal tibia-fibula pair model. Compared with the high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography(HR-p QCT), the proposed FDFWI can also clearly and accurately presented the wavelength scaled pores and trabeculae in bone images. The results proved that the FDFWI is capable of reconstructing high-resolution ultrasound bone images with sub-millimeter resolution. The parametric bone images may have the potential for the diagnosis of bone disease.

Ratiometric fluorescence immunoassay of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein via Si-FITC nanoprobe-based inner filter effect

The global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)virus has necessitated rapid,easy-to-use,and accurate diagnostic methods to monitor the virus infection.Herein,a ratiometric fluorescence enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was developed using Si-fluorescein isothiocyanate nanoparticles(FITC NPs)for detecting SARSCoV-2 nucleocapsid(N)protein.Si-FITC NPs were prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal method using 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane(APTES)-FITC as the Si source.This method did not need post-modification and avoided the reduction in quantum yield and stability.The p-nitrophenyl(pNP)produced by the alkaline phosphatase(ALP)-mediated hydrolysis of pnitrophenyl phosphate(pNPP)could quench Si fluorescence in Si-FITC NPs via the inner filter effect.In ELISA,an immunocomplex was formed by the recognition of capture antibody/N protein/reporter antibody.ALP-linked secondary antibody bound to the reporter antibody and induced pNPP hydrolysis to specifically quench Si fluorescence in Si-FITC NPs.The change in fluorescence intensity ratio could be used for detecting N protein,with a wide linearity range(0.01-10.0 and 50-300 ng/mL)and low detection limit(0.002 ng/mL).The concentration of spiked SARS-CoV-2 N protein could be determined accurately in human serum.Moreover,this proposed method can accurately distinguish coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and non-COVID-19 patient samples.Therefore,this simple,sensitive,and accurate method can be applied for the early diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.