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L'interaction onde-matière a toujours été un sujet d'étude en Physique, c’est le cas de la propagation des ondes élastiques dans le corps humain qu’a conduit à plusieurs modalités d'imagerie. En particulier, les techniques d'elastographie reposent sur l'utilisation des ondes de cisaillement pour obtenir une image élastique des tissus mous. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse présente une étude des différentes techniques d'élastographie, en prêtant particulier attention aux aspects plus fondamentaux comme à ces potentielles applications.Tout d'abord, cette thèse montre que l'élastographie impulsionnelle unidimensionnelle (1D) peut être utilisée pour évaluer l'élasticité des couches de tissue d'épaisseur inférieure à la longueur d'onde utilisée. A cet effet, des simulations et des expériences ont été réalisées avec différents fantômes formés par une couche mince immergée dans un milieu d'élasticité différente. La concordance entre expériences et simulations, ainsi que le valeur de l'élasticité obtenue par élastographie 1D et le valeur de l'élasticité intrinsèque de la couche permettent de valider cette technique. Au même temps ces résultats ont été comparés avec ceux obtenus par la technique de Supersonic Shear Imaging (SSI), où l'onde est guidée le long de la plaque. On ajustant la courbe de dispersion expérimentale obtenue par SSI avec un modèle de Lamb, l'élasticité intrinsèque de chaque plaque est estimée. Les résultats obtenus par élastographie 1D et SSI montrent un bon accord entre eux. Le principal avantage de l'élastographie 1D est qu’il n'est pas nécessaire d'utiliser un modèle pour estimer l'élasticité de la plaque. Deuxièmement, deux nouvelles modalités d'imagerie quantitative pour l'extraction de élasticité des tissus mou à partir d'un champ élastique complexe sont approfondies: l'Elastographie par Retournement Temporel et le filtre inverse passif. Le but de ces deux techniques est d'estimer localement l'élasticité des tissus, par la mesure de la taille de la tâche focale dans une expérience virtuelle de retournement temporel avec des ondes de cisaillement. A partir de l'étude du processus de retournement temporel dans les solides mous, la faisabilité de ces deux techniques est démontrée in vitro dans des échantillons "bi-couche" et in vivo dans le foie et les muscles, en utilisant le bruit physiologique naturel crée par l'activité cardiaque et musculaire. L'efficacité de l'élastographie par retournement temporel diminue dans le cas d'un champ diffus non isotrope. L'emploie du filtre inverse adaptée à une configuration de source de bruit, permet de rétablir l'isotropie du champ et d'améliorer la résolution pour la détection de petites inclusions. Le filtre inverse passif permet, de surcroît, de contrôler la fréquence qui domine le champ de retournement temporel. Ceci est exploité, dans la dernière partie du manuscrit, pour mener la première expérience de spectroscopie passive en volume. Deux situations sont envisagées: la dispersion due à la propagation d'ondes guidées dans des plaques minces et la dispersion des ondes due à la viscosité. / The interaction between wave and matter has long been studied in Physics. In particular, regarding medical applications, wave propagation through the human body resulted in several imaging modalities, each of which uses a specific type of wave linked to a given physical property. The elasticity of soft biological tissues is directly linked to its shear wave speed. Thus, in Elastography, shear waves are tracked for non-invasive assessment of the mechanical properties of soft tissues. In this context, this thesis proposes a study of different elastography techniques from a basic point of view, as well as from its potential applications. Firstly, in this manuscript, the use of 1D transient elastography for the quantitative elasticity assessment of thin layered soft tissues is proposed. Experiments on three phantoms with different elasticities and plate thicknesses were performed. Experimental shear wave speed estimations inside the plate were obtained and validated with finite difference simulation. In addition, the Supersonic Shear Imaging (SSI) technique was performed. For the SSI technique, the propagating wave inside the plate is guided as a Lamb wave. Experimental SSI dispersion curves were fitted using a generalized Lamb model to retrieve the plate bulk shear wave speed. Finally both techniques resulted in similar shear wave speed estimations. The main advantage of 1D transient elastography is that the bulk shear wave speed can be directly retrieved from a time of flight measurement without requiring a dispersion model. Secondly, throughout this thesis, two novel quantitative imaging modalities for extracting the soft tissue's elasticity from a complex reverberated diffuse elastic field are deepen: Time Reversal Elastography (TRE) and the passive inverse filter. The goal of both techniques is to locally estimate the tissue's elasticity, by measuring the focal spot size in a virtual time reversal experiment involving shear waves. By studying the Physics of a time reversal process in soft solids, the feasibility of both techniques as a quantitative imaging techniques is demonstrated in vitro in bi-layer phantoms and in vivo in the liver-belly muscle, by using the physiological noise due to heartbeats and muscular activity. The efficiency of TRE decreases in the presence of a non-isotropic diffuse field. The use of the inverse filter adapted to a passive source configuration, restores the isotropy of the field. As a consequence, the resolution of the elasticity images is improved, leading to a better detection of small inclusions. In addition, the passive inverse filter allows to control the frequency dominating the time reversed field. This is exploited in the last part of the manuscript to conduct the first passive wave spectroscopy experiment in the volume of a soft solid. Two situations are considered: dispersion due to guided wave propagation in thin plates and wave dispersion due to viscosity effects.

