Laboratory Device Research Articles

Numerical investigation of mixing process of high-pressure jet-cutting clay by water–air coaxial nozzle considering soil rheological properties

Simulation and accurate modeling of the mixing process of the high-pressure jet-cutting clay by the water–air coaxial nozzle is significantly important for the performance optimization of the triple fluid jet grouting. In this paper, a numerical model considering the soil rheological properties is proposed to investigate the mixing process of the high-pressure jet-cutting clay. The cohesive force model of clay is obtained based on the solution of the power law index and consistency factor by coupling the Herschel-Bulkley and soil logarithmic models. The interaction model among the gas phase, the liquid phase, and the clay medium is further established through use of the drag force model. A laboratory device of high-pressure jet-cutting transparent clay is developed to prove the feasibility of the proposed model for the mixing process of the high-pressure jet-cutting clay. Finally, using the validated numerical model, the mixing process of the high-pressure jet-cutting clay by the water–air coaxial nozzle with varying radial spacings between the air nozzle and water nozzle is numerically investigated, and the axial stability of the jet, the width of the cross-sectional profile, and the variation of the central axis velocity field of the mixing process are analyzed. Results demonstrated that the variation trend of the jet in both simulations and experiments is consistent, and the maximum error in jet depth is better than 3.3%, validating the accuracy of the numerical model of the mixing process of the high-pressure jet-cutting clay. The optimal radial spacing size for a water–air coaxial nozzle in high-pressure jetting of clay medium is 1.4 mm, which provides the best axial stability, the narrower jet cross-section, and the slowest decay of jet velocity along the central axis.

Rapid and sensitive on-site detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from environmental surfaces using portable laboratory devices.

Monitoring severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA on inanimate surfaces plays a crucial role in environmental surveillance, enabling the indirect detection of infected individuals and facilitating rapid infection control responses. However, developing a practical on-site, end-to-end method for detection remains a challenge. In this study, we established protocols for on-site detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on surfaces using two portable laboratory devices: The PicoGene PCR1100 and Bento Lab. Test particles comprised of inactivated viral particles containing partial sequences of SARS-CoV-2, type 1 poliovirus, coxsackie virus A16, and norovirus genogroups I and II were applied to reference materials as simulated contaminants. The direct detection method with the PicoGene PCR1100 achieved a recovery efficiency of 35.1% for the dried reference material. Furthermore, the Bento Lab, equipped with a microcentrifuge for on-site RNA purification, successfully detected a low concentration of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 reference standard. The recovery efficiency of the on-site RNA purification method on plastic, stainless steel, glass, and polyvinyl chloride surfaces ranged from 15.5% to 21.2%. Through the combination of these portable devices, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected within 1 h of swab sampling. This study contributes to the on-site risk assessment of infectious diseases by enabling the rapid detection of viral genomes. IMPORTANCE This study presents the development of a highly sensitive on-site method for detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA on various surfaces, including doorknobs and tables. Identifying SARS-CoV-2 RNA on these surfaces can be crucial in guiding decision-making for implementing non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as zoning strategies, improving ventilation, maintaining physical distancing, and promoting increased hand hygiene practices. Moreover, the on-site detection system can facilitate the swift initiation of mitigation responses in non-laboratory settings, including long-term care facilities and schools. The protocols established in this study offer a comprehensive approach for achieving both sensitivity and rapidity in on-site SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection. Furthermore, since the RT-qPCR assay serves as the gold standard for detecting viral RNAs, the developed protocol holds potential for application to other viruses, including enteroviruses and noroviruses.

