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

在布伦特·霍夫迈斯特博士的指导下，罗兹学院获得了一笔赠款，用于改进和改进他们目前拥有的超声波扫描系统。 该系统通过在样品上机械扫描超声换能器来操作，以在样品上的多个位置处快速执行超声测量。 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。 这笔赠款将用于使扫描系统现代化，并将其声波频率范围从大约1-7.5兆赫扩大到0.3-150兆赫。 预算中的主要项目包括一台新的计算机来控制系统，一台新的计算机用于数据分析，一个新的A/D板用于波形数字化，新的运动控制电子设备，更广泛的超声波换能器选择，一个新的超声波脉冲接收器用于高频（35 MHz）超声波换能器，以及一个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的研究。 它非常适合这一目的，因为它的操作的基本原则是本科生访问。 例如，学生在物理学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，教授学生关于波在更复杂、各向异性和非均匀材料中的传播。 该系统的近期研究计划将包括对两种材料的研究：松质骨和关节软骨。 将进行超声测量，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。 参与这些项目的学生将接触到一个高度跨学科的研究领域，涉及物理学，生物学和工程学。改进的超声扫描系统将是一个基本的研究仪器，类似于核磁共振光谱仪或电子显微镜，其可能的研究应用的灵活性。 可以进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（对材料的不均匀特性敏感）。 它代表了一个强大的工具，用于研究各种各样的材料的物理特性，并将提供研究人员在该地区周围的罗兹学院的一个重要的研究工具，否则将无法使用。 该系统将影响来自几个群体的学生，包括罗兹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，以及就读于独特的学士学位的学生。M.S.在生物医学工程计划涉及罗兹学院，孟菲斯大学和田纳西大学。

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.