Introduction According to the ‘vicious cycle’ hypothesis proposed by Dr Stokes, sensitivity to load has been implicated in the progression of spinal deformity during growth due to the reaction of vertebrae to mechanical loads on their growth plate. Mechanical loads on the vertebrae are altered by the mechanical stiffness of the spinal implant. Unfortunately, the relationship between the implant...

The apparent stiffness tensor is an important mechanical parameter for characterizing trabecular bone. Previous studies have modeled this parameter as a function of mechanical properties of the tissue, bone density, and a second-order fabric tensor, which encodes both anisotropy and orientation of trabecular bone. Although these models yield strong correlations between observed and predicted st...

Needle insertion is the most common procedure of minimally invasive interventions. During insertion into a soft tissue, the needle with bevel tip can deflect due to the asymmetric forces acting on the tip of the needle. In this paper, a mechanics-based model is developed to predict the needle deflection. In the model, the needle is considered as a cantilever beam supported by a series of nonlin...

DOI: 10.1002/admi.201500080 concerns pine cones, where asymmetrically positioned differently aligned layers of the nanoand mesoscale cellulose fi brils induce asymmetric water swelling, leading to bending. [ 15 ] In this way, the structure can be considered to be a biological counterpart to so-called bilayer actuators, which are extensively used in technology and science, involving different ex...

Background: Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α therapy seems to improve vascular pathology in patients with inflammatory arthropathies such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) competes with Larginine as a substrate for nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and the L-arginine/ADMA ratio is important for modulation of the NOS activ...

A desirable characteristic for nonlinear vibration isolators is a high static stiffness and a low dynamic stiffness. A curved beam is a possible candidate for this role provided that the amplitude of vibration about the static equilibrium position is sufficiently small. However, for large amplitude oscillations, the nonlinear dynamics may have a detrimental effect. This paper considers the forc...

background : previous studies have investigated different effects of muscle fatigue on body systems. however, there are no reports on the effect of fatigue protocol and its level on musculotendinous stiffness (mts) of the tricep-surae. this study was designed to compare the effects of 2 levels of submaximal fatigue contraction on mts of triceps-surae. methods: twenty female students by simple r...