The purpose of this study was to determine the elastic modulus of enamel during bleaching procedure with the use of an ultrasonic device. Enamel sections were obtained from freshly extracted bovine incisors. Specimens were exposed to 10% carbamide peroxide for two hours, followed by an application of a fluoride-containing toothpaste for five minutes and stored in artificial saliva (pH 7.0). An ...

Aortic valve leaflets undergo extraordinary flexion due to the complete reversal of their curvature during billions of cardiac cycles. The flexion stresses in the leaflet depend on its elastic modulus which we investigated in vivo and in vitro. In six dogs, we placed radiopaque markers on an aortic leaflet. Leaflet length was calculated from the marker positions recorded fluoroscopically. Aorti...

INTRODUCTION An important feature of hypertension is a reduction in large artery distensibility, which may be due to structural and functional adaptations. Black populations are particularly prone to the development of hypertension. We therefore compared the carotid characteristics between five-year sustained hypertensive and normotensive black South Africans, and investigated how carotid chara...

It is well known that the q-state clock model can exhibit a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition if q is equal to or greater than a certain threshold, which has been believed to be five. However, recent numerical studies indicate that helicity modulus does not vanish in the high-temperature phase of the five-state clock model as predicted by the KT scenario. By performing Monte Carlo calculation...

Semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (SSAO)-deficient mice present no alteration in elastin cross-linking processes and carotid mechanical properties. In contrast, previous studies have shown that SSAO inhibitors induced marked anomalies in arterial structure and function. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of semicarbazide (SCZ), an efficient SSAO inhibitor, on the arteria...

Influences of two different sample preparation methods, mechanical polishing and plunge cutting, on nanoindentation behavior of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass were studied. Mechanical polishing suppresses the serrated flow but promotes the creep. In contrast, plunge cutting promotes the serrated flow but suppresses the creep. However, hardness and elastic modulus obtained from these two methods...

Although the aetiology of Williams syndrome (WS) is related to elastin gene disruption, its pathogenesis remains unknown, particularly that of vascular lesions. The aim of the present study was to compare the elastic properties of three WS patients with age- and gender-matched normotensive and hypertensive controls. Common carotid arteries of WS patients had a higher distensibility, a thicker i...

Gold films on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) have applications in stretchable electronics, tunable diffraction gratings, soft lithography and as neural interfaces. The electrical and optical properties of these films depend critically on the morphology of the gold. Therefore, we examine qualitatively and quantitatively the factors that affect the morphology of the gold film. Three morphologies c...

Characterization of the elastic properties of a tendon could enhance the diagnosis and treatment of tendon injuries. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between the shear elastic modulus on the patellar tendon captured from a Supersonic Shear Imaging (SSI) and the tangent traction modulus computed from a Material testing system (MTS) on 8 fresh patellar pig tendons (Experim...