Mechanical signals are important factors that control plant growth and development. External mechanical loadings lead to a decrease in elongation and a stimulation of diameter growth, a syndrome known as thigmomorphogenesis. A previous study has demonstrated that plants perceive the strains they are subjected to and not forces or stresses. On this basis, an integrative biomechanical model of me...

Path planning and obstacle avoidance methods are often required for robots working in more and more complicated environments. This paper introduces a novel approach called Voronoi Strains for solving this task. The algorithm applies particle swarm optimization of cubic splines which are connected to strings. The initialization of the evolutionary algorithm is based on the Voronoi graph method a...

BACKGROUND An outbreak of dengue virus (DENV) occurred in Yunnan province. More than 2,000 individuals were infected from August to November 2013. In this study, we aimed to characterize the origin and prevalence of DENV in Dehong prefecture of Yunnan province using phylogenetic and evolutionary analyses of DENV strains collected from local patients and foreign travelers. METHODS A total of 4...

conclusions our study emphasized the increasing role of esbl genes, especially blactx-m15 in epec isolates. results of 42 epec, eight isolates carried the blactx-m1. none of the isolates carried blactx-m2 and blactx-m9. the blactx-m15 variant was identified in all of blactx-m1-positive isolates. furthermore, blashv and blatem genes were detected in 40.5% (n = 17) and 19% (n = 8) of all epec iso...

AIMS To study the yeast diversity of Nigerian palm wines by comparison with other African strains. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-three Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains were obtained from palm wine samples collected at four locations in eastern Nigeria, and characterized using different molecular techniques: internal transcribed spacer restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequence analysi...

Background: Phenol, as a pure substance, is used in many fields because of its disinfectant, germicidal, local anesthetic, and peptizing properties. Aqueous solutions of phenol are produced as waste in industries and discharged into the environment. Therefore, elevated concentrations of phenol may be found in air or water because of industrial discharge or the use of phenolic products. Method: ...

Electrical dyssynchrony leads to prestretch in late-activated regions and alters the sequence of mechanical contraction, although prestretch and its mechanisms are not well defined in the failing heart. We hypothesized that in heart failure, fiber prestretch magnitude increases with the amount of early-activated tissue and results in increased end-systolic strains, possibly due to length-depend...

The goal of this work was to create a finite element micromechanical model of the myotendinous junction (MTJ) to examine how the structure and mechanics of the MTJ affect the local micro-scale strains experienced by muscle fibers. We validated the model through comparisons with histological longitudinal sections of muscles fixed in slack and stretched positions. The model predicted deformations...

the serious influenza-associated complications among immunodeficient individuals such as those who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv), highlights the importance of influenza vaccination in these people. therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the antibody responses to influenza vaccine in this group. two hundred subjects were recruited, during autumn 2010 and 2011, t...