INTRODUCTION Generation of a complete map of arterial wall mechanical properties can improve treatment of cardiovascular diseases via contributions to design of patient specific vascular substitutes used to alleviate athero-sclerosis and stenoses, which are predominant in arterial pathways (i.e., abdominal aorta, carotids, or femoral arteries). Clinically useful estimation of arterial propertie...

Using a strain-controlled rheometer, the dynamic viscoelastic properties of aqueous xanthan gum solutions with different concentrations were measured over a wide range of strain amplitudes and then the linear viscoelastic behavior in small amplitude oscillatory shear flow fields was investigated over a broad range of angular frequencies. In this article, both the strain amplitude and concentrat...

Motivated by recent progress in viscoelastic indentation analysis, the identification of viscoelastic properties from materials exhibiting elastic, viscous and plastic material behaviour by means of nanoindentation is dealt with in this paper. Based on existing solutions for pure viscoelastic material behaviour, two methods allowing us to consider the effect of plastic deformation are presented...

An analysis of a novel indentation model has been implemented to obtain master curves describing the optimal experimental parameters necessary to achieve the highest possible accuracy in the determination of viscoelastic properties of soft materials. The indentation model is a rigid indenter driven by a compliant measurement system, such as an atomic force microscope or optical tweezers, into a...

Liquid crystal flexoelectric actuation uses an imposed electric field to create membrane bending and it is used by the Outer Hair Cells (OHC) located in the inner ear, whose role is to amplify sound through generation of mechanical power. Oscillations in the OHC membranes create periodic viscoelastic flows in the contacting fluid media. A key objective of this work on flexoelectric actuation re...

The mechanical interaction between the surgical tools and the target soft tissue is mainly dictated by the fracture toughness of the tissue in several medical procedures, such as catheter insertion, robotic-guided needle placement, suturing, cutting or tearing, and biopsy. Despite the numerous experimental works on the fracture toughness of hard biomaterials, such as bone and dentin, only a ver...

Recently, we reported a new method to synthesize the rod-like tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) superlattice. To explore its potentials in nanolattice templating and tissue scaffolding, this work focused the viscoelasticity of the superlattice with a novel transient method via atomic force microscopy (AFM). For measuring viscoelasticity, in contrast to previous methods that assessed the oscillating re...

A novel quantitative sonoelastography technique for assessing the viscoelastic properties of skeletal muscle tissue was developed. Slowly propagating shear wave interference patterns (termed crawling waves) were generated using a two-source configuration vibrating normal to the surface. Theoretical models predict crawling wave displacement fields, which were validated through phantom studies. I...

This paper applies a diffuse-interface model to simulate the deformation of single drops in steady shear flows when one of the components is viscoelastic, represented by an Oldroyd-B model. In Newtonian fluids, drop deformation is dominated by the competition between interfacial tension and viscous forces due to flow. A fundamental question is how viscoelasticity in the drop or matrix phase inf...

BACKGROUND The onset of diabetes causes disruption of respiratory epithelial mediators. The present study investigates whether diabetes modifies the epithelium mediated bronchial responses in hyper-reactive airway smooth muscle (ASM) primarily through nitric oxide (NO), cyclooxygenase (COX), and epithelium derived hyperpolarizing factor (EpDHF) pathways. METHODS Experimental model of guinea p...