A Portable Dynamic Laser Speckle System for Sensing Long-Term Changes Caused by Treatments in Painting Conservation

[EN] Dynamic laser speckle (DLS) is used as a reliable sensor of activity for all types of materials. Traditional applications are based on high-rate captures (usually greater than 10 frames-per-second, fps). Even for drying processes in conservation treatments, where there is a high level of activity in the first moments after the application and slower activity after some minutes or hours, the process is based on the acquisition of images at a time rate that is the same in moments of high and low activity. In this work, we present an alternative approach to track the drying process of protective layers and other painting conservation processes that take a long time to reduce their levels …

Effect of in-class group clicker-quiz competition on student final exam performance.

Young's modulus measurement of the radius bone using a shearing interferometer with carrier fringes

Abstract A technique for measuring Young's modulus of the radius bone by using electronic speckle-shearing pattern interferometry is proposed. The technique is based on the introduction of carrier fringes and the use of a phase unwrapping algorithm to obtain a phase map corresponding to the out-of-plane displacements of a radius bone without sign ambiguities. The carrier fringes are obtained by the correlation algorithm of two consecutive speckle fields with a translation of the illuminating beam between each recording, then the spatial synchronous detection (SSD), an unwrapping phase algorithm and integration process along shear direction are successfully applied for obtaining a displaceme…

Phase-shifting of correlation fringes created by image processing as an alternative to improve digital shearography

Abstract The adoption of digital speckle pattern shearing interferometry, or speckle shearography, is well known in many areas when one needs to measure micro-displacements in-plane and out of the plane in biological and non-biological objects; it is based on the Michelson's Interferometer with the use of a piezoelectric transducer (PZT) in order to provide the phase-shift of the fringes and then to improve the quality of the final image. The creation of the shifting images using a PZT, despite its widespread use, has some drawbacks or limitations, such as the cost of the apparatus, the difficulties in applying the same displacement in the mirror repeated times, and when the phase-shift can…

Displacement measurements in structural elements by optical techniques

Speckle metrology and holographic interferometry (HI) have been used in several civil engineering applications. We present the results obtained by applying speckle photography (SP) to the study of two quadratic shearwalls with different boundary conditions, and the potential of the technique in the study of this kind of structures is described. The analysis of Young's fringes obtained with this technique at certain points on each shearwall provides the whole field of displacement measurements. HI has been used to measure the three components of absolute displacement, verifying that the bulging phenomenon does not affect the in-plane components when the applied load remains on the same plane…

Acute effect of induced asymmetrical running technique on foot skin temperature

The aim of the study was to evaluate skin temperature of the soles of the feet before and after a provoked asymmetrical running. Seventeen recreational male runners performed two 15 min running tests in the same session. In the first test, participants performed running without modifying their running technique (control condition). In the second running test, they repeated the same protocol using an ankle weight of 1.5 kg in the non-dominant ankle (asymmetrical condition). Rate of perceive exertion, heart rate and spatio-temporal parameters were measured during the running tests. Skin temperature was measured with an infrared camera before and after each condition. Generally, comparing both…

Infrared Thermography Versus Conventional Image Techniques in Pediatrics: Cases Study

The use of infrared thermography has been shown to be useful in several areas. Its applicability in medicine is based on the fact that the skin emits spontaneously and continuously infrared radiation, whose body distribution is symmetrical in a healthy individual. Infrared thermography can offer an alternative to X-rays for a large number of diseases related to peripheral vascularization. In these cases, infrared thermography can avoid the use of biologically ionizing radiation. This is of special interest in pediatric patients who, because of their age, are more radiosensitive.

Determination of strain and stress distribution on shearwalls by using the speckle photography technique

Abstract Speckle photography (SP) is a powerful tool that is adequate to determine small displacements in micrometer range. This information shows other characteristics of structure deformation under loads and can be determined as stress and strain distribution. In this paper we present the results of the application of the SP technique used to study the behaviour of discontinuities in a shearwall model. These structural elements are very important to the stability of buildings. The displacement whole field around the discontinuities and loading points was determined using the pointwise method. This allows us to determine stress distribution at the point of interest by means of the suitable…

Accuracy in dynamic laser speckle: optimum size of speckles for temporal and frequency analyses

The dynamic laser-speckle phenomenon has been used as a potential tool to monitor the activity of many biological and nonbiological samples; however, a key tailoring of the experimental configuration must be taken into account to avoid wrong measurements, since the general rules addressed to speckle as information cannot be directly adopted in dynamic laser-speckle monitoring. The speckle/pixel size ratio is provided by the f-number and by the magnification of the macro lens, and attention is mainly directed toward adjusting a speckle/pixel ratio higher than 1. However, a speckle/pixel ratio much higher than one does not mean an optimum adjustment. This work tested different apertures with …

Displacements measurement in a building model using the speckle photography technique

The use of reduced scale models in civil engineering has made it possible to study large structures such as buildings. Using non-destructive optical techniques such as double-exposure speckle photography, extremely valuable results can be obtained, where mathematical methods are often not very exact. This work studies the model of an eighteen-storey building in which displacements can be measured at each storey of each view. It also presents a comparison of the displacement field, which was obtained with the Finite Element Method.