Large amplitude dust-acoustic solitary waves and double layers in nonthermal warm complex plasmas

Using a Sagdeev pseudo-potential approach, where the nonlinear structures are stationary in a comoving frame, the arbitrary or large amplitude dust-acoustic solitary waves and double layers have been studied in dusty plasmas containing warm positively charged dust and nonthermal distributed electrons and ions. Depending on the values of the critical Mach number, which varies with the plasma parameter, both supersonic and subsonic dust-acoustic solitary waves are found. It is found that our plasma system under consideration supports both positive and negative supersonic solitary waves and only positive subsonic solitary waves and negative double layers. The parametric regimes for the existence of subsonic and supersonic dust-acoustic waves and how the polarity of solitary waves changes with plasma parameters are shown. It is observed that the solitary wave and double layer solutions exist at the values of Mach number around its critical Mach number. The basic properties (amplitude, width, speed, etc.) of the solitary pulses and double layers are significantly modified by the plasma parameters (viz., ion to positive dust number density ratio, ion to electron temperature ratio, nonthermal parameter, and positive dust temperature to ion temperature ratio). The applications of our present work in space environments (viz., cometary tails, Earth’s mesosphere, and Jupiter’s magnetosphere) and laboratory devices, where nonthermal ion and electron species along with positively charged dust species have been observed, are briefly discussed.

Determination of the Dependences of the Nutritional Value of Corn Silage and Photoluminescent Properties

This article examines existing optical methods for the diagnostics of food and feed products used in agriculture to determine their nutritional value or detect maximum permissible indicators. Among the most common feeds used for cattle, corn silage is considered. Its nutritional value depends on many external factors that need to be taken into account when formulating feeding rations. This article is dedicated to assessing the prospects of using visible-range photoluminescence for determining dry matter content, total protein content, and NDF (neutral detergent fiber) using a portable device in field conditions without lengthy sample preparation. This research aims to develop a laboratory device and establish the theoretical foundations for determining the nutritional value of agricultural feeds using photoluminescence. The study revealed that the most indicative range for measuring nutritional corn silage is to use excitation via radiation with a wavelength of about 362 nm. At the same time, the luminescent radiation flux must be measured in a range of 440–620 nm. Moreover, R2 values greater than 0.8 were achieved in correlation after constructing luminescence relationships only for the determination of dry matter content/moisture, total protein content, and NDF. This indicates the potential use of the proposed method for determining these parameters.

Measurement of Occupational Eye and Thyroid Radiation Doses in Pediatric Interventional Cardiologists at a Tertiary Hospital.

Background Advances in imaging techniques have led to increased utilization of imaging devices in catheterization laboratories. Invasive surgical procedures for cardiac disorders have been largely replaced by fluoroscopic cardiac catheterization. With this increase, concerns and risks associated with exposure to ionizing radiation among interventional cardiologists are growing. This study aims to measure and compare the occupational doses to the eye lens and thyroid of pediatric interventional cardiologists during different procedures in the catheterization laboratory and its significance. Methodology In this study, cardiologists wore bandanas with attached dosimeters to measure the absorbed doses to the eyes and thyroid gland. The dosimeters were collected for reading. The procedure types were also collected. In addition, the total fluoroscopy time and tube voltage of the biplane machine were measured. SPSS version 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used to analyze the data. The characteristics of the study sample were described using simple counts and percentages, whereas means and standard deviations were used for continuous variables.Statistical significance was set at p-values <0.05. Results A total of 93 procedures were evaluated. The mean absorbed doses for all 93 procedures in both eyes and thyroid were 0.09 mGy and 0.08 mGy, respectively. A significant difference was found between the left and right eye measurements (p = 0.034), with higher doses administered to the left eye. However, no significant difference was observed between the right and left thyroid doses (p = 0.281). Significant correlations were found between the eye and thyroid doses and the procedure type (p = 0.02 and p = 0.009, respectively). Conclusions A significant amount of radiation was measured in the measurements of both organs. In addition, radiation dose measurements varied between different types of procedures. Our current results indicate the importance and necessity of applying the radiation protection concept of dose optimization.

