Influence of Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue on High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Beam: Experimental Quantification and Numerical Modeling.

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) enables the non-invasive thermal ablation of tumors. However, numerical simulations of the treatment remain complex and difficult to validate in clinically relevant situations. In this context, needle hydrophone measurements of the acoustic field downstream of seven rabbit tissue layers comprising skin, subcutaneous fat and muscle were performed in different geometrical configurations.

Simulation of high-intensity focused ultrasound lesions in presence of boiling.

Background: The lesions induced by high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) thermal ablations are particularly difficult to simulate due to the complexity of the involved phenomena. In particular, boiling has a strong influence on the lesion shape. Thus, it must be accounted for if it happens during the pulses to be modeled.

Signal propagation of the MAPK cascade in Xenopus oocytes: role of bistability and ultrasensitivity for a mixed problem.

The MAPK signaling cascade is nowadays understood as a network module highly conserved across species. Its main function is to transfer a signal arriving at the plasma membrane to the cellular interior. Current understanding of 'how' this is achieved involves the notions of ultrasensitivity and bistability which relate to the nonlinear dynamics of the biochemical network, ignoring spatial aspects.