Livia Zarnescu

A head impact detection system using SVM classification and proximity sensing in an instrumented mouthguard

Injury from blunt head impacts causes acute neurological deficits and may lead to chronic neurodegeneration. A head impact detection device can serve both as a research tool for studying head injury mechanisms and a clinical tool for real-time trauma screening. The simplest approach is an acceleration thresholding algorithm, which may falsely detect high-acceleration spurious events such as manual manipulation of the device. We designed a head impact detection system that distinguishes head impacts from nonimpacts through two subsystems. First, we use infrared proximity sensing to determine if the mouthguard is worn on the teeth to filter out all off-teeth events. Second, on-teeth, nonimpact events are rejected using a support vector machine classifier trained on frequency domain features of linear acceleration and rotational velocity. The remaining events are classified as head impacts. In a controlled laboratory evaluation, the present system performed substantially better than a 10-g acceleration threshold in head impact detection (98% sensitivity, 99.99% specificity, 99% accuracy, and 99.98% precision, compared to 92% sensitivity, 58% specificity, 65% accuracy, and 37% precision). Once adapted for field deployment by training and validation with field data, this system has the potential to effectively detect head trauma in sports, military service, and other high-risk activities.

Fiber optic temperature profiling for thermal protection heat shields

Reliable Thermal Protection System (TPS) sensors are needed to achieve better designs for spacecraft (probe) heatshields for missions requiring atmospheric aero-capture or entry/reentry. In particular, they will allow both reduced risk and heat-shield mass minimization, which will facilitate more missions and allow increased payloads and returns. For thermal measurements, Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems Corporation (IFOS) is providing a temperature monitoring system involving innovative lightweight, EMI-immune, high-temperature resistant Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors with a thermal mass near that of TPS materials together with fast FBG sensor interrogation. The IFOS fiber optic sensing technology is highly sensitive and accurate. It is also low-cost and lends itself to high-volume production. Multiple sensing FBGs can be fabricated as arrays on a single fiber for simplified design and reduced cost. In this paper, we provide experimental results to demonstrate the temperature monitoring system using multi-sensor FBG arrays embedded in small-size Super-Light Ablator (SLA) coupon, which was thermally loaded to temperatures in the vicinity of the SLA charring temperature. In addition, a high temperature FBG array was fabricated and tested for 1000°C operation.

Endothelial pattern formation in hybrid constructs of additive manufactured porous rigid scaffolds and cell-laden hydrogels for orthopedic applications

Vascularization of tissue engineering constructs (TECs) in vitro is of critical importance for ensuring effective and satisfactory clinical outcomes upon implantation of TECs. Biomechanical properties of TECs have remarkable influence on the in vitro vascularization of TECs. This work utilized in vitro experiments and finite element analysis to investigate endothelial patterns in hybrid constructs of soft collagen gels and rigid macroporous poly(ε-caprolactone)-β-tricalcium phosphate (PCL-β-TCP) scaffold seeded/embedded with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) for bone tissue engineering applications. We first fabricated and characterized well-defined porous PCL-β-TCP scaffolds with identical pore size (500µm) but different strut sizes (200 and 400µm) using additive manufacturing (AM) technology, and then assessed the HUVEC׳s proliferation and morphogenesis within collagen, PCL-β-TCP scaffold, and the collagen-scaffold hybrid construct. Results showed that, in the hybrid construct, the cell population in the collagen component dropped by day 7 but then increased by day 14. Also, cells migrated onto the struts of the scaffold component, proliferated over time, and formed networks on the thinner struts (i.e., 200µm). Also, the thinner struts resulted in formation of long linear cellular cords structures within the pores. Finite element simulation demonstrated principal stress patterns similar to the observed cell-network pattern. It is probable that the scaffold component modulated patterns of principal stresses in the collagen component as biomechanical cues for reorganization of cell network patterns. Also, the scaffold component significantly improved the mechanical integrity of hydrogel component in the hybrid construct for weight-bearing applications. These results have collectively indicated that the manipulation of micro-architecture of scaffold could be an effective means to further regulate and guide desired cellular response in hybrid constructs.