ITSASDRONE, an autonomous marine surface drone for fish monitoring around wave energy devices

The ocean energy development is one of the main pillars of the EU Blue Growth strategy. However, while the technological development of devices is growing fast, their potential environmental effects are not well-known. The nascent status of the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) sector and Wave Energy (WE) in particular, yields many unknowns about its potential environmental pressures and impacts, some of them still far from being completely understood. Wave Energy Converters’ (WECs) operation in the marine environment is still perceived by regulators and stakeholders as a risky activity, particularly for some groups of species and habitats. The SafeWAVE project aims to improve the knowledge on these impacts trough an Environmental Research Demonstration Strategy based on the collection, processing, modelling, analysis and sharing of environmental data collected in WE sites from different European countries where WECs are currently operating (Mutriku power plant and BIMEP in Spain, Aguçadoura in Portugal and SEMREV in France) representing different types of technology, different types of locations and different types of project scales, therefore, different types and/or magnitudes of environmental impacts. As part of SafeWAVE project, environmental monitoring plans relative to electromagnetic fields, acoustics (noise), seafloor integrity and fish communities need to be put in place. In the case of fish communities, generally speaking, any artefact located in the sea may cause an attraction effect on fish communities, especially if it is floating. In the case of Marine Renewable Energy Devices, during the operation phase, in general, the placement of any artefact in the sea can result in an attracting effect on fish communities, especially if it is floating. In order to study this possible effect, fish communities monitoring around the Penguin WEC-2 of WELLO-Oy localized in BiMEP test site with the ITSASDRONE surface drone developed by AZTI was planned. The study was designed to carry out the tunning and conditioning of the ITSASDRONE and to discover the associations between WECs and fish aggregations. Penguin WEC-2 of WELLO was removed from BiMEP test site due to an alarm of leakage. Consequently, we decided to carry out the monitoring work around the HarshLab, a floating laboratory device constructed by Tecnalia and localized also in BiMEP test site. The study allows us to validate the ITSASDRONE as a viable autonomous vehicle for fish school monitoring. It still needs some technological improvement related to navigation system, but in general, the ITSADRONE meets the objectives for which it was conceived and could be an excellent monitoring technique due to its capacity to work remotely and in near shore areas. Schools of unidentified small pelagic fish were observed distributed throughout the water column, predominantly near the bottom in the device area. But, future studies are needed to further explore the association between WECs and fish aggregations. The aim of this communication is to show the work done by an autonomous marine surface drone, ITSASDRONE, in relation to fish monitoring in BiMEP area.

Safety and efficacy of the CELT ACD femoral arteriotomy closure device in the office-based laboratory.

Manual compression remains the gold standard for achieving hemostasis for percutaneous common femoral artery access. However, it requires prolonged bedrest and 20 to 30minutes or more of compression for hemostasis. Current arterial closure devices have emerged in recent years, but patients still require prolonged bedrest and time to ambulation and discharge, and these devices are associated with significant access device complications, including hematoma, retroperitoneal bleeding, transfusion requirement, pseudoaneurysm, arteriovenous fistula, and arterial thrombosis. A novel femoral access closure device, the CELT ACD (Vasorum Ltd, Dublin, Ireland), has been previously shown to reduce these complication rates and allow rapid hemostasis, require little or no bedrest, and shortened time to ambulation and discharge. This is especially advantageous in the outpatient setting. We report our initial experience with this device. A prospective single-center single-arm study was performed in an office-based laboratory setting to assess the safety and efficacy of the CELT ACD closure device. Patients underwent diagnostic and therapeutic peripheral arterial procedures from retrograde or antegrade common femoral artery access. Primary endpoints include device deployment success, time to hemostasis, and major or minor complications. Secondary endpoints include time to ambulation and time to discharge. Major complications were defined as bleeding requiring hospitalization or blood transfusion, device embolization, pseudoaneurysm formation, and limb ischemia. Minor complications were defined as bleeding not requiring hospitalization/blood transfusion, device malfunction, and access site infection. A total of 442 patients were enrolled with common femoral access only. Median age was 78years (range, 48-91years), and 64% were male. Heparin was given in all cases, with median heparin dose of 6000 units (range, 3000-10,000 units). Protamine reversal was used in 10 cases due to minor soft tissue bleeding. Average time to hemostasis was 12.1seconds (±13.2seconds), time to ambulation was 17.1minutes (±5.2minutes), and time to discharge was 31.7minutes (±8.9minutes). All devices (100%) were deployed successfully. No major complications occurred (0%). Ten minor complications (2.3%) occurred; all were minor soft tissue bleeding from the access site that resolved with protamine reversal of heparin and manual compression. The CELT ACD closure device is safe and easily deployed with a very low complication rate, and significantly reduces time to hemostasis, ambulation, and discharge in patients undergoing peripheral arterial intervention from a common femoral artery approach in the office-based laboratory setting. This is a promising device that deserves further evaluation.

