https://www.selleckchem.com/products/srt2104-gsk2245840.html Advances in human brain imaging technologies are critical to understanding how the brain works and the diagnosis of brain disorders. Existing technologies have different drawbacks, and the human skull poses a great challenge for pure optical and ultrasound imaging technologies. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of using ultrasound-modulated optical tomography, a hybrid technology that combines both light and sound, to image through human skulls. Single-shot off-axis holography was used to measure the field of the ultrasonically tagged light. This Letter paves the way for imaging the brain noninvasively through the skull, with optical contrast and a higher spatial resolution than that of diffuse optical tomography.An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is incapable of providing sensing or diagnostic information within dead-zones. We use a two-mode fiber (TMF) and a photonic lantern to completely overcome the main OTDR's dead-zone originating from the front facet of optical fiber. This is achieved by injecting the optical pulses of the OTDR in the form of the fundamental $\rm LP_01$ mode and meanwhile collecting the Rayleigh signals associated with the higher-order modes. Using the reported TMF-based OTDR, we accurately sense the position and frequency of a vibration event located within the dead-zone as a proof-of-concept demonstration.Off-axis digital holography is an imaging technique that allows direct measurement of phase and amplitude from one image. We utilize this technique to capture displacements induced by a diffuse shear wave field with high sensitivity. A noise-correlation-based algorithm is then used to measure mechanical properties of samples. This approach enables full-field quantitative passive elastography without the need of contact or a synchronized source of a mechanical wave. This passive elastography method is first validated on agarose test samples mimicking biological tissues,