Massachusetts Institute of Technology

US Government as Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Andrew M Siegel

Lawrence M Candell

Gary A Shaw

Kyle J Thompson

Reed W Hoyt

Robert L Standley

Christopher Ferraiolo

Nandini Rajan

George Zogbi

Joseph M Mahan

Holly Lehmann McClung

Angela M Belcher

Neelkanth M Bardhan

Holly Mcclung

A conventional flow tube for a metabolic cart is usually a straight length of pipe whose inner diameter is fixed by the respiratory burden imposed by the flow tube on the user, with a smaller diameter imposing a higher respiratory burden. The ratio of the straight flow tube's length to diameter is fixed by fluid dynamics, so increasing the flow tube's diameter causes the flow tube's length to increase. As the flow tube gets longer, it exerts more torque on the user's neck and jaw, creating discomfort. Reducing the flow tube's length causes an undesired increase in the respiratory burden but increasing the flow tube's diameter to reduce the respiratory burden makes the flow tube less comfortable, making the flow tube unconformable, hard to breathe through, or both. Bending the flow tube makes it possible to increase the flow tube's propagation length without increasing the flow tube's lever arm length.

Passive, proportional measurement of oxygen and carbon dioxide consumption for assessment of metabolic parameters

A conventional flow tube for a metabolic cart is usually a straight length of pipe whose inner diameter is fixed by the respiratory burden imposed by the flow tube on the user, with a smaller diameter imposing a higher respiratory burden. The ratio of the straight flow tube's length to diameter is fixed by fluid dynamics, so increasing the flow tube's diameter causes the flow tube's length to increase. As the flow tube gets longer, it exerts more torque on the user's neck and jaw, creating discomfort. Reducing the flow tube's length causes an undesired increase in the respiratory burden but increasing the flow tube's diameter to reduce the respiratory burden makes the flow tube less comfortable, making the flow tube unconformable, hard to breathe through, or both. Bending the flow tube, e.g., in an L shape, makes it possible to increase the flow tube's propagation length without increasing the flow tube's lever arm length.

A fluid dynamic valve passively allows fluid flow out of a moving stream in one flow direction and not in the reverse. This allows the collection of fluid from a single direction of an AC fluid flow. The siphoned portion of the flow has a flow rate proportional to the mainstream flow. This device can collect exhaled breath or selective entrenchment during inhale. In one orientation, it can meter aerosolized particles into an inhale breath stream for pulmonary delivery, without complicated breath timing or drug loss due to drug adsorption to the back of the throat. Alternatively, a user can breathe through the device and a proportional amount, relative to the volumetric flow rate, of each exhale can flow into an auxiliary chamber for analysis. In addition, the device has a low respiratory burden and is comfortable to use.

Methods and apparatus for passive, proportional, valveless gas sampling and delivery

Systems, apparatus, and methods related to modeling, monitoring, and/or managing metabolism of a subject include measuring a respiratory quotient (RQ) level in a subject and/or optimizing and executing a nonlinear feedback model to model energy substrate utilization in the subject based on at least one of a macronutrient composition and caloric value of food consumed by the subject, an intensity and duration of activity by the subject, a rate and maximum capacity of glycogen storage in the subject, a rate and maximum capacity of de novo lipogenesis in the subject, a quality and duration of sleep by the subject, and/or an RQ level in the subject.

Systems, apparatus, and methods related to modeling, monitoring, and/or managing metabolism

System and method configured to operate under conditions when the object being imaged destroys or negates the information which otherwise allows the user to take advantage of optical parallax, configured to elicit luminescence from the same targets in the object as a result of irradiation of these targets with pump light at different, respectively corresponding wavelengths, and acquire optical data from so-illuminated targets through the very same optical path to image the object at different wavelengths. One embodiment enables acquisition, by the same optical detector and from the same object, of imaging data that includes a reflectance image and multiple fluorescence-based images caused by light at different wavelengths, to assess difference in depths of locations of targets within the object.

Enhancement of video-rate fluorescence imagery collected in the second near-infrared optical window

The present invention provides devices and methods for detecting and tracking fast-moving-object. In one application, the present invention can be employed to detect and track fast eye movements (saccades). An example device of the present invention tracks a moving object by generating, within a single frame of a detector (e.g., a video camera) two or more images of the moving object. The images are generated by illuminating the moving objects with sequentially activated light sources (e.g. sequentially strobed light-emitting diodes). The rate at which the light sources are sequentially activated exceeds the frame rate of the detector, resulting in generating multiple images of the moving object within a single frame of the detector. The devices and methods described herein, including a saccadometry system, can utilize off-the-shelf components and does not require expensive high-frame-rate video equipment. These devices and methods can be used to track a moving object with a temporal resolution far greater than that normally achievable with standard 15 fps to 30 fps frame-rate imagers.

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Arlington, MA, United States of America

Andrew M Siegel