Fiber-optic temperature profiling for thermal protection system heat shields

To achieve better designs for spacecraft heat shields for missions requiring atmospheric aero-capture or entry/reentry, reliable thermal protection system (TPS) sensors are needed. Such sensors will provide both risk reduction and heat-shield mass minimization, which will facilitate more missions and enable increased payloads and returns. This paper discusses TPS thermal measurements provided by a temperature monitoring system involving lightweight, electromagnetic interference-immune, high-temperature resistant fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors with a thermal mass near that of TPS materials together with fast FBG sensor interrogation. Such fiber-optic sensing technology is highly sensitive and accurate, as well as suitable for high-volume production. Multiple sensing FBGs can be fabricated as arrays on a single fiber for simplified design and reduced cost. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the temperature monitoring system using multisensor FBG arrays embedded in a small-size super-light ablator (SLA) coupon which was thermally loaded to temperatures in the vicinity of the SLA charring temperature. In addition, a high-temperature FBG array was fabricated and tested for 1000°C operation, and the temperature dependence considered over the full range (cryogenic to high temperature) for which silica fiber FBGs have been subjected.

Label-free characterization of vitrification-induced morphology changes in single-cell embryos with full-field optical coherence tomography

Abstract. Vitrification is an increasingly popular method of embryo cryopreservation that is used in assisted reproductive technology. Although vitrification has high post-thaw survival rates compared to other freezing techniques, its long-term effects on embryo development are still poorly understood. We demonstrate an application of full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) to visualize the effects of vitrification on live single-cell (2 pronuclear) mouse embryos without harmful labels. Using FF-OCT, we observed that vitrification causes a significant increase in the aggregation of structures within the embryo cytoplasm, consistent with reports in literature based on fluorescence techniques. We quantify the degree of aggregation with an objective metric, the cytoplasmic aggregation (CA) score, and observe a high degree of correlation between the CA scores of FF-OCT images of embryos and of fluorescence images of their mitochondria. Our results indicate that FF-OCT shows promise as a label-free assessment of the effects of vitrification on embryo mitochondria distribution. The CA score provides a quantitative metric to describe the degree to which embryos have been affected by vitrification and could aid clinicians in selecting embryos for transfer.

Assessment of imaging parameters correlated with the effects of cryopreservation on embryo development

Embryo cryopreservation is an increasingly common technique that allows patients to undergo multiple cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) without being subjected to repeated ovarian stimulation and oocyte retrieval. There are two types of cryopreservation commonly used in IVF clinics today: slow freezing and vitrification. Because vitrification has been shown to result in higher rates of embryo survival post-thaw compared to slow freezing, it is rapidly gaining popularity in clinics worldwide. However, several studies have shown that vitrification can still cause damage to embryos in the form of DNA fragmentation, altered mitochondrial distribution and changes in transcriptional activity, all of which are impossible to assess noninvasively. In this paper we demonstrate a new method of quantitatively and noninvasively assessing changes in embryo appearance due to vitrification. Using full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT), we show that vitrification causes striking changes in the appearance of the cytoplasm that are not visible under conventional brightfield microscopy. Using an automated algorithm that extracts parameters to describe these changes, we show that these parameters can also predict viability in embryos that have undergone vitrification. An automated, noninvasive assessment of embryo viability after vitrification and thawing could have significant clinical impact: allowing clinicians to more accurately choose the most viable embryos to transfer back to patients could reduce the average number of IVF cycles that patients must undergo to achieve pregnancy.

Fiber Bragg Gratings for Heat Flux Measurements in Thermal Protection Systems Under a Steady Conductive Thermal Load

This paper examines the performance of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as embedded heat flux sensors for ablative thermal protection systems (TPS). Ablative TPS materials are currently used for reentry spacecraft applications because ablative TPS materials are able to withstand the higher temperatures present in ballistic reentry than non-ablative materials. It is important to measure the through-the-thickness temperature profile in-situ to verify the heat shielding performance. FBG sensors were chosen to monitor the temperature in the TPS primarily because of a good match in the thermal properties of the silica fibers and the TPS material. A TPS specimen was subjected to a conductive and steady thermal load. Two FBG sensor arrays were embedded in the TPS specimen. One array was embedded horizontally in the specimen near the surface where the heat was applied, and the second array was embedded diagonally through the thickness of the specimen. The temperature load was produced using the lower platen of a hot press, and the maximum temperature was below the ablation temperature of the material. After the specimen was heated, it was removed from the hot press and allowed to passively cool on a metal table. The peak wavelength output from each sensor was monitored and recorded during the loading cycle, and the wavelength measurements were converted to temperature data over time. The test was completed three times, and excellent repeatability was present across the three tests and the temperature response of the FBGs was reasonable, even though the test setup was torn down and reassembled between two of the tests. Thermal images of the specimen were also collected during the test with an IR camera. The thermal images were used to provide a temperature map of the specimen which showed good agreement with the FBG data.Copyright