Abstract: Mechanoelectric feedback (MEF) is the process by which mechanical forces on the myocardium can alter its electrical properties. The effect can be large enough to induce ectopic beats or fibrillation. However, the role of MEF at physiological levels of mechanical stress is not clear. We have investigated alteration in action potential morphology in rat and guinea pig ventricle and in r...

Smart materials like piezoelectric polymers represent a new class of promising scaffold in neural tissue engineering. In the current study, the fabrication processing parameters of polyvinylidine fluoride (PVDF) nanofibrous scaffold are found as a potential scaffold with nanoscale morphology and microscale alignment. Electrospinning technique with the ability to mimic the structure and function...

For the synthesis of biocomposite materials for useful applications, it becomes necessary to modify the surface of natural fibers through chemical treatments. Morphology, structure and properties of natural fibers have an obvious effect on the mechanical properties of the biocomposite materials. It is thus necessary to know the morphology, thermal stability and crystalline behavior of original ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of reverse headgear (RH) on pharyngeal airway morphology in two groups of Class III patients with different vertical craniofacial features in comparison with an untreated Class III group. Seventeen subjects (9 males, 8 females; mean age 11.3 ± 0.98 years) with optimum vertical growth and 17 subjects (10 males, 7 females, mean age 11.5 ± 1.1 y...

Solution blow spinning (SBS) is an innovative process for spinning micro/nanofibers. In this paper, polyamic acid (PAA) nanofibers were fabricated via a SBS apparatus and then imidized into polyimide (PI) nanofibers via thermal process. The morphology and diameter distributions of PAA nanofibers were determined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Image Tool software, the processing parame...

We introduce a parameter space for periodic point sets, given as a union of m translates of a point lattice. In it we investigate the behavior of the sphere packing density function and derive sufficient conditions for local optimality. Using these criteria we prove that perfect, strongly eutactic lattices cannot be locally improved to yield a denser periodic sphere packing. This in particular ...