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This study deals with the formulation of an analytical solution for load transfer in drilled shaft and its application. The emphasis is on quantifying the mobilization of side resistances, which are closely related to shear behaviors of the concrete-rock interface. In this modelling, the side resistance is idealized by using elasticity-brittleness-plasticity, and a simple slip-line field is built to identify the critical shear displacement. The closed-form solution of load transfer is obtained by using the proposed shear model. Comparison between predictions and field observations is also made to validate performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shear wave speed can be used to assess tissue elasticity, which is associated with tissue health. Ultrasound shear wave elastography techniques based on measuring the propagation speed of the shear waves induced by acoustic radiation force are becoming promising alternatives to biopsy in liver fibrosis staging. However, shear waves generated by such methods are typically very weak. Therefore, the penetration may become problematic, especially for overweight or obese patients. In this study, we developed a new method called external vibration multi-directional ultrasound shearwave elastography (EVMUSE), in which external vibration from a loudspeaker was used to generate a multi-directional shear wave field. A directional filter was then applied to separate the complex shear wave field into several shear wave fields propagating in different directions. A 2-D shear wave speed map was reconstructed from each individual shear wave field, and a final 2-D shear wave speed map was constructed by compounding these individual wave speed maps. The method was validated using two homogeneous phantoms and one multi-purpose tissue-mimicking phantom. Ten patients undergoing liver magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) were also studied with EVMUSE to compare results between the two methods. Phantom results showed EVMUSE was able to quantify tissue elasticity accurately with good penetration. In vivo EVMUSE results were well correlated with MRE results, indicating the promise of using EVMUSE for liver fibrosis staging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tissue elasticity is related to pathology and, therefore, has important medical applications. Radiation force from a focused ultrasound beam has been used to produce shear waves in tissues for shear wave speed and tissue elasticity measurements. The feasibility of shear wave speed measurement using radiation force for an unfocused ultrasound beam is demonstrated in this study with a linear and a curved array transducer. Consistent measurement of shear wave speed was achieved over a relatively long axial extent (z = 10–40 mm for the linear array, and z = 15–60 mm for the curved array) in three calibrated phantoms with different shear moduli. In vivo measurements on the biceps of a healthy volunteer show consistent increase of shear wave speed for the biceps under 0, 1, 2 and 3 kg loading. Advantages and limitations of unfocused push are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Fast and accurate tissue elasticity imaging is essential in studying dynamic tissue mechanical properties. Various ultrasound shear elasticity imaging techniques have been developed in the last two decades. However, to reconstruct a full field-of-view 2-D shear elasticity map, multiple data acquisitions are typically required. In this paper, a novel shear elasticity imaging technique, comb-push ultrasound shear elastography (CUSE), is introduced in which only one rapid data acquisition (less than 35 ms) is needed to reconstruct a full field-of-view 2-D shear wave speed map (40\,\times \,38 mm). Multiple unfocused ultrasound beams arranged in a comb pattern (comb-push) are used to generate shear waves. A directional filter is then applied upon the shear wave field to extract the left-to-right (LR) and right-to-left (RL) propagating shear waves. Local shear wave speed is recovered using a time-of-flight method based on both LR and RL waves. Finally, a 2-D shear wave speed map is reconstructed by combining the LR and RL speed maps. Smooth and accurate shear wave speed maps are reconstructed using the proposed CUSE method in two calibrated homogeneous phantoms with different moduli. Inclusion phantom experiments demonstrate that CUSE is capable of providing good contrast (contrast-to-noise ratio \ge 25 dB) between the inclusion and background without artifacts and is insensitive to inclusion positions. Safety measurements demonstrate that all regulated parameters of the ultrasound output level used in CUSE sequence are well below the FDA limits for diagnostic ultrasound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Measurement of shear wave propagation speed has important clinical applications because it is related to tissue stiffness and health state. Shear waves can be generated in tissues by the radiation force of a focused ultrasound beam (push beam). Shear wave speed can be measured by tracking its propagation laterally from the push beam focus using the time-of-flight principle. This study shows that shear wave speed measurements with such methods can be transducer, depth and lateral tracking range dependent. Three homogeneous phantoms with different stiffness were studied using curvilinear and linear array transducer. Shear wave speed measurements were made at different depths, using different aperture sizes for push and at different lateral distance ranges from the push beam. The curvilinear transducer shows a relatively large measurement bias that is depth