Soft biological tissues, being live and due to their physiological structures, display considerably complex mechanical behaviors. For a better understanding and use in various applications, first study to be carried out is the tests made particularly as in vivo. An indenter test device developed for this purpose in the METU, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Biomechanics Laboratory is operational. In this study, in order to carry out precise and dependable tests, initially, various tests and improvements were conducted on the device and the software controlling the device. At the end of this study, displacement and load measurement accuracies and precisions were improved. Better algorithms for filtering the noisy data were prepared. Some test protocols within the software were improved and new protocols were annexed. To be able to conduct more dependable tests a new connection system was attached to the device. In order to study the anisotropic behavior of soft tissues ellipsoid tips were designed and produced. In the second phase of the study, tests on medial forearm were carried out. In these tests, hysteresis, relaxation and creep behaviors displaying the viscoelastic v properties of the soft biological tissues were observed. In addition to viscoelastic behaviors, preconditioning (Mullin&amp / #8217 / s) effect and anisotropic response were examined. By using the results of the relaxation and creep tests, parameters of the Prony series capable of modelling these data were determined. With this study, some important conclusions regarding the soft biological tissues were drawn and thus the behaviors of the soft biological tissues were better understood. Besides, the difficulties inherent to in-vivo tests were recognized and actions to reduce these difficulties were explained. Finally, clean experimental data, to be used in the computer simulations, were obtained.

This is a brief summary of the Fourteenth International Bologna Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Porous Media (MRPM14).

Yes / The potentially broad application area in engineering design using Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been widely adopted by many researchers due to its high consistency and accuracy. Presented here is the initial design of a wideband non-dispersive wire bow-tie antenna using GA for breast cancer detection applications. The ultimate goal of this design is to achieve minimal late-time ringing but at higher frequencies such as that located from 4 to 8 GHz, in which is desire to penetrate human tissue for near field imaging. Resistively loading method to reduce minimal ringing caused by the antenna internal reflections is implemented and discussed when the antenna is located in free space and surrounded by lossy medium. Results with optimised antenna geometry and different number of resistive loads are presented and compared with and without existence of scatterers.