A new type of laboratory microdevice for distillation of lavender and herb raw materials

Abstract. Bulgaria is known for its essential oils and medicinal plants, which occupy increasing parts in the agricultural areas. In recent years, the boom in lavender production has made our country the largest producer of lavender oil in the world. This intensified the scientific work with it and led to the creation of new lavender varieties and lines that are used in production. All research and tests on an industrial scale go through the laboratory distillation of small amounts of plant material to determine the quantity and quality of essential oil. In laboratory practice, micro-apparatus for water distillation is widely used, which does not reflect the real results for the yield and quality of the product. This necessitated the creation of a new laboratory device for determining the content of essential oil in raw materials with labile (rich in esters) oil by the application of steam distillation. The design of this apparatus mirrors industrial installations, thus the results it produces accurately simulate those of industrial production. Tests with herbal raw materials, like Lavandula angustifolia Mill., Salva sclarea L. and Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don showed that the model is effective and applicable. The oils obtained by the new apparatus retained an ester content of 40.2%, 75.0% and 4.8%, respectively; these figures represent a significant improvement over previous methods.

FEM Numerical and Experimental Work on Extrusion Welding of 7021 Aluminum Alloy.

Extrusion welding of AlZnMg alloys encounters great technological difficulties in practice associated with high shaping forces and the low quality of longitudinal welds. Three different chemical compositions of 7021 aluminum alloy, differing in terms of Zn and Mg contents, were used in the first stage of the research. The laboratory device modelling the behavior of metal in welding chambers of the porthole die was applied to examine the ability of 7021 alloys to produce high-quality joints. The weldability tests were carried out for different welding temperatures-400, 450 and 500 °C-and for a fixed welding pressure of 300 MPa. The microstructural effects in pressure-welds were evaluated with the use of OM and SEM/EDS. The temperature-pressure parameters in the welding chambers were analyzed by using the FEM method for original porthole dies while extruding tubes with dimensions of Ø50 × 2 mm. Finally, the industrial extrusion trials were performed with examination of the structure and strength of the seam welds. It was found that it is possible to produce high-quality high-strength welds in tubes extruded from AlZnMg alloys in industrial conditions (the strength of welds in the range of 96-101% of the strength of the basic non-welded material) through properly matched alloy chemical composition of the alloy, construction of the porthole dies and temperature-speed conditions of deformation.

La coopération entre allergologues et biologistes membres du réseau AllergoBioNet : le succès d’un modèle français

