MRI/RUI: Acquisition of Instrumentation to Modernize and Enhance an Ultrasonic Scanning System

在Brent Hoffmeister博士的指导下，罗德学院获得了一笔赠款，用于现代化和增强他们目前拥有的超声波扫描系统。该系统通过机械扫描样品上的超声波换能器来快速在样品上的多个位置进行超声波测量。目前系统的机械部件状况良好，但电子设备（包括用于控制系统的486平台计算机）已经过时。这笔拨款将用于使扫描系统现代化，并将其声波频率范围从大约1-7.5 MHz扩展到0.3-150 MHz。预算中的主要项目包括用于控制系统的新计算机、用于数据分析的新计算机、用于波形数字化的新a /D板、新的运动控制电子设备、更广泛的超声波换能器选择、用于高频（35 MHz）超声波换能器的新型超声波脉冲接收器，以及能够分析高频超声波信号的数字化示波器。扫描系统将用于支持本科生的研究。它非常适合这一目的，因为其操作的基本原理对本科生来说是容易理解的。例如，学生在物理第一学期学习声波传播的基本原理。该系统建立在这些基本概念的基础上，教授学生在更复杂、各向异性和非均匀材料中的波传播。该系统的近期研究计划将涉及两种材料的研究：松质骨和关节软骨。将进行超声波测量，以确定矿物质、胶原蛋白和其他组织成分的含量和组织如何影响超声波传播到组织中的散射。从事这些项目的学生将接触到涉及物理学、生物学和工程学的高度跨学科的研究领域。改进后的超声扫描系统在研究应用的灵活性上与核磁共振波谱仪或电子显微镜类似，是一种基础研究仪器。可以执行的具体测量包括声音通过材料的速度（对材料的弹性特性敏感），衰减（对材料的粘性特性敏感）和散射（对材料的非均匀特性敏感）。它代表了研究各种材料物理性质的强大工具，并将为罗德学院周边地区的研究人员提供一个重要的研究工具，否则将无法获得。该系统将影响几个群体的学生，包括罗德学院和周边机构的科学专业学生，参加这些机构夏季本科研究项目的学生，以及参与罗德学院、孟菲斯大学和田纳西大学生物医学工程独特的理学士-硕士项目的学生。

A grant has been awarded to Rhodes College under the direction of Dr. Brent Hoffmeister to modernize and enhance an ultrasonic scanning system currently in their possession. The system operates by mechanically scanning an ultrasonic transducer over a specimen to rapidly perform ultrasonic measurements at multiple sites on the specimen. The mechanical components of the present system are in excellent condition, but the electronics (including the 486 platform computer used to control the system) are obsolete. The grant will be used to modernize the scanning system and to expand its acoustic frequency range from approximately 1-7.5 MHz to 0.3-150 MHz. Major items in the budget include a new computer to control the system, a new computer for data analysis, a new A/D board for waveform digitization, new motion control electronics, a wider selection of ultrasonic transducers, a new ultrasonic pulser-receiver for use with high frequency (35 MHz) ultrasonic transducers, and a digitizing oscilloscope capable of analyzing high frequency ultrasonic signals.The scanning system will be used to support undergraduate research. It is well suited for this purpose because the basic principles of its operation are accessible to undergraduate students. For example, students learn the basic principles of acoustic wave propagation in their first semester of physics. The system builds upon these fundamental concepts to teach students about wave propagation in more complicated, anisotropic and inhomogeneous materials. Immediate research plans for the system will involve studies of two such materials: cancellous bone and articular cartilage. Ultrasonic measurements will be performed to determine how the content and organization of mineral, collagen and other tissue constituents affect the scattering of ultrasonic waves propagated into the tissue. Students working on these projects will be exposed to a highly interdisciplinary area of research involving physics, biology and engineering.The improved ultrasonic scanning system will be a basic research instrument similar to an NMR spectrometer or electron microscope in the flexibility of its possible research applications. Specific measurements that can be performed include the speed of sound through materials (sensitive to the elastic properties of the material), attenuation (sensitive to the viscous properties of the material) and scattering (sensitive to the inhomogeneous properties of the material). It represents a powerful tool for studying the physical properties of a wide variety of materials, and will provide researchers in the region surrounding Rhodes College with an important research instrument that otherwise would be unavailable. The system will impact students from several groups including science majors at Rhodes College and surrounding institutions, students participating in summer undergraduate research programs at these institutions, and students enrolled in a unique B.S.-M.S. program in biomedical engineering involving Rhodes College, the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee.