Non-Nutritive Suckling System for Real-Time Characterization of Intraoral Vacuum Profile in Full Term Neonates.

Infant breastfeeding diagnostics remain subjective due to the absence of instrumentation to objectively measure and understand infant oral motor skills and suckling characteristics. Qualitative diagnostic exams, such as the digital suck assessment which relies upon a clinician's gloved finger inserted into the infant's mouth, produce a diversity of diagnoses and intervention pathways due to their subjective nature. In this paper, we report on the design of a non-nutritive suckling (NNS) system which quantifies and analyzes quantitative intraoral vacuum and sucking patterns of full-term neonates in real time.

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Endovascular Neurosurgery.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in endovascular neurosurgery promises to transform neurovascular care. We present a review of the recently published neurosurgical literature on artificial intelligence and robotics in endovascular neurosurgery to provide insights into the current advances and applications of this technology. The PubMed database was searched for "neurosurgery" OR "endovascular" OR "interventional" AND "robotics" OR "artificial intelligence" between January 2016 and August 2021.

Soft robotic steerable microcatheter for the endovascular treatment of cerebral disorders.

Catheters used for endovascular navigation in interventional procedures lack dexterity at the distal tip. Neurointerventionists, in particular, encounter challenges in up to 25% of aneurysm cases largely due to the inability to steer and navigate the tip of the microcatheters through tortuous vasculature to access aneurysms. We overcome this problem with submillimeter diameter, hydraulically actuated hyperelastic polymer devices at the distal tip of microcatheters to enable active steerability.

Microliter ultrafast centrifuge platform for size-based particle and cell separation and extraction using novel omnidirectional spiral surface acoustic waves.

Asymmetric surface acoustic waves have been shown useful in separating particles and cells in many microfluidics designs, mostly notably sessile microdroplets. However, no one has successfully extracted target particles or cells for later use from such samples. We present a novel omnidirectional spiral surface acoustic wave (OSSAW) design that exploits a new cut of lithium niobate, 152 Y-rotated, to rapidly rotate a microliter sessile drop to ∼10 g, producing efficient multi-size particle separation.

Vacuum exhausted isolation locker (VEIL) to reduce inpatient droplet/aerosol transmission during COVID-19 pandemic.

The vacuum-exhausted isolation locker (VEIL) provides a safety barrier during the care of COVID-19 patients. The VEIL is a 175-L enclosure with exhaust ports to continuously extract air through viral particle filters connected to hospital suction. Our experiments show that the VEIL contains and exhausts exhaled aerosols and droplets.

Facile Analytical Extraction of the Hyperelastic Constants for the Two-Parameter Mooney-Rivlin Model from Experiments on Soft Polymers.

Having accurate data to represent hyperelastic materials that underpin soft robotics would facilitate their analysis, design, and validation. We seek to provide the reader with a useful tool to overcome a mundane but crucially important problem in determining the hyperelastic material properties. We show how to employ first dimensionless and then dimensional comparisons between experimental data and the classic theoretical model representing this system to produce and for the Mooney-Rivlin model, closely representing a variety of soft polymers.

Rapid and Accurate Pressure Sensing Device for Direct Measurement of Intraocular Pressure.

Purpose: Intraocular pressure (IOP) is the primary modifiable risk factor for glaucoma. Current devices measure IOP via the dynamic response of the healthy cornea and do not provide the accurate IOP measurements for patients with altered corneal biomechanics. We seek to develop and test an accurate needle-based IOP measurement device that is not cornea dependent.

Optimized, Omnidirectional Surface Acoustic Wave Source: 152° Y-Rotated Cut of Lithium Niobate for Acoustofluidics.

Here, we propose an optimized Y -rotated cut of lithium niobate (LN) for multidirectional surface acoustic wave (SAW) propagation, simultaneously minimizing the anisotropic effects while maximizing the electromechanical properties of this cut of LN. The goal is to offer a piezoelectric material suitable for acoustofluidics applications that require greater flexibility in wave generation and propagation than the currently ubiquitous 128 Y -rotated X -propagating cut. The 128YX LN cut is known to most effectively generate Rayleigh SAW along the x -direction alone.

Micro/nano acoustofluidics: materials, phenomena, design, devices, and applications.

Acoustic actuation of fluids at small scales may finally enable a comprehensive lab-on-a-chip revolution in microfluidics, overcoming long-standing difficulties in fluid and particle manipulation on-chip. In this comprehensive review, we examine the fundamentals of piezoelectricity, piezoelectric materials, and transducers; revisit the basics of acoustofluidics; and give the reader a detailed look at recent technological advances and current scientific discussions in the discipline. Recent achievements are placed in the context of classic reports for the actuation of fluid and particles via acoustic waves, both within sessile drops and closed channels.

Motility induced changes in viscosity of suspensions of swimming microbes in extensional flows.

Suspensions of motile cells are model systems for understanding the unique mechanical properties of living materials which often consist of ensembles of self-propelled particles. We present here a quantitative comparison of theory against experiment for the rheology of such suspensions in extensional flows. The influence of motility on viscosities of cell suspensions is studied using a novel acoustically-driven microfluidic capillary-breakup extensional rheometer.