AllergoBioNet is a French association of clinical laboratory specialists of allergic and mast-cell-related diseases and their differential diagnoses. Its 79 members are working in clinical laboratories in 29 Universitary Hospitals and 15 General Hospitals in France and another one in Belgium. Ten of these laboratories have recently been certified as «laboratoires de biologie médicale de référence » (Reference Clinical Laboratories, LBMR) to valorize the expertise in hypersensitivity, mast-cell and complement laboratory investigations. The first mission of these laboratory professionals is to ensure that results are accurate and reliable. Thus, they deal with all the process of continuous quality improvement and are able to minimize errors of the sample's workflow (pre-analytic, analytic and post-analytic phases). Since years, they are certified by the French Organization for Quality (COFRAC). Moreover, they evaluate newer diagnostic tests, ensure continuous medical formation to actualize competences and knowledge, participate in research protocols and publish in national and international specialized reviews. The aims of this article are (1) to encourage all medical laboratory specialists working in the field of allergic diseases (diagnosis, monitoring patients and responses to therapy) to join the AllergoBioNet network; (2) to encourage physicians to collaborate with these laboratory professionals, so that they could answer to practical questions (ie: pre-analytical needs and conservation samples), receive updates for state-of-the-art laboratory methods and devices, refer patients needing highly specialized analyses and ensure interdisciplinary interpretation of clinical and laboratory results. This partnership should improve mutual competences and contribute to patient care.

Experimental Research on Backward Erosion Piping Progression

Internal erosion is caused by seepage body forces acting on the soil particles. One of the most dangerous modes of internal erosion at hydraulic structures is backward erosion piping, which usually initiates at the downstream end of a seepage path, e.g., at the downstream toe of the dam. The progress of backward erosion and the development of erosion pipes were tested in a newly developed laboratory device for three types of sand with grain sizes of 0/2, 0.25/2, and 0.25/1. The piezometric head along the gradually developing seepage “pipe” was observed by seventeen piezometers and seven pressure sensors. The seepage amount was measured by the volumetric method. The critical hydraulic gradient was determined and related to the soil porosity. The progression of the seepage path and relevant characteristics such as the piezometric and pressure heads and the amount of trapped sediment were observed by two synchronous cameras. Based on the analysis of the results of 42 tests, a new empirical formula for the backward erosion rate was proposed. The characteristics of lateral erosion were evaluated and compared with the available literature, which provided reasonably good agreement.

Evaluation of the lines of the control nursery of spring soft wheat in arid conditions North of Kazakhstan

Relevance. Northern Kazakhstan is a region where the main production of spring soft wheat grain is concentrated. The creation and introduction of new varieties that meet the requirements of modern production are relevant.Methods. The objects of research are 76 breeding lines of spring soft wheat. The experience was laid in the steppe zone of the North Kazakhstan region. The climate is arid, the average annual precipitation is 240–330 mm. The soil is ordinary carbonate heavy loamy chernozem, humus — 4.5–5.0%. Records and observations were carried out according to the Methodology of the state test (2010). The mass of 1000 grains was determined according to GOST 10842-89, the gluten content — according to ST RK 1046-2008, the nature of the grain was determined on a laboratory device Wile 200.Results. The evaluation of the breeding material was carried out in harsh arid conditions according to several economically valuable characteristics: the duration of the growing season, productivity and grain quality. Six most promising lines have been identified for further study in the conditions of Northern Kazakhstan: 433 SP-2/20, 438 SP-2/20, 446 SP-2/20, 448 SP-2/20, 619 SP-2/20, 769 SP-2/20 with a yield of 24.0–27.7 kg/ha, weighing 1000 grains — 37.2–42.8 g, in kind — 771–789 g /l, gluten content — 32.32–36.32%.

Microencapsulated phase change material-cement composites for cementing the natural gas hydrate layer

To cement natural gas hydrate (NGH) layers in the deep and ultra-deep water environment, cement slurries must display both low heat of hydration (HOH) and high early strength. Herein, chemical precipitation was used to prepare a microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) comprising a core of phase change materials and a shell of silica. The MPCM could effectively control the temperature increase during cement hydration and improve the early strength of cement pastes by accelerating hardening. Comprehensive physical and chemical analyses were carried out to identify a suitable ratio of MPCM and its underlying mechanisms. A laboratory device was further used to test the effect of MPCM-cement composite slurries on the thermal stability of NGHs. The properties of this new cement slurry system meet the requirements for cementing NGH layers in deep and ultra-deep water areas. This cement composite has broad application potential in the oil and natural gas industry.