dependent. The possible causes of the bias and options for correction are discussed. These bias errors must be taken into account to provide accurate and precise time-of-flight shear wave speed measurements for clinical use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Solar-driven interface evaporation (SDIE) is a promising seawater desalination technology, which can achieve long-term and efficient seawater desalination in laboratory. However, because of fragile and easily damaged, the solar absorbers are difficult to be applied in the complex and changeable actual applications. In this work, a polypyrrole/Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene-polydopamine-fabric (PPy/MXene-PDA-fabric) was prepared by a simple two-step polymerization method in this study, which can be used as the solar absorber of the SDIE system. Due to the unique physical properties of elastic fabrics, the PPy/MXene-PDA-fabric is easy to transport and clean, making it extremely practical. Meanwhile, the combination of polypyrrole, polydopamine, and MXene photothermal materials also ensures its excellent photothermal conversion performance. The research results show that the average evaporation rate of PPy/MXene-PDA-fabric can reach 1.485 kg/m2h in nearly 100 h of evaporation test under one sun irradiation. After 12 h of continuous operation, only a tiny amount of salt accumulated on the surface of the sample, which could be continued after a simple cleaning. The evaporation rate remained stable after eight cycles. Compared with the traditional solar absorber, PPy/MXene-PDA-fabric not only ensures efficient and durable solar evaporation performance, but also dramatically improves the practicability and environmental applicability. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a paucity of data available regarding the repeatability and reproducibility of superficial shear wave speed (SWS) measurements at imaging depths relevant to the pediatric population. Objective: To assess the repeatability and reproducibility of superficial shear wave speed measurements acquired from elasticity phantoms at varying imaging depths using three imaging methods, two US systems and multiple operators. Materials and methods: Soft and hard elasticity phantoms manufactured by Computerized Imaging Reference Systems Inc. (Norfolk, VA) were utilized for our investigation. Institution No. 1 used an Acuson S3000 US system (Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Malvern, PA) and three shear wave imaging method/transducer combinations, while institution No. 2 used an Aixplorer US system (SuperSonic Imagine, Bothell, WA) and two different transducers. Ten stiffness measurements were acquired from each phantom at three depths (1.0 cm, 2.5 cm and 4.0 cm) by four operators at each institution. Student's t-test was used to compare SWS measurements between imaging techniques, while SWS measurement agreement was assessed with two-way random effects single-measure intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and coefficients of variation. Mixed model regression analysis determined the effect of predictor variables on SWS measurements. Results: For the soft phantom, the average of mean SWS measurements across the various imaging methods and depths was 0.84 ± 0.04 m/s (mean ± standard deviation) for the Acuson S3000 system and 0.90 ± 0.02 m/s for the Aixplorer system ( P = 0.003). For the hard phantom, the average of mean SWS measurements across the various imaging methods and depths was 2.14 ± 0.08 m/s for the Acuson S3000 system and 2.07 ± 0.03 m/s Aixplorer system ( P > 0.05). The coefficients of variation were low (0.5-6.8%), and interoperator agreement was near-perfect (ICCs ≥ 0.99). Shear wave imaging method and imaging depth significantly affected measured SWS ( P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Superficial shear wave speed measurements in elasticity phantoms demonstrate minimal variability across imaging method/transducer combinations, imaging depths and operators. The exact clinical significance of this variation is uncertain and may change according to organ and specific disease state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional shear-wave elastography presents 2-D quantitative shear elasticity maps of tissue, which are clinically useful for both focal lesion detection and diffuse disease diagnosis. Realization of 2-D shear-wave elastography on conventional ultrasound scanners, however, is challenging because of the low tracking pulse-repetition-frequency (PRF) of these systems. Although some clinical and research platforms support software beamforming and plane-wave imaging with high PRF, the majority of current clinical ultrasound systems do not have the software beamforming capability, which presents a critical challenge for translating the 2-D shear-wave elastography technique from laboratory to clinical scanners. To address this challenge, this paper presents a time-aligned sequential tracking (TAST) method for shear-wave tracking on conventional ultrasound scanners. TAST takes advantage of the parallel beamforming capability of conventional systems and realizes high-PRF shear-wave tracking by sequentially firing tracking vectors and aligning shear wave data in the temporal direction. The comb-push ultrasound shear elastography (CUSE) technique was used to simultaneously produce multiple shear wave sources within the field-of-view (FOV) to enhance shear wave SNR and facilitate robust reconstructions of 2-D elasticity maps. TAST and CUSE were realized on a conventional ultrasound scanner. A phantom study showed that the shear-wave speed measurements from the conventional ultrasound scanner were