High-Attenuation Backing Layer for Miniaturized Ultrasound Imaging Transducer.

Current miniaturized ultrasound transducers suffer from insufficient attenuation from the backing layer due to their limited thickness. The thickness of the backing layer is one of the critical factors determining the device size and transducer performance for miniaturized transducers inserted and operated in a limited space. Glass bubbles, polyamide resin, and tungsten powder are combined to form a new highly attenuative backing material. It has high attenuation (>160 dB/cm at 5 MHz), which is five times greater than silver-based conductive epoxy commonly used for high-frequency ultrasound transducers, appropriate acoustic impedance (4.6 MRayl), and acceptable damping capability. An intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) transducer constructed with the 170 [Formula: see text] of the proposed backing layer demonstrated that the amplitude of the signal returned from the backing layer was 1.8 times smaller, with ring-down attenuated by 6 dB. Wire-phantom imaging revealed that the axial resolution was 30% better with the suggested backing than silver-based conductive epoxy backing. Because of its excellent attenuation capability even at a limited thickness, simple manufacturing process, and easy customization capability, the suggested highly attenuative backing layer may be used for miniaturized ultrasound transducers.

Thermal Ablation and High-Resolution Imaging Using a Back-to-Back (BTB) Dual-Mode Ultrasonic Transducer: In Vivo Results.

We present a back-to-back (BTB) structured, dual-mode ultrasonic device that incorporates a single-element 5.3 MHz transducer for high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment and a single-element 20.0 MHz transducer for high-resolution ultrasound imaging. Ultrasound image-guided surgical systems have been developed for lesion monitoring to ensure that ultrasonic treatment is correctly administered at the right locations. In this study, we developed a dual-element transducer composed of two elements that share the same housing but work independently with a BTB structure, enabling a mode change between therapy and imaging via 180-degree mechanical rotation. The optic fibers were embedded in the HIFU focal region of ex vivo chicken breasts and the temperature change was measured. Images were obtained in vivo mice before and after treatment and compared to identify the treated region. We successfully acquired B-mode and C-scan images that display the hyperechoic region indicating coagulation necrosis in the HIFU-treated volume up to a depth of 10 mm. The compact BTB dual-mode ultrasonic transducer may be used for subcutaneous thermal ablation and monitoring, minimally invasive surgery, and other clinical applications, all with ultrasound only.

Correction to: Deep user identification model with multiple biometric data.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Deep user identification model with multiple biometric data.

BACKGROUND: Recognition is an essential function of human beings. Humans easily recognize a person using various inputs such as voice, face, or gesture. In this study, we mainly focus on DL model with multi-modality which has many benefits including noise reduction. We used ResNet-50 for extracting features from dataset with 2D data. RESULTS: This study proposes a novel multimodal and multitask model, which can both identify human ID and classify the gender in single step. At the feature level, the extracted features are concatenated as the input for the identification module. Additionally, in our model design, we can change the number of modalities used in a single model. To demonstrate our model, we generate 58 virtual subjects with public ECG, face and fingerprint dataset. Through the test with noisy input, using multimodal is more robust and better than using single modality. CONCLUSIONS: This paper presents an end-to-end approach for multimodal and multitask learning. The proposed model shows robustness on the spoof attack, which can be significant for bio-authentication device. Through results in this study, we suggest a new perspective for human identification task, which performs better than in previous approaches.

Comparison Between Cortical Drill and Cortical Tap and Their Influence on Primary Stability of Macro-Thread Tapered Implant in Thin Crestal Cortical Bone and Low-Density Bone.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of different surgical techniques on primary stability, particularly in poor-quality bone with or without a crestal cortical bone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three implant site preparation techniques-undersized drilling (UD), undersized drilling and coronal widening with a cortical drill (UD + CD), undersized drilling and coronal tapping with a cortical tap (UD + CT)-were compared in 2 different low-density polyurethane bone models either with or without the crestal cortical bone. Insertion torque values (ITVs) for each technique was recorded. RESULTS: Statistically significant difference was observed for all 3 surgical techniques. In the presence of a crestal cortical bone, the peak ITV for UD was the highest, UD + CT the second, and UD + CD the lowest. All peak ITVs remained significantly lower in the absence of a crestal cortical bone. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that UD + CTmay be the most effective implant surgical technique to achieve an ideal primary stability in low-density bone with a thin crestal cortical bone layer. Also, this technique may prevent compression necrosis of the dense cortical bone.