Demonstration of new attacks on three healthcare network protocols in a lab environment

Healthcare delivery organizations such as hospitals are complex infrastructures comprising a broad range of networked devices. They include connected medical devices which can deliver health care, support hospitals’ operations, and can exchange patients’ data over healthcare network protocols. Previous research has pointed out weaknesses in the implementations of some of these protocols, and demonstrated how they could be abused by malicious actors in hospitals. There are still other healthcare network protocols for which we have limited knowledge, and no security analysis can be found in the literature. This can represent an issue, as these technologies may also have vulnerabilities which could, if exploited, impact hospitals’ operations and patients’ data. For this reason, we investigate in this paper three healthcare protocols found in hospital networks: the POCT1-A and LIS02-A standards used by some point-of-care and laboratory devices, and the proprietary protocol Data Export used by some Philips patient monitors. We explain how to build a test lab to perform security research on medical devices, in which we demonstrate four attacks highlighting how the selected protocols can be abused. This research provides greater knowledge of threats relevant to healthcare delivery organizations, and helps to enhance network security monitoring capabilities such as intrusion detection systems. More specifically, signatures can be created to detect attacks on these protocols and datasets can be assembled to assist the development and testing of hospital-specific intrusion detection systems.

Deep Scattering Transform with Attention Mechanisms Improves EMG-based Hand Gesture Recognition.

Electromyogram (EMG) signals provide valuable insights into the muscles' activities supporting the different hand movements, but their analysis can be challenging due to their stochastic nature, noise, and non-stationary variations in the signal. We are pioneering the use of a unique combination of wavelet scattering transform (WST) and attention mechanisms adopted from recent sequence modelling developments of deep neural networks for the classification of EMG patterns. Our approach utilizes WST, which decomposes the signal into different frequency components, and then applies a non-linear operation to the wavelet coefficients to create a more robust representation of the extracted features. This is coupled with different variations of attention mechanisms, typically employed to focus on the most important parts of the input data by considering weighted combinations of all input vectors. By applying this technique to EMG signals, we hypothesized that improvement in the classification accuracy could be achieved by focusing on the correlation between the different muscles' activation states associated with the different hand movements. To validate the proposed hypothesis, the study was conducted using three commonly used EMG datasets collected from various environments based on laboratory and wearable devices. This approach shows significant improvement in myoelectric pattern recognition (PR) compared to other methods, with average accuracies of up to 98%.

Near-infrared radiation causes sebaceous gland enlargement along with an ROS-dependent augmentation of epidermal growth factor receptor expression in hamsters.

As near-infrared radiation (NIR), which is a composition of sunlight with an 780-1400 nm wavelength, is associated with skin aging such as wrinkles and slacks, the biological actions of NIR with high dermal penetration remains unclear. In the present study, we found that NIR irradiation (40 J/cm2 ) at different levels of irradiance (95-190 mW/cm2 ) using a laboratory device with a xenon flash lamp (780-1700 nm) caused sebaceous gland enlargement concomitantly with skin thickening in the auricle skin of hamsters. The sebaceous gland enlargement resulted from the proliferation of sebocytes due to an increase in the number of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)- and lamin B1-positive cells in vivo. In addition, NIR irradiation transcriptionally augmented the production of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) accompanied with an increase in the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in hamster sebocytes in vitro. Furthermore, the administration of hydrogen peroxide increased the level of EGFR mRNA in the sebocytes. Therefore, these results provide novel evidence that NIR irradiation causes the hyperplasia of sebaceous glands in hamsters by mechanisms in which EGFR production is transcriptionally augmented through ROS-dependent pathways in sebocytes.

Wearable Technologies for Electrodermal and Cardiac Activity Measurements: A Comparison between Fitbit Sense, Empatica E4 and Shimmer GSR3.

