The main challenge in the production of metal matrix composites reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is the development of a manufacturing process ensuring the dispersion of nanoparticles without damaging them, and the formation of a strong bond with the metallic matrix to achieve an effective load transfer, so that the maximum reinforcement effect of CNTs will be accomplished. This research f...

It is still unknown whether the structural brain impairments that characterize schizophrenia (SZ) worsen during the lifetime. Here, we aimed to describe age-related microstructural brain changes in cortical grey matter and subcortical white matter of patients affected by SZ. In this diffusion tensor imaging study, we included 69 patients diagnosed with SZ and 69 healthy control (HC) subjects, a...

the flow stress of steel depends significantly on microstructural changes taken place during hot deformation processes. in hot deformation processes, the flow stress of steel is influenced by two main metallurgical phenomena, i.e. recovery and recrystallization, along with its chemical composition and thermo-mechanical parameters. the final mechanical properties of steel are also determined by ...

BACKGROUND The microstructural organization (collagen fiber alignment) of the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), which likely corresponds with its functional properties, has only been described qualitatively in the literature, to our knowledge. The goal of this study was to quantify the tensile mechanical and microstructural properties of the PCL and compare these qualities between the anterola...

The three dimensional (3D) microstructural evolution of A206 (AlCu4.5Mg0.3) and AlCu7 alloys is studied as function of solution treatment (ST) time by synchrotron tomography. 3D microstructural parameters of rigid phases such as volume fraction, interconnectivity (volume of biggest aluminide/total aluminide volume) and contiguity (touching surface) are presented. In situ synchrotron tomography ...

Multiscale computational methods bridging models at micro-scale with macro-properties is a problem of practical significance. Probability distribution functions (PDFs) providing a complete representation of microstructural variability in 3D polycrystalline materials using limited information is difficult to obtain since this inverse problem is highly ill-posed. We use the maximum entropy (MaxEn...

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provides information about cerebral white matter integrity in vivo, and fractional anisotropy (FA) is a commonly used index to describe the anisotropy of diffusion. Past studies have reported microstructural white matter abnormalities in widespread prefrontal regions in late-life depression [1, 2] and found prefrontal white matter alterations to be associated with...

Individuals with psychopathy possess emotional and behavioral abnormalities. Two neural regions, involved in behavioral control and emotion regulation, are often implicated: amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Recently, in studies using adult criminal populations, reductions in microstructural integrity of the white matter connections (i.e., uncinate fasciculus (UF)) between th...

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) and nanocrystalline metals (NMs) have been extensively investigated due to their superior strengths and elastic limits. Despite these excellent mechanical properties, low ductility at room temperature and poor microstructural stability at elevated temperatures often limit their practical applications. Thus, there is a need for a metallic material system that can ove...

Microstructure-sensitive design is performed using a newly developed Multiscale Complex Step Method. Algorithmic implementation of the complex-step method is based on conventional multiscale Taylor or FE2 direct model, with the difference being that the microstructural deformation gradient is modeled as a complex number with a small imaginary component. We introduce methods to calculate derivat...