Monitoring of the action of drugs in melanoma cells by dynamic laser speckle

Abstract. This work presents the development of a protocol based on the dynamic laser speckle designed tomonitor the reaction of cancer cells of line MEL-RC08 to the application of the drug Colcemid in two differentconcentrations: 0.2 and 0.4 μg∕mL. The protocol was designed using the forward scattering approach with anHe-Ne laser of 632.8 nm illuminating the samples, a control, and two variations of Colcemid, being monitoredalong 8 h. The data were analyzed numerically in the time and in the frequency domain, and the results pre-sented the ability of the technique to monitor the action of the drug, particularly Colcemid (0.4 μg∕mL). © 2014Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers …

Infrared Thermography Protocol for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of the Diabetic Foot: Preliminary Results

The diabetic foot, according to the International Consensus on the Diabetic Foot, is an infection, ulceration or destruction of the deep tissues related to neurological alterations and peripheral vascular disease in the lower limbs [1]. This pathology represents an important problem of public health because the affected patients can suffer amputations and even the death [2].

Diode laser reliability in dynamic laser speckle application: Stability and signal to noise ratio

Abstract The biospeckle, or dynamic laser speckle, is used as a potential tool to monitor activity in many biological and non-biological materials from agriculture to medicine, and it is usually based on the use of He-Ne and diode lasers, the latter of which has great potential to be embedded in portable equipment. Some queries about the stability of the diode laser were raised, such as the real influence of the mode hopping phenomenon as a drawback in solid-state devices in comparison to the well-known He-Ne lasers, and thus we decided to test it . In addition, we present an alternative way to enhance the stability and the signal-to-noise ratio of the information using a relative index rat…

Dynamic laser speckle analyzed considering inhomogeneities in the biological sample

Dynamic laser speckle phenomenon allows a contactless and nondestructive way to monitor biological changes that are quantified by second-order statistics applied in the images in time using a secondary matrix known as time history of the speckle pattern (THSP). To avoid being time consuming, the traditional way to build the THSP restricts the data to a line or column. Our hypothesis is that the spatial restriction of the information could compromise the results, particularly when undesirable and unexpected optical inhomogeneities occur, such as in cell culture media. It tested a spatial random approach to collect the points to form a THSP. Cells in a culture medium and in drying paint, repr…

Dynamic Laser Speckle Technique Sensing Long-Term Changes Caused by Painting Treatments in Restauration of Paintings

Dynamic laser speckle is applied as a reliable sensor of activity in all sort of material. Traditional applications are based on a time rate that is usually higher than 10 frames-per-second (FPS). Even in drying processes, where there is a high activity in the first moments after the painting and a slow activity after some minutes or hours, the process is based on the acquisition of images in a time rate that is the same in both moments of high and low activity. In this work, we present an alternative approach to follow the drying of paint and the other processes related to restauration of paintings that takes long-term to reduce the activity. We illuminated, using three different wavelengt…

Disminución del dolor en cervicalgias mediante la aplicación de microcorrientes

Decrease in cervical pain using microcurrents Abstract We aim to verify the effectiveness of microcurrents in pain, specifically in cervical pain. A total of 20 patients with acute or chronic neck pain have been treated in the out- patient clinic with microcurrent technology exclusively. Pain assessment was performed using the visual analogue scale (VAS) for self-assessment before and after the full treatment. The mean VAS before treatment was 65.45 and the average post-treatment was 21.90. Mean treat- ment duration was 3.5 weeks. The results of this study are consistent with the studies published

Clinical Applications

The study of the diagnostic accuracy of Infrared Thermal Imaging in the diagnosis of orthopaedic injuries in childhood has been motivated by the high incidence of these injuries throughout the world, being one of the most common reasons for urgent medical consultation. Diagnosis of musculoskeletal injuries usually involves radiography, but this exposes children without fractures to unnecessary ionising radiation. This chapter assesses whether infrared thermography could provide a viable alternative in cases of trauma. To evaluate the accuracy of this technique new thermographic variables have been added to those commonly analysed, such as the extent of the injury and the difference in the s…

Temporal difference method for processing dynamic speckle patterns

A temporal difference method for processing dynamic speckle images is proposed. In the method two speckle images of an object, separated by a time interval, are subtracted one from the other to detect whether the speckle structure has changed or not. The rationale of the method is discussed. A variant of the method that allows measuring the area of an activity zone surrounded by a static region is tested in digital simulations. As a demonstrative experiment, that variant is employed to characterize the drying of a damp patch in filter paper.

Effects of endodontic treatment on apparent Young’s modulus of human teeth: in vitro study using speckle interferometry

The introduction of new techniques for endodontic procedures requires the analysis of the biomechanical behavior of dental structures. Digital speckle shearing pattern interferometry (DSSPI) is a nondestructive optical measuring technique that allows one to directly quantify deformations in teeth that are subjected to stress. DSSPI technique was applied to measure small deformations caused by flexion in different types of teeth. The test was carried out both before and after endodontic treatment with the ProTaper method in order to evaluate the variation of dental elasticity, taking into the account the type of tooth and the endodontic treatment. The results obtained show that dental elasti…

Measurement of Young's modulus of cementitious materials using an electro-optic holographic technique

Abstract The electro-optic holographic technique has already been used to determine Young's dynamic modulus in homogeneous materials based on the resonance frequency of the analysed samples. This paper shows a modification of the determination method of this frequency that speeds up this process thus obtaining Young's modulus. Based on the visualisation of real time fringes drawn by exciting the rods at the 1000–10,000 Hz range, the proposed method allows us to determine their resonance frequencies. This procedure has been used in the analysis of non-homogeneous materials such as mortar and concrete. The results obtained by this method show good correlation with those determined by the conv…