Orientador: Herculano da SIlva Martinho. / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do ABC. Programa de Pós Graduação em Nanociências e Materiais Avançados, 2014. / A biópsia óptica utilizando espectroscopia vibracional emerge como uma técnica com boa sensibilidade e especificidade no diagnóstico de doenças. Entretanto, para melhor entender como as alterações bioquímicas se traduzem em alterações estruturais que conduzem a estes estados patológicos, são necessários estudos mais aprofundados e a simulação computacionalé a ferramenta adequada. Existem diversos estudos que envolvem macromoléculas e tecidos, porém ainda não é conhecido um modelo teórico para sua descrição e comparação aos resultados experimentais de espectroscopia Raman. Neste contexto, buscou-se encontrar um modelo teórico para o tecido, partindo de um peptídeo de colágeno, com diferentes graus de hidratação e a presença de água confinada em sua estrutura, a fim de contribuir para os estudos de biópsia óptica por espectroscopia vibracional. Os modelos foram construídos a partir de um peptídeo de colágeno, proveniente do Protein Data Bank e adicionados clustersde água confinada em cada modelo. Os modelos foram comparados quanto à energia, mínimo global, momento de dipolo e frequências Raman experimentais. Foi possível perceber que o modelo D1 é preferível para empacotar moléculas de água e é também aquele que menos favorece os processos de transferência eletrônica e, consequentemente, o mais próximo de um tecido de mucosa normal. Analisando também os espectros vibracionais observou-se que os modelos C1s e D1 são aqueles que melhor representam o espectro Raman experimental na região estudada. Também foram tabelados os modos vibracionais de cada modelo, o que contribui para entendimento dos picos espectrais. Pôde-se concluir que é possível a aplicação destes modelos a problemas biológicos reais, como estudos de cosmetologia e farmacologia de tecidos. / The optical biopsy using vibrational spectroscopy is emerging as a technique with good sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of diseases. However, for better understanding how the biochemical changes translate into structural changes that lead to these pathological conditions, further studies are needed and the computer simulation is the appropriate tool. Several studies involving macromolecules and tissues, but it is not yet known a theoretical model for the description and comparison to experimental results of Raman spectroscopy. In this context, we sought to find a theoretical model for the tissue, leaving a collagen peptide with different degrees of hydration and the presence of confined water in its structure, in order to contribute to the study of optical biopsy by vibrational spectroscopy. The models had beenbuilt from a collagen peptide found on the Protein Data Bank and added to confined water clusters in each model. The models were compared with regard to energy, dipole moment, global minimum and experimental Raman frequencies. It was possible to notice that the D1 model is preferable to package water molecules and and is also the one that least favours the electronic transfer processes and, consequently, the closest thing to a normal mucosa tissue. Analyzing the Vibrational Spectra also showed that C1s and D1 models are those which best represent the experimental Raman spectrum in the region studied. We also tabulated vibrational modes of each model, which contributes to understanding of the spectral peaks. It might be concluded that it is possible to apply these models to real biological problems, such as cosmetology and pharmacology studies of tissues.

The living body tissues consist of cells which dimensions are bigger than a wavelength of visible light. Therefore a Mie scattering of reflected of backscaterred light occurs and different polarization states arise. The changes of polarization state due to the multiple scattering of light in the biological cellular tissues allow measure the aging of biological tissue. The reflected or backscattered polarized laser light exhibits multiple scattering on the sample surface and in its subsurface area.

Com a evolução da medicina e o consequente envelhecimento da população, o aneurisma de aorta abdominal (AAA) se tornou uma doença cada vez mais presente, sobretudo em homens. A falta de conhecimento detalhado do comportamento mecânico do tecido aórtico abdominal é o principal gargalo no refinamento do critério para a recomendação de cirurgia corretiva, resultando, ainda hoje, no óbito decorrente da ruptura desses aneurismas. O entendimento do comportamento mecânico desse tecido permitirá o refinamento do critério atual, salvando mais vidas. Esse entendimento pode ser obtido através da Mecânica do Contínuo, utilizando dados experimentais de ensaios mecânicos para avaliar e descrever o comportamento do material. Para que isso ocorra, é necessário que o teste seja feito em dois eixos independentes. No presente trabalho, foram escolhidos os eixos longitudinal e circunferencial para a realização de testes mecânicos, levando em consideração aspectos de metodologias já utilizadas, seus pontos fortes e deficiências. São apresentados o projeto, a construção e e a calibração de um equipamento para ensaios biaxiais de tecidos biológicos tubulares, extraídos de cadáveres, e testados até a ruptura, com a possibilidade de realização de ensaios de pré-condicionamento. Tubos de látex foram utilizados na calibração do equipamento, de cuja utilização é esperada grande contribuição na ampliação do conhecimento da probabilidade de ruptura de AAAs e em uma melhor compreensão do comportamento do tecido da uretra peniana. / The evolution of Medicine has enabled humans to live longer. With that, the incidence of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) has grown, especially among males. The lack of detailed knowledge on the mechanical behavior of the abdominal aortic tissue is the main bottleneck in the improvement of the criterion for recommending corrective surgery. Therefore, many patients still die from the rupture of those aneurysms. Better understanding of the tissues mechanical behavior will allow the refinement of todays criterion, thus saving more lives. This understanding can be obtained from Continuum Mechanics, using mechanical test experimental data to evaluate and describe the behavior of the material. The data has to come from tests performed in two independet axes. This Masters thesis presents the project, manufacturing and calibration of an apparatus for the test of cylindrical biological tissues in two directions, longitudinal and circumferential. Aspects of pre-existent tests and methods and their positive and negative sides were taken into account. The specimens will come from cadavers, and it will be possible to pre-condition them, as well as to test them to the rupture. Latex tubes were used in the calibration of the apparatus, whose utilization is expected to improve the knowledge on AAA rupture probability, as well as to improve the comprehension of the penile urethral tissues behavior.