The capability of measuring specific neurophysiological and autonomic parameters plays a crucial role in the objective evaluation of a human's mental and emotional states. These human aspects are commonly known in the scientific literature to be involved in a wide range of processes, such as stress and arousal. These aspects represent a relevant factor especially in real and operational environments. Neurophysiological autonomic parameters, such as Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Photoplethysmographic data (PPG), have been usually investigated through research-graded devices, therefore resulting in a high degree of invasiveness, which could negatively interfere with the monitored user's activity. For such a reason, in the last decade, recent consumer-grade wearable devices, usually designed for fitness-tracking purposes, are receiving increasing attention from the scientific community, and are characterized by a higher comfort, ease of use and, therefore, by a higher compatibility with daily-life environments. The present preliminary study was aimed at assessing the reliability of a consumer wearable device, i.e., the Fitbit Sense, with respect to a research-graded wearable, i.e., the Empatica E4 wristband, and a laboratory device, i.e., the Shimmer GSR3+. EDA and PPG data were collected among 12 participants while they performed multiple resting conditions. The results demonstrated that the EDA- and PPG-derived features computed through the wearable and research devices were positively and significantly correlated, while the reliability of the consumer device was significantly lower.

Design of IoT Based Remote Renewable Energy Laboratory

With continuous increase in the number of students enrolled in universities, e-learning has become an urgent necessity in modern education systems. However, applied programs face challenges in adopting this type of learning because of their need for laboratories and training workshops. With the advancement in computers and wireless communications technologies, and advent of Internet of Things technology, it has become possible to design real laboratories that can be accessed remotely. Remote labs are an advanced step that enables students to interact remotely with real laboratory devices using personal computers or smartphones from anywhere and at any time. This paper presents the use of Internet of Things technology in the design of the renewable energy laboratory, where the experiments are designed in a way that allows the student to choose the required experiment remotely, study its components, and measure many variables in order to obtain the necessary skills.

Исследование потенциальной опасности литиевых аккумуляторов при непредсказуемом использовании

Lithium-based batteries are designed and manufactured in such a way as to ensure their safe operation under various conditions. If lithium batteries are misused or damaged, hazards such as fire or explosion may occur. According to the Russian regulations, the safety of lithium-based batteries is considered from two points of view. The first is intended use, i.e., according to the specifications and instructions. The second is improper use under conditions not intended by the manufacturer, but easily predictable. The article explored the third option - unpredictable use, including events from predictable misuse, but not separately, but in combination. In particular, a hazard may arise if a battery is punctured inside military or rescue communications equipment while on duty, or when charging phones after prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures. To study a new option for using lithium-based batteries for assessing their potential hazard, a laboratory device was created and patented with the possibility of a mechanical puncture of the battery. During the research, the following potential hazards were recorded: ignition, explosion, leakage of electrolyte from the battery, pressure release and rupture of the battery hull with the release of internal components. Five experiments were set up (separately for each object under study) on discharged batteries. It was established that even discharged batteries have potential hazards of electrolyte leakage from the object and rupture of the hull with the release of internal components.

Phantom-based assessment of motion and needle targeting accuracy of robotic devices for magnetic resonance imaging-guided needle biopsy.

The current study proposes simple methods for assessing the performance of robotic devices intended for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-guided needle biopsy. In-house made agar-based breast phantoms containing biopsy targets served as the main tool in the evaluation process of an MRI compatible positioning device comprising a needle navigator. The motion accuracy of mechanical stages was assessed by calliper measurements. Laboratory evaluation of needle targeting included a repeatability phantom test and a laser-based method. The accuracy and repeatability of needle targeting was also assessed by MRI. The maximum error of linear motion for steps up to 10mm was 0.1mm. Needle navigation relative to the phantom and alignment with the various biopsy targets were performed successfully in both the laboratory and MRI settings. The proposed biopsy phantoms offered tissue-like signal in MRI and good haptic feedback during needle insertion. The proposed methods could be valuable in the process of validating the accuracy of MRI-guided biopsy robotic devices in both laboratory and real environments.