Search results for " stiffness"
showing 10 items of 299 documents
<p>Effects of losartan and atorvastatin on the development of early posttraumatic joint stiffness in a rat model</p>
2019
Background After a trauma, exuberant tissue healing with fibrosis of the joint capsule can lead to posttraumatic joint stiffness (PTJS). Losartan and atorvastatin have both shown their antifibrotic effects in different organ systems. Objective The purpose of this study was the evaluation of the influence of losartan and atorvastatin on the early development of joint contracture. In addition to joint angles, the change in myofibroblast numbers and the distribution of bone sialoprotein (BSP) were assessed. Study design and methods In this randomized and blinded experimental study with 24 rats, losartan and atorvastatin were compared to a placebo. After an initial joint injury, rat knees were …
Acute (0-2h) and delayed (2-8D) effects of exercise-induced muscle damage and soreness on elbow target movements.
2011
The aim was to examine the acute and delayed effects of exercise-induced muscle damage and soreness on elbow target movements (TM) performance and control. Ten males performed an exercise of 50 maximal eccentric elbow actions. TMs were performed at three movement ranges. Maximal forces, active stretch reflex and TM were tested, and muscle soreness, creatine kinase and elbow joint stiffness were determined acute (after and 2 h) and delayed (2, 4, 6, 8d) postexercise. Both the long lasting muscle soreness and force drop were observed after the exercise. Joint stiffness was increased at 2 h postexercise. The highest deterioration in flexion-TM performance was found at the time (2 h) and at the…
Leg and joint stiffness in human hopping
2010
The present study investigated the regulation of leg and joint stiffness in hopping at different intensity levels. Eight male subjects performed bilateral hopping at various intensity levels that were determined by peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF). In addition to the GRF, the measurements included hopping kinematics and electromyography (EMG) of selected leg muscles. While the leg and ankle joint stiffness remained invariant, the knee joint stiffness increased significantly (P<0.01) with the hopping intensity. EMG analysis revealed a significant increase in averaged EMG for all the measured muscles before and during the early phase of ground contact (P<0.05-0.001) with increasing h…
Viewpoint: On the hysteresis in the human Achilles tendon.
2012
This viewpoint was stimulated by two observations: 1) the statistical skewness whereby numerous articles have reported tendon stiffness and Young9s modulus, but far fewer have reported tendon hysteresis; 2) in vivo human studies seem very often to report hysteresis values greater than 10%, suggesting either that there are methodological differences between human and animal studies, or that human tendons have a much poorer capacity to store and reutilize elastic energy. In this article we focus on the healthy human Achilles/gastrocnemius tendon (AT) since it has an important locomotor function and clearly a low AT hysteresis would allow elastic recoil for efficient locomotion. We discuss tha…
Numerical experimental analysis of hybrid double lap aluminum-CFRP joints
2015
Abstract Due to their reliability and ease of assembly, both the adhesively bonded and the mechanical joints are commonly used in different fields of modern industrial design and manufacturing, to joint composite materials or composites with metals. As it is well known, adhesively bonded joints are characterized by high stiffness and good fatigue life, although delamination phenomena localized near the free edges may limit their use, especially for applications where corrosive environments and/or moisture can lead to premature failure of the bonding. In these cases, a possible alternative is given by the well-known mechanical joints. On the contrary, these last joints (bolted, riveted) requ…
Ritz Solution for Transient Analysis of Variable-Stiffness Shell Structures
2020
The dynamic response of thin-walled structures is driven by mass and stiffness distribution. As such, variable-stiffness (VS) composites offer opportunities to tune structural dynamic responses. To this extent, efficient analysis tools become increasingly important for structural analysis and design purposes. In this work, an efficient and versatile Ritz method for free vibrations and linear transient analysis of VS doubly curved shell structures is presented. VS shell structures are modeled as an assembly of shell-like domains. The shell kinematics is based on the first-order shear deformation theory, and no further assumption is made on the shallowness or on the thinness of the structure.…
Patient-specific computational evaluation of stiffness distribution in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm
2021
Quantifying local aortic stiffness properties in vivo is acknowledged as essential to assess the severity of an ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA). Recently, the LESI (local extensional stiffness identification) methodology has been established to quantify non-invasively local stiffness properties of ATAAs using electrocardiographic-gated computed tomography (ECG-gated CT) scans. The aim of the current study was to determine the most sensitive markers of local ATAA stiffness estimation with the hypothesis that direct measures of local ATAA stiffness could better detect the high-risk patients. A cohort of 30 patients (12 BAV and 18 TAV) referred for aortic size evaluation by ECG-gated…
Blends of Semiflexible Polymers: Interplay of Nematic Order and Phase Separation
2021
Mixtures of semiflexible polymers with a mismatch in either their persistence lengths or their contour lengths are studied by Density Functional Theory and Molecular Dynamics simulation. Considering lyotropic solutions under good solvent conditions, the mole fraction and pressure is systematically varied for several cases of bending stiffness κ (the normalized persistence length) and chain length N. For binary mixtures with different chain length (i.e., NA=16, NB=32 or 64) but the same stiffness, isotropic-nematic phase coexistence is studied. For mixtures with the same chain length (N=32) and large stiffness disparity (κB/κA=4.9 to 8), both isotropic-nematic and nematic-nematic unmixing oc…
Liver stiffness quantification in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis: comparison of shear wave elastography and transient elastography with …
2019
Purpose: To assess the accuracy of liver stiffness quantification in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) using shear wave elastography (SWE) in comparison with transient elastography (TE). Methods and Materials: This is a prospective study performed in a single institution, including 49 patients with histological diagnosis of NASH. The stiffness of the right liver lobe was measured on the same day with two techniques: TE (FibroScan, Echosens), and SWE (RS80A ultrasound system, Samsung Medison). In the SWE evaluation, 11 patients were excluded due to more than 75% measurements fails. Receiver operating curves (ROC), areas under the ROC (AUROC) and 95% confidence intervals (CI)…
Liver stiffness quantification in biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease patients using shear wave elastography in comparison with transient …
2021
Purpose: This study prospectively assessed the performance of liver stiffness measurements using point shear-wave elastography (p-SWE) in comparison with transient elastography (TE) in patients with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods: Fifty-six consecutive adult patients with a histological diagnosis of NAFLD prospectively underwent TE and p-SWE on the same day. The median of 10 measurements (SWE-10), the first five (SWE-5), and the first three (SWE-3) measurements were analyzed for p-SWE. Liver biopsy was considered as the reference standard for liver fibrosis grade. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and areas under the ROC curves (AUROCs) were cal…