in good agreement with the values measured from other 2-D shear wave imaging technologies. An inclusion phantom study showed that the conventional ultrasound scanner had comparable performance to a state-of-the-art shear-wave imaging system in terms of bias and precision in measuring different sized inclusions. Finally, in vivo case analysis of a breast with a malignant mass, and a liver from a healthy subject demonstrated the feasibility of using the conventional ultrasound scanner for in vivo 2-D shear-wave elastography. These promising results indicate that the proposed technique can enable the implementation of 2-D shear-wave elastography on conventional ultrasound scanners and potentially facilitate wider clinical applications with shear-wave elastography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comb-push ultrasound shear elastography (CUSE) has recently been shown to be a fast and accurate 2-D elasticity imaging technique that can provide a full field-of-view (FOV) shear wave speed map with only one rapid data acquisition. The initial version of CUSE was termed U-CUSE because unfocused ultrasound push beams were used. In this paper, we present two new versions of CUSE—focused CUSE (F-CUSE) and marching CUSE (M-CUSE), which use focused ultrasound push beams to improve acoustic radiation force penetration and produce stronger shear waves in deep tissues (e.g., kidney and liver). F-CUSE divides transducer elements into several subgroups which transmit multiple focused ultrasound beams simultaneously. M-CUSE uses more elements for each focused push beam and laterally marches the push beams. Both F-CUSE and M-CUSE can generate comb-shaped shear wave fields that have shear wave motion at each imaging pixel location so that a full FOV 2-D shear wave speed map can be reconstructed with only one data acquisition. Homogeneous phantom experiments showed that U-CUSE, F-CUSE, and M-CUSE can all produce smooth shear wave speed maps with accurate shear wave speed estimates. An inclusion phantom experiment showed that all CUSE methods could provide good contrast between the inclusion and background with sharp boundaries while F-CUSE and M-CUSE require shorter push durations to achieve shear wave speed maps with comparable SNR to U-CUSE. A more challenging inclusion phantom experiment with a very stiff and deep inclusion shows that better shear wave penetration could be gained by using F-CUSE and M-CUSE. Finally, a shallow inclusion experiment showed that good preservations of inclusion shapes could be achieved by both U-CUSE and F-CUSE in the near field. Safety measurements showed that all safety parameters are below FDA regulatory limits for all CUSE methods. These promising results suggest that, using various push beams, CUSE is capable of reconstructing a 2-D full FOV shear elasticity map using only one push-detection data acquisition in a wide range of depths for soft tissue elasticity imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Total and differential settlements are major concerns in embankment design. Geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankments are recent innovations designed to reduce the total and differential settlements of an embankment, especially on soft subgrade soil. In this paper, semi-analytical solutions were developed to assess the performance of this type of embankment. The geosynthetic-reinforced cushion was idealized as an elastic foundation beam. The vertical piles and subgrade soils were idealized as elastic springs. Winkler’s elastic foundation beam theory was used in the analysis, which considered the shear resistances at the top and bottom of the geosynthetic-reinforced cushion. Semi-analytical solutions were proposed to quantify the effects of various factors, such as soil–beam interface resistance, pile stiffness, pile spacing and the elastic modulus of the foundation beam. It was found that the maximum and differential settlements of the foundation beam can be reduced by increasing pile stiffness, reducing pile spacing, and increasing the elastic modulus of the beam. The characteristics of geosynthetic reinforcement play an important role because they are directly related to the tension strength and elastic modulus of the foundation beam. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Geocell reinforcement has been increasingly applied to road embankment engineering. Deformation calculation is one of the major concerns during the design process. In this paper, the power-series method was employed to investigate the performance of a geocell-reinforced mattress under symmetric loads. The geocell-reinforced mattress was idealized as a beam on a Winkler foundation. In the analysis, the soil–foundation beam interface resistance, related to the horizontal deformation coupling with the vertical deformation, was considered. Semi-analytic solutions were developed to assess the deformations and internal forces of the foundation beam and verified against an existing finite element method . The results of the proposed method were close to the results from the finite element method. Moreover, the effects of various factors, such as height of embankment, horizontal and vertical foundation coefficients, composite elastic modulus and height of geocell-reinforced mattress, on the foundation beam settlement and the tension force within the beam are discussed. It was found that the interface resistance related to the horizontal deformation of the beam has a reduction effect on the embankment settlement, and it is beneficial to reduce the embankment settlement by increasing the beam rigidity and strengthening the subgrade soil body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]