as the analytical framework. Despite the many estimates presented in the literature, there is little agreement on a point estimate of the gross effect of the wage rate on weekly hours of work, except that it is generally negative (i.e., the income effect dominates).2 The fact that the wage elasticity is negative has been used to explain the secular decline of hours of work and is important in c...

In inter-subject registration, one often lacks a good model of the transformation variability to choose the optimal regularization. Some works attempt to model the variability in a statistical way, but the re-introduction in a registration algorithm is not easy. In [1], we interpreted the elastic energy as the distance of the Green-St Venant strain tensor to the identity. By changing the Euclid...

Cells can sense forces applied to them, but also the stiffness of their environment. These are two different phenomena, and here we investigate the mechanosensitivity of the 2nd kind: how the cell can measure an elastic modulus at a single point of adhesion-and how the cell can receive and interpret the chemical signal released from the sensor. Our model uses the example of large latent complex...

BACKGROUND Atherosclerosis begins in the arterial wall, with endothelial dysfunction accompanied by functional and structural changes that influence arterial stiffness. Pulse contour analysis provides an assessment of compliance or elasticity of the large conduit arteries (C(1)) and small microcirculatory arteries (C(2)). In this study, the predictive value of reduced elasticity of these arteri...

The capacity of proteins to function relies on a balance between molecular stability to maintain their folded state and structural flexibility allowing conformational changes related to biological function. Among many others, four different examples can be chosen. The giant protein titin is stretched and can unfold during muscle contraction providing passive elasticity to muscle tissue; myoglob...

In the mammary gland, epithelial cells are embedded in a 'soft' environment and become functionally differentiated in culture when exposed to a laminin-rich extracellular matrix gel. Here, we define the processes by which mammary epithelial cells integrate biochemical and mechanical extracellular cues to maintain their differentiated phenotype. We used single cells cultured on top of gels in co...

The I-band region of the giant muscle protein titin contains a large domain enriched for the amino acids proline, glutamate, valine, and lysine and is denoted the PEVK domain. The PEVK domain of titin encodes a random coil shown to be an important factor in the passive elasticity of titin. Muscle-specific splicing of 116 PEVK exons encodes this domain. It has been proposed that proline contents...

OBJECTIVES The investigation of female pelvic floor biomechanics is attracting attention due to its importance in pelvic floor dysfunction and childbirth. To date, there are no established means of assessing pelvic floor elasticity. We propose the use of translabial ultrasound to estimate strain, one element of pubovisceral muscle elasticity. METHODS Ultrasound datasets of 98 women seen at a ...

Cell contraction force plays an important role in wound healing, inflammation,angiogenesis and metastasis. This study describes a novel method to quantify single cell contraction force in vitro using human aortic adventitial fibroblasts embedded in a collagen gel. The technique is based on a depth sensing nano-indentation tester to measure the thickness and elasticity of collagen gels containin...

The internal validity of a spatial database can be discovered using the data contained within one or more databases. Spatial consistency includes topological consistency, or the conformance to topological rules. Discovery of inconsistencies in spatial data is an important step for improvement of spatial data quality as part of the knowledge management initiative. An approach for detecting topo-...