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...

BACKGROUND Two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography is one of the most feasible, noninvasive methods for assessing the aortic diameter and biomechanical changes. We studied possible interfaces between noninvasive biomechanical and speckle-tracking (ST) echocardiographic data from dilated aortas. METHODS Altogether, 44 patients with dilative pathology of ascending aorta (DPAA) were compared with ...

As cardiovascular death remains major cause of death worldwide , there are growing needs for risk evaluation for cardiovas-cular event. Arterial stiffness, which refers to the rigidity of arterial wall, increases in the elderly person as well as patients with atherosclerotic disease. Based on the belief that increased vascular stiffness precedes atherosclerotic vascular event, there were attemp...

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...