Shear wave sensors for viscoelastic properties

AbstractElectromechanical resonators are sensitive to the properties of the surrounding medium due to interaction forces onto the surface caused by motions in the medium. In the present contribution, fully metallic Lorentz force resonators exhibiting in-plane oscillation are used to excite shear waves to measure the linear viscoelastic storage and loss-moduli at specific frequencies in the kHz range of complex fluids (e.g. aqueous polymeric solutions). Reflected shear waves in a well defined gap are employed to extend the measurement range as well as the capability to measure at multiple frequencies. Numerical methods and reduced order models are employed to solve for the velocity field and interaction forces to determine the required quantities from the measured frequency response

Modeling and Experimental Investigation of Resonant Viscosity and Mass Density Sensors Considering their Cross-Sensitivity to Temperature

AbstractIn this contribution we discuss a generalized, reduced order model for resonant viscosity and mass density sensors which considers also the devices’ cross sensitivities to temperature. The applicability of the model is substantiated by experimental results from measurements obtained with a circular steel tuning fork in various liquids and temperatures. Advantages of this model are its simplicity, its general applicability for resonant mass density and viscosity sensors which furthermore facilitates the comparison of different sensors

Characterizing Vibrating Cantilevers for Liquid Viscosity and Density Sensing

Miniaturized liquid sensors are essential devices in online process or condition monitoring. In case of viscosity and density sensing, microacoustic sensors such as quartz crystal resonators or SAW devices have proved particularly useful. However, these devices basically measure a thin-film viscosity, which is often not comparable to the macroscopic parameters probed by conventional viscometers. Miniaturized cantilever-based devices are interesting alternatives for such applications, but here the interaction between the liquid and the oscillating beam is more involved. In our contribution, we describe a measurement setup, which allows the investigation of this interaction for different beam cross-sections. We present an analytical model based on an approximation of the immersed cantilever as an oscillating sphere comprising the effective mass and the intrinsic damping of the cantilever and additional mass and damping due to the liquid loading. The model parameters are obtained from measurements with well-known sample liquids by a curve fitting procedure. Finally, we present the measurement of viscosity and density of an unknown sample liquid, demonstrating the feasibility of the model

PeneloPET simulations of the Biograph ToF clinical PET scanner

Proceedings of: 2011 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC). Valencia, Spain, 23-29 October 2011Monte Carlo simulations are widely used in positron emission tomography (PET) for optimizing detector design, acquisition protocols, as well as for developing and assessing corrections and reconstruction methods. PeneloPET is a Monte Carlo code for PET simulations which considers detector geometry, acquisition electronics and materials, and source definitions. PeneloPET is based on PENELOPE, a Monte Carlo code for the simulation of the transport in matter of electrons, positrons and photons, with energies up to 1 GeV. In this work we use PeneloPET to simulate the Biograph TruePoint (B-TP), Biograph TruePoint with TrueV (B-TPTV) and Biograph mCT PET/CT scanners. These configurations consist of three (B-TP) and four (B-TPTV and mCT) rings of 48 detector blocks. Each block comprises a 13 × 13 matrix of 4 × 4 × 20 mm3 LSO crystals. Simulations were adjusted to reproduce some experimental results from the actual scanners and validated by comparing their predictions to further experimental results. Sensitivity, spatial resolution, noise equivalent count (NEC) rate and scatter fraction (SF) were estimated. The simulations were then employed to estimate the optimum values of system parameters, such as energy and time coincidence windows and to assess the effect of system modifications (such as number of rings) on performance.This work was supported in part by Comunidad de Madrid (ARTEMIS S2009IDPI 1802), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ENTEPRASE Grant, PSE 300000 2009 5) and PRECISION grant IPT 300000 2010 3 and european regional funds and CPAN, Centro de Fisica de Particulas, Astroparticulas y Nuclear (CSD 2007 00042@Ingenio2010 12). This study has been (partially) funded by CDTI under the CENIT Programme (AMIT Project). Part of the calculations of this work was performed in the "Cluster de Calculo de Alta Capacidad para Tecnicas Fisicas "funded in part by UCM and in part by UE with European regional funds"Publicad

