Influence of Ultrasonic Waves on Current-Voltage Characteristics and Polarization Effects of Si-N-P Radiation Receivers

The currents of n-p junctions and polarization effects caused by the capture processes of diffusion Si-receivers (detectors) of radiation exposed by ultrasound have been analyzed in this work. It was found that there are local concentrations of impurity atoms with an effective size l>6μm30μm in Si-n-p radiation receivers. They determine the behavior of the signal amplitude in different intervals of electric and temperature fields. It was found that at Е>1500V/cm and T>168K, the efficiency of collecting nonequilibrium charge carriers significantly increases and doublets of spectral α-lines and “humps” disappear at the temperature dependences of the signal amplitude. The main physical processes and mechanisms that determine the appearance of the phenomenon of "polarization" of Si-n-p-detectors were investigated. This phenomenon is caused by the existence of local gold atoms, which arise in the process of manufacturing technology of Si-n-p-receivers and act as effective trapping centers.

Investigation on effect of transmit condition on ultrasonic measurement of 2D motion velocity

A phase-sensitive 2D motion estimator is useful for measurement of minute tissue motion. However, the effect of conditions for emission of ultrasonic waves on the accuracy of such an estimator has not been investigated thoroughly. In the present study, the accuracy of the phase-sensitive 2D motion estimator was evaluated under a variety of transmission conditions. Although plane wave imaging with a single emission per frame achieved an extremely high temporal resolution of 10417 Hz, the accuracy in estimation of lateral velocities was worse than compound-based method or focused-beam method. By contrast, the accuracy in estimation of axial velocities hardly depended on the transmission conditions. Also, the phase-sensitive 2D motion estimator was combined with the block matching method to estimate displacements larger than the ultrasonic wavelength. Furthermore, the results show that the correlation coefficient in block matching has potential to be used for evaluation of the reliability of the estimated velocity.

Theoretical Analysis of Coupled Modified Hindmarsh-rose Model Under Transcranial Magnetic-acoustic Electrical Stimulation

Transcranial magnetic-acoustic electrical stimulation (TMAES) is a new technology with ultrasonic waves and a static magnetic field to generate an electric current in nerve tissues to modulate neuronal firing activities. The existing neuron models only simulate a single neuron, and there are few studies on coupled neurons models about TMAES. Most of the neurons in the cerebral cortex are not isolated but are coupled to each other. It is necessary to study the information transmission of coupled neurons. The types of neuron coupled synapses include electrical synapse and chemical synapse. A neuron model without considering chemical synapses is not comprehensive. Here, we modified the Hindmarsh-Rose (HR) model to simulate the smallest nervous system—two neurons coupled electrical synapses and chemical synapses under TMAES. And the environmental variables describing the synaptic coupling between two neurons and the nonlinearity of the nervous system are also taken into account. The firing behavior of the nervous system can be modulated by changing the intensity or the modulation frequency. The results show that within a certain range of parameters, the discharge frequency of coupled neurons could be increased by altering the modulation frequency, and intensity of stimulation, modulating the excitability of neurons, reducing the response time of chemical postsynaptic neurons, and accelerating the information transferring. Moreover, the discharge frequency of neurons was selective to stimulus parameters. These results demonstrate the possible theoretical regulatory mechanism of the neurons' firing frequency characteristics by TMAES. The study establishes the foundation for large-scale neural network modeling and can be taken as the theoretical basis for TMAES experimental and clinical application.

Natural Fibers vs. Synthetic Fibers Reinforcement: Effect on Resistance of Mortars to Impact Loads

Given their specific properties, their natural and renewable sources and their low environmental impact in production, natural fibers offer an opportunity for the development of eco-friendly cement-based composites. The main objective of this experimental work is to evaluate the resistance to the impact load of mortars incorporating natural fibers or polypropylene fibers at 28 days. The assessment was carried out according to an experimental protocol developed in our laboratory. The method consists in dropping a metallic ball on a square shaped specimen of 30x30x2 cm3 to determine the energy supported by each sample. For each specimen, the number of blows required for the first crack initiation and for the total collapse of specimen are detected using a device allowing to measure the speed of ultrasonic waves. The device was fixed on the specimen itself. In order to fulfill the mechanical identity card of the composites, flexural and compression tests were also carried out at 28 days. In this experimental protocol, the pozzolanic binder was considered with different fiber percentages of polypropylene (0.25% and 0.5% by mass of binder) and of natural fibers (0.5% and 1% by mass of binder). All fibers have a length of 12 mm. Results show that natural fiber reinforcement could be considered as an ecological alternative to polypropylene fiber one to improve the resistance of mortars to impact loads.