COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A Global Public Health and Risk Modelling Framework Using an Environmental Deep Neural Network, Sentiment Classification with Text Mining and Emotional Reactions from COVID-19 Vaccination Tweets.

Popular social media platforms, such as Twitter, have become an excellent source of information with their swift information dissemination. Individuals with different backgrounds convey their opinions through social media platforms. Consequently, these platforms have become a profound instrument for collecting enormous datasets.

Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy: Text mining, sentiment analysis and machine learning on COVID-19 vaccination Twitter dataset.

In 2019 there was an outbreak of coronavirus pandemic also known as COVID-19. Many scientists believe that the pandemic originated from Wuhan, China, before spreading to other parts of the globe. To reduce the spread of the disease, decision makers encouraged measures such as hand washing, face masking, and social distancing.

Introduction to the special issue on the theory and applications of acoustofluidics.

Acoustofluidics is a burgeoning field that applies ultrasound to micro-scale to nano-scale fluidic systems. The discovery of the ability to effectively manipulate fluids and particles at small scales has yielded results that are superior to other approaches and has been built into a diverse range of research. Recasting the fundamentals of acoustics from the past to include new phenomena observed in recent years has allowed acoustical systems to impact new areas, such as drug delivery, diagnostics, and enhanced chemical processes.

Automatic Electrocardiogram Detection of Suspected Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Application to Wearable Heart Monitors.

In this letter, an automatic detection algorithm for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is presented. Of particular interest is the algorithm's ability to differentiate HCM subjects and healthy volunteers from a single lead ECG dataset. Suspected HCM subjects are identified by the primary clinical abnormality associated with HCM: left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).

Early assessment of shear wave elastography parameters foresees the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with invasive breast cancer.

Background: Early prediction of tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is crucial for optimal treatment and improved outcome in breast cancer patients. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of shear wave elastography (SWE) for early assessment of response to NACT in patients with invasive breast cancer.

Methods: In a prospective study, 62 patients with biopsy-proven invasive breast cancer were enrolled.

Predictive value of comb-push ultrasound shear elastography for the differentiation of reactive and metastatic axillary lymph nodes: A preliminary investigation.

Objectives: To evaluate the predictive performance of comb-push ultrasound shear elastography for the differentiation of reactive and metastatic axillary lymph nodes.

Methods: From June 2014 through September 2018, 114 female volunteers (mean age 58.1±13.

Pulsed vibro-acoustic method for assessment of osteoporosis & osteopenia: A feasibility study on human subjects.

In this paper we propose a new non-invasive ultrasound method, pulsed vibro-acoustic, for evaluating osteoporotic and osteopenic bone in humans. Vibro-acoustic method uses acoustic radiation force (ARF) to stimulate bone and the resulting acoustic signal can be used to characterize bone. The resulting acoustic signal is collected by a hydrophone at the skin surface.

Ultrasound Radiation Force for the Assessment of Bone Fracture Healing in Children: An In Vivo Pilot Study.

Vibrational characteristics of bone are directly dependent on its physical properties. In this study, a vibrational method for bone evaluation is introduced. We propose a new type of quantitative vibro-acoustic method based on the acoustic radiation force of ultrasound for bone characterization in persons with fracture.

Acoustoelasticity Analysis of Transient Waves for Non-Invasive In Vivo Assessment of Urinary Bladder.

A non-invasive method for measurement of the bladder wall nonlinear elastic behavior is presented. The method is based on acoustoelasticity modeling of the elasticity changes in bladder tissue modulus at different volumetric strain levels. At each volume, tissue strain is obtained from the real-time ultrasound images.

Acoustic remote sensing for source localization and atmospheric tomography: Applications of the cross-correlation Green's function retrieval method.

In this work, the application of the cross-correlation Green's function retrieval method for source localization and atmospheric acoustic tomography is presented. Open field experimental measurements of an acoustic source, with an impulsive waveform, are conducted for the evaluation of an array system. Of particular interest are the source localization and sound speed estimation capabilities of the array system.

Green's function extraction by crosscorrelation and multidimensional deconvolution for outdoor sound propagation.

In this work, the Green's function is estimated from outdoor measurements of controlled-sources. Crosscorrelation and multidimensional deconvolution have successfully been employed for Green's function retrieval. Crosscorrelation assumes a lossless medium and equipartitioned wavefield; when these assumptions are not satisfied it may result in a Green's function smeared with the source point-spread function.

Viscoelastic parameters as discriminators of breast masses: Initial human study results.

Shear wave elastography is emerging as a clinically valuable diagnostic tool to differentiate between benign and malignant breast masses. Elastography techniques assume that soft tissue can be modelled as a purely elastic medium. However, this assumption is often violated as soft tissue exhibits viscoelastic properties.

Differentiation of Benign and Malignant Thyroid Nodules by Using Comb-push Ultrasound Shear Elastography: A Preliminary Two-plane View Study.

Rationale And Objectives: Low specificity of traditional ultrasound in differentiating benign from malignant thyroid nodules leads to a great number of unnecessary (ie, benign) fine-needle aspiration biopsies that causes a significant financial and physical burden to the patients. Ultrasound shear wave elastography is a technology capable of providing additional information related to the stiffness of tissues. In this study, quantitative stiffness values acquired by ultrasound shear wave elastography in two different imaging planes were evaluated for the prediction of malignancy in thyroid nodules.

