PURPOSE To develop a reliable magnetic resonance elastography (MRE)-based method for measuring regional brain stiffness. METHODS First, simulation studies were used to demonstrate how stiffness measurements can be biased by changes in brain morphometry, such as those due to atrophy. Adaptive postprocessing methods were created that significantly reduce the spatial extent of edge artifacts and...

This paper describes a multi-fingered haptic palpation method using stiffness feedback actuators for simulating tissue palpation procedures in traditional and robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. Soft tissue stiffness is simulated by changing the stiffness property of the actuator during palpation. For the first time, granular jamming and pneumatic air actuation are combined together to r...

A method is reported to experimentally measure the trap stiffness in double nanohole apertures and optimize design parameters maximize plasmonic trapping performance.

background: both increased arterial stiffness and hyperuricaemia are associated with elevated cardiovascular risks. little is known about the relations of serum uric acid (ua) level to regional arterial stiffness and wave reflection. the aim of the study was to investigate the gender-specific association of serum ua and indices of arterial function in a community-based investigation in china. m...

Background Arterial stiffness is an important predictor of cardiovascular risk in adult life. Increased arterial stiffness can also be present in children and may be associated with several other cardiovascular risk factors. Until now, however, we know little about measuring arterial stiffness in preschool children. In this study, we assessed the feasibility of measuring arterial stiffness in p...

BACKGROUND Chronic viral hepatitis can be evaluated using invasive or noninvasive methods. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate liver stiffness in inactive HBsAg carriers compared with normal subjects and determine if it is influenced by viral load in these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS We prospectively evaluated 140 inactive HBsAg carriers and 152 normal subjects (without any ...

In this paper, two different piezoelectric microactuator designs are studied. The corresponding devices were designed for optimal in-plane displacements and different high flexibilities, proven by electrical and optical characterization. Both actuators presented two dominant vibrational modes in the frequency range below 1 MHz: an out-of-plane bending and an in-plane extensional mode. Neverthel...