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。 该系统通过在样本上机械扫描超声波换能器来操作，以在样本上的多个位置快速执行超声波测量。 当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。 这笔赠款将用于对扫描系统进行现代化改造，并将其声波频率范围从大约 1-7.5 MHz 扩大到 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、更广泛的超声换能器选择、与高频（35 MHz）超声换能器一起使用的新型超声脉冲接收器以及能够分析高频超声信号的数字化示波器。该扫描系统将用于支持本科生研究。 它非常适合此目的，因为本科生可以了解其操作的基本原理。 例如，学生在物理的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，教授学生关于更复杂、各向异性和不均匀材料中的波传播的知识。 该系统的近期研究计划将涉及两种此类材料的研究：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传播到组织中的超声波的散射。 从事这些项目的学生将接触到涉及物理、生物学和工程学的高度跨学科的研究领域。改进的超声波扫描系统将成为类似于核磁共振波谱仪或电子显微镜的基础研究仪器，其可能的研究应用具有灵活性。 可以执行的具体测量包括声速穿过材料的速度（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（对材料的不均匀特性敏感）。 它是研究各种材料物理特性的强大工具，并将为罗德学院周边地区的研究人员提供一种原本无法获得的重要研究工具。 该系统将影响来自多个群体的学生，包括罗德学院及周边机构的科学专业学生、在这些机构参加暑期本科研究项目的学生，以及就读独特的学士-硕士学位课程的学生。罗德学院、孟菲斯大学和田纳西大学参与的生物医学工程项目。

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.