Search results for "stiffne"

2021

ObjectiveLoss of sex hormones has been suggested to underlie menopause-associated increment in cardiovascular risk. We investigated associations of sex hormones with arterial stiffness in 19–58-years-old women. We also studied associations of specific hormonal stages, including natural menstrual cycle, cycle with combined oral contraceptives (COC) and menopausal status with or without hormone therapy (HT), with arterial stiffness.MethodsThis study includes repeated measurements of 65 healthy women representing reproductive (n=16 natural, n=10 COC-users) and menopause (n=5 perimenopausal, n=26 postmenopausal, n=8 HT-users) stages. Arterial stiffness outcomes were aortic pulse wave velocity (…

Unfavourable interaction of microalbuminuria and mildly reduced creatinine clearance on aortic stiffness in essential hypertension

2010

The aim of our study was to assess the independent relationships of urinary albumin excretion rate (AER), of creatinine clearance (CrCl) and of their interaction with aortic stiffness in hypertensive patients without overt renal insufficiency. We studied 222 untreated nondiabetic essential hypertensives. In patients with reliable 24-h urine collections, AER and CrCl were determined. Microalbuminuria (MAU) was defined as an AER of 20 to 200microg/min. Aortic stiffness was assessed by measurement of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (c-f PWV). C-f PWV was higher in subjects with MAU than in those without it (p<0.001, even after adjustment for age, sex and mean arterial pressure) and in subj…

A thermodynamic approach to nonlocal plasticity and related variational principles

1999

Elastic-plastic rate-independent materials with isotropic hardening/softening of nonlocal nature are considered in the context of small displacements and strains. A suitable thermodynamic framework is envisaged as a basis of a nonlocal associative plasticity theory in which the plastic yielding laws comply with a (nonlocal) maximum intrinsic dissipation theorem. Additionally, the rate response problem for a (continuous) set of (macroscopic) material particles, subjected to a given total strain rate field, is discussed and shown to be characterized by a minimum principle in terms of plastic coefficient. This coefficient and the relevant continuum tangent stiffness matrix are shown to admit, …

Direct stiffness matrices of BEs in the Galerkin BEM formulation

2001

Abstract In the analysis of an elastic two-dimensional solid body by means of the Symmetric Galerkin Boundary Element Method (SGBEM), difficulties arise in the computation of some terms of the solving system coefficients. In fact these coefficients are expressed as double integrals with singularities of order 1/ r 2 , r being the distance between the field and source points. In order to compute these coefficients a strategy based on Schwartz's distribution theory is employed. In this paper the direct stiffness matrix related to the generic node of the free boundary are computed in closed form.

A four-node MITC finite element for magneto-electro-elastic multilayered plates

2013

An isoparametric four-node finite element for multilayered magneto-electro-elastic plates analysis is presented. It is based on an equivalent single-layer model, which assumes the first order shear deformation theory and quasi-static behavior for the electric and magnetic fields. First, the electro-magnetic state of the plate is determined in terms of the mechanical primary variables, namely the generalized displacements, by solving the strong form of the magneto-electric governing equations coupled with the electro-magnetic interface continuity conditions and the external boundary conditions. In turn, this result is used into the layers constitutive law to infer the equivalent single-layer…

A FE-Meshless Multiscale Approach for Masonry Materials

2015

Abstract A FE-Meshless multiscale computational strategy for the analysis of running bond masonry is presented. The Meshless Method (MM) is adopted to solve the boundary value problem (BVP) at the mesoscopic level. The representative unit cell is composed by the aggregate and the surrounding joints, the former assumed to behave elastically while the latter are simulated as non-associated elastic-plastic zero-thickness interfaces with a softening response. Macroscopic localization of plastic bands is obtained performing a spectral analysis of the tangent stiffness matrix. Localized plastic bands are embedded into the quadrature points area of the macroscopic finite elements.

La relazione tra microalbuminuria e stiffness aortica è indipendente dal filtrato glomerulare nell’ipertensione essenziale

2008

Microalbuminuria Is Associated With Increased Aortic Stiffness Independently of C-Reactive Protein in Essential Hypertension

2009

Statistics of reversible transitions in two-state trajectories in force-ramp spectroscopy

2014

A possible way to extract information about the reversible dissociation of a molecular adhesion bond from force fluctuations observed in force ramp experiments is discussed. For small loading rates the system undergoes a limited number of unbinding and rebinding transitions observable in the so-called force versus extension (FE) curves. The statistics of these transient fluctuations can be utilized to estimate the parameters for the rebinding rate. This is relevant in the experimentally important situation where the direct observation of the reversed FE-curves is hampered, e.g. due to the presence of soft linkers. I generalize the stochastic theory of the kinetics in two-state models to the…

Mountain-building under extension

2013

A mechanism is presented which explains how intra-continental rifting can cause large topographic uplift. The effect is sufficient to account for the uplift of rift flanks and the very high and strongly localized uplift of the Rwenzori horst in the Western Branch of the East African Rift System. We propose that the uplift is generated by crustal bending, which is caused by a misfit of the lateral tensile stress between the upper and middle crust. The misfit is a function of different yield mechanisms when the upper crust breaks whereas the middle crust flows. Two independent numerical schemes confirm the suggested uplift mechanism. Both models—a 2 and 2.5 D elastoplastic lattice-particle mo…