BACKGROUND Cells within tissues are subjected to mechanical forces caused by extracellular matrix deformation. Cells sense and dynamically respond to stretching of the matrix by reorienting their actin stress fibers and by activating intracellular signaling proteins, including focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and the mitogen-activated proteins kinases (MAPKs). Theoretical analyses predict that stres...

Anisotropy of the internal damage caused by imposed deformation, which is called stress-softening or Mullins effect, was investigated for a carbon-black (CB) filled styrene butadiene rubber (SBR/CB) sequence two tensile measurements. A wide-width pristine sheet specimen satisfying pure shear (planar) stretching geometry first subjected to single loading-unloading cycle with maximum stretch (λm)...

stretching is an ancient method of treating soft tissue structures amongst the historical cultures. this method, in addition to other manual techniques such as, massage and manipulation has been taught in ancient medicine. nowadays, a wide range of studies have been performed to reveal the effects of this manual method on different muscle groups in patients, as well as healthy athlete subjects....

Abstract This work demonstrates an application of ultrafast laser processing to engrave a grid pattern for evaluating mechanical properties. No observable changes in the material properties caused by engraving were confirmed if is engraved with energy 0.21 ? J/pulse and pulse repetition rate 1 kHz. The shape directly reveal whether deformation accompanied stretching uniaxial or not. By analyzin...

The paper describes a local model of concrete on the basis Karagozian & Case (K&C) approach that is successfully used for computed description behavior and reinforced constructions under dynamic loadings. A modified option K&C presented aiming at expansion functional capabilities providing details its computer realization, which scarcely described in publications. Basic ratios are p...

abstract background: restless leg syndrome prevalence is high among the patients undergoing hemodialysis. due to several side effects of medicational treatments, the patients prefer non-medicational methods. therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of two methods of reflexology and stretching exercises on the severity of restless leg syndrome among patients undergoing hemod...

Cavitation is frequently encountered during the deformation of semi-crystalline polymers. Although abundant works have been performed to reveal cavitation behavior in detail, relationship between void formation and plastic crystalline phase still unclear. In this work, by in-situ synchrotron X-ray scattering, slip process uniaxial stretching oriented isotactic polypropylene (iPP) were investiga...