Em um sistema biológico, a água é responsável por inúmeras reações metabólicas, assim como pela estabilidade estrutural dos constituintes celulares do material. A liofilização é um processo de secagem comumente utilizado para a conservação de materiais biológicos. Entretanto, devido a complexidade do processo e às mudanças térmicas aplicadas ao material, se as etapas da liofilização não forem bem conduzidas, poderão ocorrer danos estruturais irreversíveis. Este projeto tem como objetivo determinar as etapas críticas na liofilização do pericárdio bovino. Através das técnicas de caracterização térmica por calorimetria exploratória diferencial (DSC) e microscopia óptica acoplada a liofilização (FDM) determinaram-se as principais transições de fases do pericárdio bovino visando o aprimoramento do processo e a qualidade final do produto. Após a liofilização do material, utilizando-se diferentes protocolos de congelamento, concluiu-se que o pericárdio bovino apresenta suporte físico suficiente para ser liofilizado acima da temperatura de transição vítrea sem apresentar sinais de colapso estrutural. O protocolo de liofilização utilizando-se congelamento lento com o emprego do tratamento térmico apresentou os melhores resultados de umidade residual, tempo de liofilização e manutenção da estrutura conformacional do colágeno. / In biological system, water is responsible for many metabolic reactions as well as for structural stability of the material cellular constituents. Freeze-drying or lyophilization is a drying technique commonly used for the preservation of biological materials. However, given to the process complexity and to the thermal changes applied to the material, if all freeze-drying steps are not well determined and controlled, irreversible structural damages on the material may occur. The aim of this project is to determine the critical steps on the bovine pericardium tissue freeze-drying. Through two different thermal analysis techniques, Differential Thermal Analysis (DSC) and Freeze-drying microcopy (FDM), it was determined the main phase transitions of bovine pericardium to optimize the freeze-drying process and the quality of dried product. After freeze-drying under different freezing protocols it was concluded that bovine pericardium showed enough physical support to be dried above the glass transition temperature without showing any signs of structural collapse. The freeze-drying protocol using slow freezing rate and annealing showed the best results regarding residual moisture content, freeze-drying time and maintenance of the collagen conformational structure.

De nos jours, l’enjeu de la mécanobiologie ne cesse de grandir. On s’intéresse à la description des problèmes biophysiques d’un point de vue mécanique avec des approches multiéchelles. Dans ce travail, nous proposons d’étudier deux exemples mettant en évidence le rôle important de la mécanique sur des processus purement biologiques. 1) La croissance tumorale dans son stade avasculaire : nous proposons un modèle continu où le tissu tumoral est considéré capable de croître et de se déformer tout en obéissant aux lois de conservation. Nous proposons ensuite pour étudier l’effet des propriétés mécaniques du microenvironnement -où réside la tumeur- sur le développement tumoral d’intégrer certaines conditions aux interfaces tumeur/microenvironnement. 2) La reconstruction des propriétés élastiques de la cuticule d’arthropode : nous proposons un modèle multiéchelles de son comportement mécanique fondé sur la structure hiérarchique établie dans la littérature. Pour remédier à la sous-estimation du modèle des propriétés élastiques de la cuticule, nous proposons d’inclure les interfaces à certaines échelles qui pourraient améliorer la transmission des efforts aux constituants multiéchelles du composite (cuticule) et donc améliorer les propriétés élastiques macroscopiques de ce dernier. / Nowadays, the challenge of mechanobiology keeps growing. We are interested in the description of biophysical problems from a mechanical point of view with multiscale approaches.In the present study, we propose to study two examples highlighting the substantial role of mechanics on purely biological processes. 1) Tumor growth in the avascular stage: we propose a continuous model where tumor tissue is considered able to grow and to deform while obeying to conservation laws. Then, we propose to study the effect of the mechanical properties of the microenvironment- where lives the tumor- on the tumor development by integration of certain interfaces conditions tumor/microenvironment. 2) Reconstruction of the elastic properties of the arthropod cuticle: we propose a multiscale model of its mechanical behavior based on the hierarchical structure established in the literature. To remedy the under-estimation of the cuticle elastic properties of the model, we propose to include the interfaces to some scales that could improve the transmission of forces to the multiscale components of the composite (cuticle) and thus improve their macroscopic elastic properties.