the theoretical and experimental investigation on the thermo-mechanical properties of carbon nanotube (cnt) as reinforcer for oil and gas pipes has increasingly become a hot research area for many engineers and material scientists in recent years. this is mainly due to the advent of the new composite material systems that exhibit exotic material and mechanical properties as compared to the trad...

The gap junction protein, connexin43 (Cx43) is involved in mechanotransduction in bone. Recent studies using in vivo models of conditional Cx43 gene (Gja1) deletion in the osteogenic linage have generated inconsistent results, with Gja1 ablation resulting in either attenuated or enhanced response to mechanical load, depending upon the skeletal site examined or the type of load applied. To gain ...

Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a neurohormone exerting protective function during various stress conditions either in mature or developing tissues. Previously we proved the presence of PACAP signaling elements in chicken limb bud-derived chondrogenic cells in micromass cell cultures. Since no data can be found if PACAP signaling is playing any role during mechanic...

Kinesin is a dimeric motor protein that transports organelles in a stepwise manner toward the plus-end of microtubules by converting the energy of ATP hydrolysis into mechanical work. External forces can influence the behavior of kinesin, and force-velocity curves have shown that the motor will slow down and eventually stall under opposing loads of approximately 5 pN. Using an in vitro motility...

Discomfort during load carriage is a major issue for activities using backpacks (e.g. infantry maneuvers, children carrying school supplies, or outdoor sports). It is currently unclear which mechanical parameters are responsible for subjectively perceived discomfort. The aim of this study was to identify objectively measured mechanical predictors of discomfort during load carriage. We compared ...

Collagen fiber re-alignment and uncrimping are postulated mechanisms of structural response to load. It has been suggested that fibers re-orient in the direction of load and then "uncrimp" before collagen is tensioned and that in general, the structure is a result of the function tendons perform. However, little is known about how fiber re-alignment and uncrimping change in response to load, ho...

We hypothesized that a 10-s rest interval (at zero load) inserted between each load cycle would increase the osteogenic effects of mechanical loading near previously identified thresholds for strain magnitude and cycle numbers. We tested our hypothesis by subjecting the right tibiae of female C57BL/6J mice (16 wk, n = 70) to exogenous mechanical loading within a peri-threshold physiological ran...

The transduction mechanism (or mechanisms) responsible for converting a mechanical load into a skeletal muscle growth response are unclear. In this study we have used a mechanically active tissue culture model of differentiated human skeletal muscle cells to investigate the relationship between mechanical load, sarcolemma wounding, fibroblast growth factor release, and skeletal muscle cell grow...