A 3-D super-resolution (SR) pipeline based on data from a row-column (RC) array is presented. The 3-MHz RC array contains 62 rows and 62 columns with a half wavelength pitch. A synthetic aperture (SA) pulse inversion sequence with 32 positive and 32 negative row emissions is used for acquiring volumetric data using the SARUS research ultrasound scanner. Data received on the 62 columns are beamformed on a GPU for a maximum volume rate of 156 Hz when the pulse repetition frequency is 10 kHz. Simulated and 3-D printed point and flow microphantoms are used for investigating the approach. The flow microphantom contains a 100- [Formula: see text] radius tube injected with the contrast agent SonoVue. The 3-D processing pipeline uses the volumetric envelope data to find the bubble's positions from their interpolated maximum signal and yields a high resolution in all three coordinates. For the point microphantom, the standard deviation on the position is (20.7, 19.8, 9.1) [Formula: see text]. The precision estimated for the flow phantom is below [Formula: see text] in all three coordinates, making it possible to locate structures on the order of a capillary in all three dimensions. The RC imaging sequence's point spread function has a size of 0.58 × 1.05 × 0.31 mm3 ( 1.17λ×2.12λ×0.63λ ), so the possible volume resolution is 28900 times smaller than for SA RC B-mode imaging.

Microbial cells embedded in a self-produced extracellular biofilm matrix cause chronic infections, e. g. by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. The antibiotic killing of bacteria in biofilms is generally known to be reduced by 100–1000 times relative to planktonic bacteria. This makes such infections difficult to treat. We have therefore proposed that biofilms can be regarded as an independent compartment with distinct pharmacokinetics. To elucidate this pharmacokinetics we have measured the penetration of the tobramycin into seaweed alginate beads which serve as a model of the extracellular polysaccharide matrix in P. aeruginosa biofilm. We find that, rather than a normal first order saturation curve, the concentration of tobramycin in the alginate beads follows a power-law as a function of the external concentration. Further, the tobramycin is observed to be uniformly distributed throughout the volume of the alginate bead. The power-law appears to be a consequence of binding to a multitude of different binding sites. In a diffusion model these results are shown to produce pronounced retardation of the penetration of tobramycin into the biofilm. This filtering of the free tobramycin concentration inside biofilm beads is expected to aid in augmenting the survival probability of bacteria residing in the biofilm.

Purpose: Tonic seizures and the tonic phase of tonic–clonic epileptic seizures are defined as “sustained tonic” muscle contraction lasting a few seconds to minutes. Visual inspection of the surface electromyogram (EMG) during seizures contributed considerably to a better understanding and accurate diagnosis of several seizure types. However, quantitative analysis of the surface EMG during the epileptic seizures has received surprisingly little attention until now. The aim of our study was to elucidate the pathomechanism of the tonic muscle activation during epileptic seizures. Methods: Surface EMG was recorded from the deltoid muscles, on both sides, during 63 seizures from 20 patients with epilepsy (10 with generalized tonic and 10 with tonic–clonic seizures). Twenty age- and gender-matched normal controls simulated 100 generalized tonic seizures. To characterize the signal properties we calculated the root mean square (RMS) of the amplitudes, the median frequency (MF), and the coherence. Based on the spectrograms of both epileptic and simulated seizures, we chose to determine the relative spectral power (RP) in the higher (100–500 Hz) frequency domain. Key Findings: During the tonic seizures there was a significant shift toward higher frequencies, expressed by an increase in the MF and the RP (100–500 Hz). The amplitude characteristic of the signal (RMS) was significantly higher during the tonic phase of the tonic–clonic seizures as compared to the simulated ones, whereas the RMS of the tonic seizures was significantly lower than the simulated ones. The EMG–EMG coherence was significantly higher during the epileptic seizures (both types) as compared to the simulated ones. Significance: Our results indicate that the mechanism of muscle activation during epileptic seizures is different from the physiologic one. Furthermore the sustained muscle activation during the tonic phase of tonic–clonic seizures is different from that during tonic seizures: The tonic phase of tonic–clonic seizures is characterized by increased amplitude of the signal, whereas tonic seizures are produced by a significant increase in the frequency of the signal.