Ultrasound Characterization of Bone Demineralization Using a Support Vector Machine.

We propose an ultrasound-guided remote measurement technique, utilizing an acoustic radiation force beam as our excitation source and a receiving hydrophone, to assess non-invasively a bone's mechanical properties. Features, such as velocity, were extracted from the acoustic pressure received from the bone surface. The typical velocity of an intact bone (3540 m/s) was higher in comparison to that of a demineralized bone (2231 m/s).

Correlation of ultrasound bladder vibrometry assessment of bladder compliance with urodynamic study results.

Purpose Or Objective: The objective of this study is to assess correlation between bladder wall mechanical properties obtained by ultrasound bladder vibrometry (UBV) and urodynamic study (UDS) measurements in a group of patients undergoing clinical UDS procedure.

Materials And Methods: Concurrent UBV and UDS were performed on 70 patients with neurogenic bladders (56 male and 14 female). Bladder wall mechanical properties measured by UBV at different filling volumes were correlated with recorded detrusor pressure (Pdet) values.

Diagnostic features of quantitative comb-push shear elastography for breast lesion differentiation.

Background: Lesion stiffness measured by shear wave elastography has shown to effectively separate benign from malignant breast masses. The aim of this study was to evaluate different aspects of Comb-push Ultrasound Shear Elastography (CUSE) performance in differentiating breast masses.

Methods: With written signed informed consent, this HIPAA- compliant, IRB approved prospective study included patients from April 2014 through August 2016 with breast masses identified on conventional imaging.

Correlating Tumor Stiffness with Immunohistochemical Subtypes of Breast Cancers: Prognostic Value of Comb-Push Ultrasound Shear Elastography for Differentiating Luminal Subtypes.

Purpose: The purpose of our study is to correlate quantitatively measured tumor stiffness with immunohistochemical (IHC) subtypes of breast cancer. Additionally, the influence of prognostic histologic features (cancer grade, size, lymph node status, and histological type and grade) to the tumor elasticity and IHC profile relationship will be investigated.

Methods: Under an institutional review board (IRB) approved protocol, B-mode ultrasound (US) and comb-push ultrasound shear elastography (CUSE) were performed on 157 female patients with suspicious breast lesions.

Noninvasive Evaluation of Bladder Wall Mechanical Properties as a Function of Filling Volume: Potential Application in Bladder Compliance Assessment.

Purpose: We propose a novel method to monitor bladder wall mechanical properties as a function of filling volume, with the potential application to bladder compliance assessment. The proposed ultrasound bladder vibrometry (UBV) method uses ultrasound to excite and track Lamb waves on the bladder wall from which its mechanical properties are derived by fitting measurements to an analytical model. Of particular interest is the shear modulus of bladder wall at different volumes, which we hypothesize, is similar to measuring the compliance characteristics of the bladder.

An experimental phantom study on the effect of calcifications on ultrasound shear wave elastography.

In this study, we investigated the effects of single macrocalcifications and groups of microcalcifications on shear wave elastography. Supersonic shear imaging (SSI) and comb-push ultrasound shear elastography (CUSE) were performed on three sets of phantoms to investigate how calcifications of different sizes and distributions influence measured elasticity. Our results demonstrate that the presence of large isolated macrocalcifications and highly concentrated clusters of microcalcifications can introduce areas with apparent high elasticity when they are evaluated by shear wave elastography.

Update on Breast Cancer Detection Using Comb-Push Ultrasound Shear Elastography.

In this work, tissue stiffness estimates are used to differentiate between benign and malignant breast masses in a group of pre-biopsy patients. The rationale is that breast masses are often stiffer than healthy tissue; furthermore, malignant masses are stiffer than benign masses. The comb-push ultrasound shear elastography (CUSE) method is used to noninvasively assess a tissue's mechanical properties.

Effect of Calcifications on Breast Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography: An Investigational Study.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of macrocalcifications and clustered microcalcifications associated with benign breast masses on shear wave elastography (SWE).

Methods: SuperSonic Imagine (SSI) and comb-push ultrasound shear elastography (CUSE) were performed on three sets of phantoms to investigate how calcifications of different sizes and distributions influence measured elasticity. To demonstrate the effect in vivo, three female patients with benign breast masses associated with mammographically-identified calcifications were evaluated by CUSE.

Comb-push ultrasound shear elastography of breast masses: initial results show promise.

Purpose Or Objective: To evaluate the performance of Comb-push Ultrasound Shear Elastography (CUSE) for classification of breast masses.

Materials And Methods: CUSE is an ultrasound-based quantitative two-dimensional shear wave elasticity imaging technique, which utilizes multiple laterally distributed acoustic radiation force (ARF) beams to simultaneously excite the tissue and induce shear waves. Female patients who were categorized as having suspicious breast masses underwent CUSE evaluations prior to biopsy.

Padé approximants and their application to scattering from fluid media.

In this work, a numerical method for modeling the scattered acoustic pressure from fluid occlusions is described. The method is based on the asymptotic series expansion of the pressure expressed in terms of sound speed contrast between the host medium and entrained fluid occlusions. Padé approximants are used to extend the applicability of the result for larger values of sound speed contrast.