Inductive Heating Using a High-Magnetic-Field Pulse to Initiate Chemical Reactions to Generate Composite Materials

Emerging Technology for Intraoperative Margin and Assisting in Post-Surgery tissue diagnostic for Future Breast-Conserving

INTRODUCTION

Tissue-preserving surgery is utilized progressively in cancer therapy, where a clear surgical margin is critical to avoid cancer recurrence, specifically in breast cancer (BC) surgery. The Intraoperative pathologic approaches that rely on tissue segmenting and staining have been recognized as the ground truth for BC diagnosis. Nevertheless, these methods are constrained by its complication and timewasting for tissue preparation.

OBJECTIVE

We present a non-invasive optical imaging system incorporating a hyperspectral (HS) camera to discriminate between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues in ex-vivo breast specimens, which could be an intraoperative diagnostic technique to aid surgeons during surgery and later a valuable tool to assist pathologists.

METHODS

We have established a hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) system comprising a push-broom HS camera at wavelength 380∼1050 nm with source light 390∼980 nm. We have measured the investigated samples' diffuse reflectance (R_d), fixed on slides from 30 distinct patients incorporating mutually normal and ductal carcinoma tissue. The samples were divided into two groups, stained tissues during the surgery (control group) and unstained samples (test group), both captured with the HSI system in the visible and near-infrared (VIS-NIR) range. Then, to address the problem of the spectral nonuniformity of the illumination device and the influence of the dark current, the radiance data were normalized to yield the radiance of the specimen and neutralize the intensity effect to focus on the spectral reflectance shift for each tissue. The selection of the threshold window from the measured R_d is carried out by exploiting the statistical analysis by calculating each region's mean and standard deviation. Afterward, we selected the optimum spectral images from the HS data cube to apply a custom K-means algorithm and contour delineation to identify the regular districts from the BC regions.

RESULTS

We noticed that the measured spectral R_d for the malignant tissues of the investigated case studies versus the reference source light varies regarding the cancer stage, as sometimes the R_d is higher for the tumor or vice versa for the normal tissue. Later, from the analysis of the whole samples, we found that the most appropriate wavelength for the BC tissues was 447 nm, which was highly reflected versus the normal tissue. However, the most convenient one for the normal tissue was at 545 nm with high reflection versus the BC tissue. Finally, we implement a moving average filter for noise reduction and a custom K-means clustering algorithm on the selected two spectral images (447, 551 nm) to identify the various regions and effectively-identified spectral tissue variations with a sensitivity of 98.95%, and specificity of 98.44%. A pathologist later confirmed these outcomes as the ground truth for the tissue sample investigations.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed system could help the surgeon and the pathologist identify the cancerous tissue margins from the non-cancerous tissue with a non-invasive, rapid, and minimum time method achieving high sensitivity up to 98.95%.

Radio Frequency Induction Welding of Silver Nanowire Networks for Transparent Heat Films

Transparent heat films (THFs) are attracting increasing attention for their usefulness in various applications, such as vehicle windows, outdoor displays, and biosensors. In this study, the effects of induction power and radio frequency on the welding characteristics of silver nanowires (Ag NWs) and Ag NW-based THFs were investigated. The results showed that higher induction frequency and higher power increased the welding of the Ag NWs through the nano-welding at the junctions of the Ag NWs, which produced lower sheet resistance, and improved the adhesion of the Ag NWs. Using the inductive welding condition of 800 kHz and 6 kW for 60 s, 100 ohm/sq of Ag NW thin film with 95% transmittance at 550 nm after induction heating could be decreased to 56.13 ohm/sq, without decreasing the optical transmittance. In addition, induction welding of the Ag NW-based THFs improved haziness, increased bending resistance, enabled higher operating temperature at a given voltage, and improved stability.

Bio-inspired deposition of electrochemically exfoliated graphene layers for electrical resistance heating applications

Electrochemically exfoliated graphene (eeG) layers possess a variety of potential applications, e.g. as susceptor material for contactless induction heating in dynamic electro-magnetic fields, and as flexible and transparent electrode or resistivity heating elements. Spray coating of eeG dispersions was investigated in detail as a simple and fast method to deposit both, thin conducting layers and ring structures on polycarbonate substrates. The spray coating process was examined by systematic variation of dispersion concentration and volume applied to heated substrates. Properties of the obtained layers were characterized by UV-VIS spectroscopy, SEM and Confocal Scanning Microscopy. Electrical conductivity of eeG ring structures was measured using micro-four-point measurements. Modification of eeG with poly(dopamine) and post-thermal treatment yields in the reduction of the oxidized graphene proportion, an increase in electrical conductivity, and mechanical stabilization of the deposited thin layers. The chemical composition of modified eeG layer was analyzed via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy pointing to the reductive behavior of poly(dopamine). Application oriented experiments demonstrate the direct electric current heating (Joule-Heating) effect of spray-coated eeG layers.