Muddled Boundaries of Digital Shrines

International audienceBased on an online ethnography study of 274 YouTube videos posted during the Virginia Tech or the Newtown massacres, this article discusses how users resort to participatory media during such mediatized events to create a digital spontaneous shrine. The assemblage of this sanctuary on a website hosting billions of user-generated contents is made possible by means of folksonomy and website architecture, and a two-fold social dynamic based on participatory commitment and the institutionalization of a collective entity. Unlike “physical” spontaneous shrines erected in public spaces, these digital shrines connect the bereaved with provocative or outrageous contributions, notably tributes from school shooting fans using participatory media to commemorate the killer’s memory. This side effect, generated by the technical properties of the platform, compromises the tranquility of the memorial and muddles the boundaries and the contents of such sanctuaries

Clutter Suppression for Indoor Self-Localization Systems by Iteratively Reweighted Low-Rank Plus Sparse Recovery

Self-localization based on passive RFID-based has many potential applications. One of the main challenges it faces is the suppression of the reflected signals from unwanted objects (i.e., clutter). Typically, the clutter echoes are much stronger than the backscattered signals of the passive tag landmarks used in such scenarios. Therefore, successful tag detection can be very challenging. We consider two types of tags, namely low-Q and high-Q tags. The high-Q tag features a sparse frequency response, whereas the low-Q tag presents a broad frequency response. Further, the clutter usually showcases a short-lived response. In this work, we propose an iterative algorithm based on a low-rank plus sparse recovery approach (RPCA) to mitigate clutter and retrieve the landmark response. In addition to that, we compare the proposed approach with the well-known time-gating technique. It turns out that RPCA outperforms significantly time-gating for low-Q tags, achieving clutter suppression and tag identification when clutter encroaches on the time-gating window span, whereas it also increases the backscattered power at resonance by approximately 12 dB at 80 cm for high-Q tags. Altogether, RPCA seems a promising approach to improve the identification of passive indoor self-localization tag landmarks

Identification of Cis-Acting Promoter Elements in Cold- and Dehydration-Induced Transcriptional Pathways in Arabidopsis, Rice, and Soybean

The genomes of three plants, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), rice (Oryza sativa), and soybean (Glycine max), have been sequenced, and their many genes and promoters have been predicted. In Arabidopsis, cis-acting promoter elements involved in cold- and dehydration-responsive gene expression have been extensively analysed; however, the characteristics of such cis-acting promoter sequences in cold- and dehydration-inducible genes of rice and soybean remain to be clarified. In this study, we performed microarray analyses using the three species, and compared characteristics of identified cold- and dehydration-inducible genes. Transcription profiles of the cold- and dehydration-responsive genes were similar among these three species, showing representative upregulated (dehydrin/LEA) and downregulated (photosynthesis-related) genes. All (46 = 4096) hexamer sequences in the promoters of the three species were investigated, revealing the frequency of conserved sequences in cold- and dehydration-inducible promoters. A core sequence of the abscisic acid-responsive element (ABRE) was the most conserved in dehydration-inducible promoters of all three species, suggesting that transcriptional regulation for dehydration-inducible genes is similar among these three species, with the ABRE-dependent transcriptional pathway. In contrast, for cold-inducible promoters, the conserved hexamer sequences were diversified among these three species, suggesting the existence of diverse transcriptional regulatory pathways for cold-inducible genes among the species

Endoreplication Controls Cell Fate Maintenance

Cell-fate specification is typically thought to precede and determine cell-cycle regulation during differentiation. Here we show that endoreplication, also known as endoreduplication, a specialized cell-cycle variant often associated with cell differentiation but also frequently occurring in malignant cells, plays a role in maintaining cell fate. For our study we have used Arabidopsis trichomes as a model system and have manipulated endoreplication levels via mutants of cell-cycle regulators and overexpression of cell-cycle inhibitors under a trichome-specific promoter. Strikingly, a reduction of endoreplication resulted in reduced trichome numbers and caused trichomes to lose their identity. Live observations of young Arabidopsis leaves revealed that dedifferentiating trichomes re-entered mitosis and were re-integrated into the epidermal pavement-cell layer, acquiring the typical characteristics of the surrounding epidermal cells. Conversely, when we promoted endoreplication in glabrous patterning mutants, trichome fate could be restored, demonstrating that endoreplication is an important determinant of cell identity. Our data lead to a new model of cell-fate control and tissue integrity during development by revealing a cell-fate quality control system at the tissue level