Matching Detection of Crane Hook and Ladle Lug before Ladle Hoisting.

Reliable matching between the crane hook and ladle lug is a key requirement for the safe hoisting of a ladle in steelmaking. A novel method is proposed to detect the matching between the hook and lug using surface acoustic wave radio frequency identification (SAW RFID) localization. SAW RFID tags are attached to the surface of the lug and the hook. The position of the lug is estimated via a geometric mapping approach with a special position of the tag and the reader's antenna, and the position of the hook is estimated by a synthetic aperture approach with the hook's movement pattern. Afterwards, the matching judgement is determined based on the relative position between the hook and lug. The proposed method employs only two SAW tags and two reader antennas, facilitating installation and routine maintenance. Numerical simulation and physical experiments demonstrate that the proposed method works effectively for matching detection.

Manipulating long-term fates of sonoporated cells by regulating intracellular calcium for improving sonoporation-based delivery.

Sonoporation-based delivery has great promise for noninvasive drug and gene therapy. After short-term membrane resealing, the long-term function recovery of sonoporated cells affects the efficiency and biosafety of sonoporation-based delivery. It is necessary to identify the key early biological signals that influence cell fate and to develop strategies for manipulating the long-term fates of sonoporated cells. Here, we used a customized experimental platform with a single cavitating microbubble induced by a single ultrasound pulse (frequency: 1.5 MHz, pulse length:13.33 µs, peak negative pressure: ∼0.40 MPa) to elicit single-site reversible sonoporation on a single HeLa cell model. We used a living-cell microscopic imaging system to trace the long-term fates of sonoporated HeLa cells in real-time for 48 h. Fluorescence from intracellular propidium iodide and Fluo-4 was used to evaluate the degree of sonoporation and intracellular calcium fluctuation (ICF), respectively. Changes in cell morphology were used to assess the long-term cell fates (i.e., proliferation, arrest, or death). We found that heterogeneously sonoporated cells had different long-term fates. With increasing degree of sonoporation, the probability of normal (proliferation) and abnormal fates (arrest and death) in sonoporated cells decreased and increased, respectively. We identified ICF as an important early event for triggering different long-term fates. Reversibly sonoporated cells exhibited stronger proliferation and restoration at lower extents of ICF. We then regulated ICF dynamics in sonoporated cells using 2-APB or BAPTA treatment to reduce calcium release from intracellular organelles and enhance intracellular calcium clearance, respectively. This significantly enhanced the proliferation and restoration of sonoporated cells and reduced the occurrence of cell-cycle arrest and death. Finally, we found that the long-term fates of sonoporated cells at multiple sites and neighboring cells were also dependent on the extent of ICF, and that 2-APB significantly enhanced their viability and reduced death. Thus, using a single HeLa cell model, we demonstrated that regulating intracellular calcium can effectively enhance the proliferation and restoration capabilities of sonoporated cells, therefore rescuing the long-term viability of sonoporated cells. These findings add to our understanding of the biophysical process of sonoporation and help design new strategies for improving the efficiency and biosafety of sonoporation-based delivery.

Dual-Frequency Interrogation and Hierarchical Evaluation Scheme for SAW Reflective Delay-Line Sensors.

The resolution of phase difference ambiguity is critically important for simultaneously achieving wide range and high accuracy sensing with surface acoustic wave (SAW) reflective delay-line sensors. A novel scheme called dual-frequency interrogation and hierarchical evaluation (DFI-HE) is proposed to resolve integer ambiguity of phase difference and obtain precise time delay between reflectors. With DFI-HE, only two reflectors are needed as the sensing elements for SAW reflective delay-line sensors. Additionally, DFI-HE has the advantage of fast ambiguity resolution to enable both a wide range and high accuracy sensing. The basic principle of sensing with DFI-HE is elaborated, and simulations and temperature sensing experiments are carried out to verify the proposed scheme, based on a SAW reflective delay-line temperature sensor with two reflectors fabricated on 128° YX-LiNbO3 substrate. The experimental results demonstrate that the temperature measurement accuracy reaches ±2 °C in the range of 8 °C-300 °C.